The next adventure in Carnivorous plants has begun. Propagation and Growing from Seeds.

Bought myself this large 2m fist tank, and have installed heating pads underneath and on the back glass. The tank is surrounded by insulation to keep the cold air out. A dual-purpose controller has been set up to put the heating on when the tank drops below 24 degrees and off at 26. Then on hot days, if the temp inside gets to 30 degrees, a fan will come on and switch off when the temp drops to 26…

The purpose of this tank was to keep the Nepenthes in during winter, but figured what the hell? Controlled climate, (cooling and heating) perfect humidity, perfect lighting… Why not give propagation a bash? So here it is. Have started with the nice and easy Butterworts and wow, has that turned out to be a huge success… Currently I have nepenthes cuttings, cephalotus leaf pulling and baby sarracnias. So far this tank has proven to be a brilliant micro climate, so am super excited at the successes thus far.

Butterworts are so easy to propagate. Simply pull a leaf off the mother plant, making sure you have the white bit on the bottom of the leaf where it attaches to the main plant, as this is where the new roots will grow from, place it in a tray with damp finely cut sphagnum moss, and wait.

After a few weeks you will see the little babies start to grow off the leaf pulling. Once large enough you can place the plants in pots. I researched this exhaustively as I really didn’t want to mess this up. Again there is so much conflicting advice online, but went with the majority and as can be seen on the left, had a terrific success rate. Trick with all cuttings is not to overwater. Being so used to carnivorous plants living in wet conditions, you have to really restrain from this with the cuttings as it’s so easy for rot to set in from over-watering.

It is the most rewarding feeling seeing this tiny baby plant sticking its little baby leaves up through the sphagnum moss. I look at the cuttings every day and one day, out of nowhere, the little baby just seems to appear. You just can’t help but let the excitement take over you.

I am hoping that the seed germination will be as successful as currently I have several sarracenia seeds in the fridge undergoing a cold stratification and some other sundews in pots outside. The sarracenia seeds are of plants that I am struggling to get hold of, so am REALLY hoping that these take.

Cold stratification is when you place seeds in a very cold, damp environment to wear down the protective wax layer on the seeds. When the weather warms up, the seed will germinate. HOPEFULLY :-)

This is definitely a patience game. Some of the Cephalotus leaf cuttings can take up to 6 months before they start growing while some seeds have been known to lay dormant for a year before sprouting, despite going through cold stratification.

Fingers Crossed.