Spore collection and preservation
When the sporangia on the back of the leaf are all browned, they can be scraped off and preserved, or they can wait until the sporangia are fully mature, touched into a flocculent, and can be collected when they fall off naturally, and the two have little impact on the germination rate. The following image comes from the network ~ this degree of spores can generally be harvested.
Most people do not know the lifespan of the staghorn fern spores, taking the binary I collected myself as an example, I went to a friend's house in Beijing in 17 years to pick up some spores, and in the second half of 18 years, the sowing situation in the second half of 19 years is still firm, (I can not count the spore germination rate) - the data is based on February 19. So I think that the lifespan of the antler fern spores should be stable at about 4 years, and my preservation method is to wrap the spores in the shade and dry them with toilet paper, put them in a sealed bag (it is best to add a desiccant, but it does not seem to have any effect) and put them in the drying drawer.
Sowing and growth of spores
A total of 5 matrices have been experimented with, so let's take a look at each one
1. Yellow mud sowing: high germination rate, moist surface, easy to grow true leaves earlier, but less nutrients, slow growth after true leaves.
2, pure peat: high germination rate, fast growth, the initial growth of true leaves, the later peat is perishable, slow growth, need to replace the substrate for one to six months. May explode algae (greening of the matrix) at light intensity. Over-dried young leaves are prone to death.
3. Pure water moss (for Chilean fourth-class carnivorous plants): no fertilizer, slow growth, the lowest germination rate, weak growth, not recommended. Young leaves are not prone to death when dry
4, water moss and peat powder mixed: higher germination rate, faster growth, late due to too much germination and too crowded and stop growing (can be used to preserve the germinated native leaves), conditional is the best germination matrix. Young leaves are not prone to death when dry.
5, red jade large particle sowing: the fastest growth, the lowest germination rate, nutrient supply can not grow true leaves, need to remove the small particles in time to change the pot culture, this method can only be used for germination.
Growing environment and light
The growth environment is generally stuffy, the humidity is enough, only the light needs to be paid attention to, but if the environment / long time stuffy, easy to grow green algae, moss, or fungi, the light intensity environment is generally to the mobile phone screen brightness default at about 30%-60% is better, too bright easy to burst algae, staghorn fern spores growth feeling is not sensitive to light.