Ant Plant Status - Late March 2018

All the plants in the garden are sending up new growth - I wanted to document where these plants are currently before too much time (and new growth) pass.  These plants spent a lot of time last year getting acclimated to my sideyard micro climate.  I'm hopeful these take off this year!

Germinating More Ant Plant Seeds

The Myrmecodia beccarii had seven or eight seed pods just hanging out.  I went ahead and plucked them all and brought them into the kitchen to clean them up.

Since I was inside the house, I figured I should try to germinate these under slightly different conditions than the others I've germinated earlier - these are going upstairs into the Master bathroom window sill.  Each pod had four seeds (except two - one had 2 and the other 3).  That's a lot of seeds...  These take a while to get going - two weeks has been my experience.

I ended up doing the same thing with three berries from the Hydnophytum formicarum.

These Hydnophytum seeds germinate quick - two days and the plant has pushed out.

Gifted One of the Myrmecodia beccarii Seedlings

I used the Myrmecodia beccarii seedling I had growing on the horizontal hapuu puck to set up a plant gift today.  Last time I was talking to a friend at the ceramic studio, I had described what I was doing and said I'd give her a plant.  Here it is before I took it in -

The bowl is a pinched pot I made a while back - it was actually a ramen bowl, but it turned out way too shallow.  Now it is a really cool ant plant pot!  Enjoy Char!!!

Hydnophytum papuanum on Ant Plant Mounts - Progress

The seedling on the single mount has opened and seems to be one its way to a good start.

The double mount has one doing fine (solid bright green color), but the second one is a darker, paler green.  Not sure if this second one is going to pull through.  I also am not sure I like the vertical mount style.  In the last ceramics run I did turn in a pot that is a low, narrow pot built to hold a hapuu puck vertically - that may be the way I go with these ant plant mounts (vertically - for horizontal mounting, a bowl works fine and the "jellyfish" stand looks really cool).

Here's the "jellyfish"

And for clarification this one has a Myrmecodia beccarii growing on it.

Filled the Ant Plant Holders

I worked on the Ant Plant Holders this morning - this one is a Myrmecodia beccarii

These three are Hydnophytum papuanum

These will need daily watering until they establish themselves on the hapuu pucks. 

Hydnophytum papuanum and Myrmecodia beccarii Closeups

Here are some pictures of the ant plant seeds/seedlings in better light.  First are the Myrmecodia beccarii that had just about written off -

And just after 12 hours, these Hydnophytum papuanum seeds are swelling up.  I'll bet that after I get home from work to check on these, they'll have sprouted...

Hydnophytum papuanum and Myrmecodia beccarii Seeds

Noe was able to get several Hydnophytum fruit last night - and I went ahead and planted some this morning before I left for work.  I was originally planning to use the open basket pots that I used to plant the Myrmecodia beccarii seeds in because I thought the seeds weren't going to germinate.  Of course when you have plans for something...  As I looked at the pots, I could see that the seeds did germinate.  You can see them in these pictures -

I'll try and take better pictures this afternoon.  Anyways - Plan B - get a few pots set up with sphagnum moss and drop the new seeds in.

I'll see if Noe will give me another seed - if yes, then I'll try using the Ant Plant Mounts I recently made.  For now, here are the seeds all set up.

If these are like the Hydnophytum formicarum - I should see germination in two days (which is what I expect).  If they are more like the Myrmecodia beccarii, well I'll have to go back through the posts on this blog to see how long it took...  two weeks???

Myrmecodia beccarii Seeds

Yesterday I went ahead and pulled the seed pod that was developing on the Myrmecodia beccarii. I got four seeds from the fruit/berry. These were planted in the same manner the five Hydnophytum formicarum seeds were (LFS bedding, plastic matrix pot). I'll post if these germinate - if they are anything like their cousins, these will germinate in just a couple of days (the last Hydnophytum seed had popped out of it's seed case in just 24 hours). Here's the void left by the berry after it was pulled. This is a really weird and unusual plant species -

Berry on the Myrmecodia beccarii

Not sure why this one popped out while the others have stayed recessed - but as this is not a flower and it came from a previous place occupied by a flower, I'm thinking it is a fruit.

 

You can kinda see the seeds developing inside - weird!!! But that's exactly why I like these plants so much!

I think these are berries??>>...

I was doing some reading on the Myrmecodia beccarii fruiting cycle and I found that these plants take longer to produce fruit behind the flower than the other ant plants I have. From the reading, I think these bumps emerging from the areas where the flowers previously were are emerging fruit. I'm sure it'll be more waiting before its definitive.

A Closer Look at the New Growth on the Ant Plants

Lots of new activity with these guys. At some point in the very near future, I'll try to get the seed out of the almost red berry and see if we can't get it to germinate. The tiny plants we've seen have inspired us to try. I haven't seen the M. beccarii flowers turn into fruit, but I have read it takes a while - much longer than the Hydnophytum formicarum.

Around the Garden - April 10, 2017

A few days late, but here are some pictures from a couple of days ago.