Post by joey on Dec 4, 2020 0:00:14 GMT -5
Last year around this exact time, I bought a bundle of dormant sarracenia rhizomes. They were shipped from North Carolina here to Florida. Upon arrival, I cleaned them up and potted them all up. However, while January is mid-dormancy here, the dormant sarrs woke up. I suppose going from freezing winter of Appalachia to the mild winter of Florida woke them up prematurely.
This year, I bought a similar bundle of dormant sarracenia. Currently, Asheville, where the nursery is located, is regularly getting below freezing and very cold weather. Today, the rhizomes arrived. For this year, I decided to take a different approach. I am attempting a fridge dormancy for a couple of months, and then when spring is around the corner, I'll pot them up and they can wake up with the rest of the collection, granted if my plan works.
I have found some information on Dionaea fridge dormancy, but very little for sarracenia, so this is a bit of uncharted territory for me. Thankfully they are already somewhat dormant, I've read that they should not go from active growth directly into a dark fridge as they still need to photosynthesize. Now that they are already dormant, they should enter a deep sleep in the dark fridge if I read correctly.
I was a little pressed for a time, but I still did the procedure carefully. First, I cleaned off all of the soil from the rhizomes and root systems. I also removed all dead material and brown leaf bases to help prevent fungus. Then, I created a systemic fungicide solution suggested by Bristol, I have used it once and it worked, but still a bit uncharted for me. I soaked the plants in it for about 25 minutes before rinsing them in distilled water. After that, I wrapped each plant in a damp/moist (not wet) paper towel and bagged them in individual ziploc bags (unsealed). I also gave each rhizome a little misting of neem oil to also prevent fungus (this seems to have worked in my stratification and seedling setups). Finally, I put all of them in a large gallon ziploc bag and put them in the crisper drawer of my fridge. I left the bags unsealed so they can still breathe. I will check these weekly for mold, fungus, or rot.
Do you guys think I did alright? Can they stay asleep in these conditions for a month or two? Has anyone had successful fridge dormancy with sarracenia? Any tips or information would be appreciated. I'll attach a few pics.
Systemic fungicide soak:
20201203_141650 by Joey, on Flickr
Cleaned up and bagged up
20201203_143548 by Joey, on Flickr
20201203_143840 by Joey, on Flickr
Into the fridge
20201203_143922 by Joey, on Flickr
This year, I bought a similar bundle of dormant sarracenia. Currently, Asheville, where the nursery is located, is regularly getting below freezing and very cold weather. Today, the rhizomes arrived. For this year, I decided to take a different approach. I am attempting a fridge dormancy for a couple of months, and then when spring is around the corner, I'll pot them up and they can wake up with the rest of the collection, granted if my plan works.
I have found some information on Dionaea fridge dormancy, but very little for sarracenia, so this is a bit of uncharted territory for me. Thankfully they are already somewhat dormant, I've read that they should not go from active growth directly into a dark fridge as they still need to photosynthesize. Now that they are already dormant, they should enter a deep sleep in the dark fridge if I read correctly.
I was a little pressed for a time, but I still did the procedure carefully. First, I cleaned off all of the soil from the rhizomes and root systems. I also removed all dead material and brown leaf bases to help prevent fungus. Then, I created a systemic fungicide solution suggested by Bristol, I have used it once and it worked, but still a bit uncharted for me. I soaked the plants in it for about 25 minutes before rinsing them in distilled water. After that, I wrapped each plant in a damp/moist (not wet) paper towel and bagged them in individual ziploc bags (unsealed). I also gave each rhizome a little misting of neem oil to also prevent fungus (this seems to have worked in my stratification and seedling setups). Finally, I put all of them in a large gallon ziploc bag and put them in the crisper drawer of my fridge. I left the bags unsealed so they can still breathe. I will check these weekly for mold, fungus, or rot.
Do you guys think I did alright? Can they stay asleep in these conditions for a month or two? Has anyone had successful fridge dormancy with sarracenia? Any tips or information would be appreciated. I'll attach a few pics.
Systemic fungicide soak:
20201203_141650 by Joey, on Flickr
Cleaned up and bagged up
20201203_143548 by Joey, on Flickr
20201203_143840 by Joey, on Flickr
Into the fridge
20201203_143922 by Joey, on Flickr