Re: Tuberous Drosera question

John Taylor [The Banshee] (rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.EDU.AU)
Thu, 17 Feb 94 07:22:39 DST

>I have some 2 year old D Peltata, grown from seed. The first year, they
>only grew rosettes, but now they are growing the "tall part" (sorry) also.
>I want to know how deep and large the tubers will be once the plants go
>dormant. Some are still in seed trays, in only about 1.5" of soil. Is
>this deep enough?

I have grown auriculatas in a similar depth of soil from seed, but they are
best transplanted into larger pots (I plant several in 4" - just decide how
many pots you can spare/fit in and divide the tubers up between them). You
should only consider doing this in summer when the plants are dormant. The
tubers vary in size a lot - mine were between 1 and 8mm - are are very hard
to find. I carefully sieved the soil to separate the tubers, but it is still
easy to lose them (keep the soil for another year or two to catch the ones you
missed). The other alternative would be to cut the soil clods in your trays
into pieces that will fit neatly into the desired pot and transplant the soil
and all into the top of it (filling the pot with enough soil to get the right
final soil level). This could be tricky if the soil mix is sandy...

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| John Taylor [The Banshee] | Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology |
| rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au? | Department of COMPUTER SCIENCE |
| MOKING IS A HEALTH HAZARD. | Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA |
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