tree ferns

[peachy]

As I am heartily fed up with cyathea cooperi, which seems to be the only tree fern species sold in the entire state and do not do well in my climate, I was thinking about getting some spores. However I do not have the vaguest idea of how to go about germinating them and would like to know a few methods that people have found effective and any tips and tricks involved.

Thanks in advance,

Peachy

[LJG]

Great question! I have wondered the same thing for some time. RPS has some great spores available too. I asked on person and it involved sterile petri dishes, etc. Too much work. It has to be easier then that.

[MattyB]

Len, maybe you could clone yourself on one of those petri dishes and your clone could handle all of the spore germination. That sounds easier.

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

I remember my college instructor had a terrarium with green sphagnum that he would loose a bunch of spores into (think suitable for rainforest type tree frogs). I don't know how successful that was.

[LJG]

Len, maybe you could clone yourself on one of those petri dishes and your clone could handle all of the spore germination. That sounds easier.

Good thinking. And then on the off time my clone can come to your house and slap you.

[tropicbreeze]

Peachy, ferns have a double life cycle, the spores are the asexual part of the reproduction cycle and give rise to small plants which go through sexual reproduction to produce the fern plants as you know them.

The growing medium is usually sterilised to cut down on losses caused by fungus or pathogens. In nature the majority of fern spore doesn't survive.

You can use sphagnum moss, pieces of clay brick, porous rock, anything not loaded with chemicals/minerals. Fern spore sprinkled on that needs to have high humidity/moisture which also assists the sexual reproduction. The plants from the spores are almost microscopic, or sort of like a moss. After fertilisation the young ferns grow up from that.

I've done it with Platycerium superbum and had good results. It was all done in plastic soft drink bottles. If you do it in sterilised medium you'll get more plants than you know what to do with. In unsterilised medium you could lose the lot, or only get a few.