Alasiuru:
Very often my freshly sown peat pots develop mold but it usually doesn't
seem to be a problem. The mold does not seem to attack the seeds, only
the peat. Perhaps the mold you have is nastier though. I don't think
that sterilizing the peat will do too much good because unless you keep
the pots completely isolated they will contract mold from airborne
spores or other pots. You could do three things, I think. The first is
follow Keith's sterilization procedure and make sure you have a sterile
environment. The second would be to prepare your peat weeks in advance,
let the mold grow and then exhaust itself. Last would be to remove the
covering over the pots so the air is fresh and circulating. CPs do not
really require 100% humidity, at least not Sarracenia. Mine grow well
in only about 60% humidity at 30 C.
Make sure your peat is decomposed Sphagnum moss. I understand that in
Europe and other places decomposed sedge peat is often used, which is not
as CP-friendly.
>I guess CPs also want really soft water as well whereas most other
>plants don't care too much.
Keith, beware on this. I think you mean *pure* water. Softened water is
high in dissolved salts and so is CP deadly. Distilled, or reverse osmosis
water is what you want.
On other matters, I spent some time in the greenhouse this weekend---not
repotting much, not fighting pests, or dividing plants or boxing them
up, but rather just enjoying them---one problem about having so many
plants is you have less time to simply enjoy them!
One of the things I did was use Lowrie's Vol 1 to reidentify all my
tuberous Drosera. I do this to these and to my pygmies from time to
time just to insure no mix-ups occur. My _D.macrantha macrantha_ plants
are nearly 1 meter long and looking very nice. The campanulate lamina
are up to about 1 cm in diameter and are good at catching flies, which
end up looking like they are sitting in deep bucket-seats. For some
mysterious reason, this year my _D.ramellosa_ are not producing erect
growth. Rather they are producing only ground-hugging rosettes, even
those that are not flowering. I hope this does not indicate they are
less vigorous this year because extrapolating to next year, even less
vigorous might be dead.
My _P.ionantha_ has died for some reason. I'm not sure why but it
succumbed to rot. This is unsettling, but not catastrophic because I
have a second pot of this plant. Of all my N.American Pings I value
this one especially because of its very limited range in the U.S. Some
years ago I got _P.lusitanica_ seeds from Michael Chamberland. I've
been growing them in a sandy peat mix with good results. But this year
I discovered that some seeds had somehow gotten blown into my
_S.psittacina_ pots, which are kept very wet in _Sphagnum._ The plants
are much bigger and vigorous in this situation, and this is how I intend
to grow them in the future!
Most of my cold-weather _Drosera_ are waking up, including ssp. of
_D.filiformis_, _intermedia_, _rotundifolia_, and hybrids. My various
_D.anglica_ varieties have been up for a while. My favorite _Drosera_
hybrid (filiformis filiformis X intermedia) is doing particularly well
with about 12 rosettes. Some _D.intermedia_ `Mt.Roraima' is also
growing very vigorously, and it looks very different from my N.American
variety. Very interesting.
The S. African _Drosera_ are going great guns, all except for a root
cutting of _D.aliciae_ 'Highland red' from Rob Maharajh which rotted out
on me. Some _D.capensis_'wide-leaf' (also from Rob) is enormous now.
Up until now I used to think this was a somewhat dwarfed plant, but
since I potted it in a deep pot it has gotten big big big.
It looks like, much to my astonishment, my _U.inflata_ is still alive
and even vigorous! I usually have zero luck with suspended aquatics.
Lastly, I was poking around in the water-filled trays my _Utricularia_
rest in, when I was astonished to find a few tiny critters I haven't seen
before. I found some Planaria worms crawling around, looking silly with
their crossed eyes, and a bunch of hydra which acted just like tiny
green Sea anemonaes. Cute little varmints.
B