Question

Empty Seed Pods  

Growing seed pod   Hi Jeff,

my Drosophyllum has bloomed, since each flower opened in a different day, I self-pollinated the flowers, I took a small paintbrush and brushed deeply into the flower.

However, now it seems that the flowers are "empty", except for one. They used all to build transparent seedpods, but now only one is left, I don磘 know why. Could it be that a seedpod gets lost or I was just wrong from the beginning and it never planed to produce seeds?

Also since today we have full sun, but temperatures are still around 30 F?(-1 C? at night and max. 48 F?(9 C? in the day time. I am wondering if I should put the plant outside yet? How about for Drosera Regia?

Thank you for your precious comments!

Cheers from Germany,

JP

Answer
Hi JP,

Drosophyllum will do this sometimes with the flowers.  One thing I've found that helps is if you can cross-pollinate.  We seem to get much better seed set if I intentionally take pollen from one flower and transfer it to another flower.  It's even better if it's on another plant.  This seems to give better seed production.

It's still a little early to put those two plants outside.  I would wait until April.  Your temperatures seem really similar to ours, and I wouldn't want them outside just yet.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.growcarnivorousplants.com