If you knew what a terrible time we've had growing our study species over the past year and a half, you would appreciate what a tremendous flex this video is. 💪🏼 I am sooooo relieved to have (hopefully) made these plants happy. Now to cross them all.. 🙃 w/ @seemasheth.bsky.social @emjo.bsky.social - ThreadSky

smwadgymar.bsky.social • 42 days ago

If you knew what a terrible time we've had growing our study species over the past year and a half, you would appreciate what a tremendous flex this video is. 💪🏼

I am sooooo relieved to have (hopefully) made these plants happy. Now to cross them all.. 🙃

w/ @seemasheth.bsky.social @emjo.bsky.social

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johnstinchcombe.bsky.social•42 days ago

Ooo... neat! Why are the square pots on top of the conetainer racks... there has to be a reason.

FWIW, @tiaharrison.bsky.social had a lot of plans based on growing and crossing C. nictitans, but we were never able to get them to flower in the greenhouse or growth chamber, and then had to pivot.

smwadgymar.bsky.social•42 days ago

I had no issues growing Chamae any which way in the past, which seems to no longer be true..

Elevating them increases airflow and allows the soil at the bottom of the pot to drain well. They like to be watered often and partially dry out quickly. Once they get to the flowering stage, we lower them.

smwadgymar.bsky.social•42 days ago

I have no problem getting them to flower under long days (with lights), and we are growing populations from across the range. But we had intense viability issues with our 2023 collections, almost always when they were a few weeks old. The 2024 seeds are much better, as you can see. 🤞🏼

tiaharrison.bsky.social•37 days ago

After flowering do they self on their own pretty well? Or did you have to help out with hand pollination?

smwadgymar.bsky.social•37 days ago

We have observed a low-level of what appears to be selfing when pollination is low or absent. We are taking data now to confirm whether viable seeds are actually produced or not. We always hand pollinate them with electric toothbrushes. 🐝🪥🐝🪥🐝

tiaharrison.bsky.social•35 days ago

I never would have thought to use an electric toothbrush - that's so clever!

johnstinchcombe.bsky.social•41 days ago

My grad school lab mate-- Matt Rutter-- had one or a few early life die-offs of experiments with fasciulata before having a year or two where suddenly everything worked.

We tried just about everything on daylength, temperature, R:FR ratio, etc, and just never got nictitans to flower. 🤷🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️.

smwadgymar.bsky.social•41 days ago

It can't ever be easy, can it? In the past, I've had Chamae do well during greenhouse experiments where they were super stressed and practically neglected.. the ones we're growing now are living lives of luxury.

Weird re: your experience with flowering. Why nictitans and not fasciculata?

johnstinchcombe.bsky.social•41 days ago

we wanted a species with a range spanning temperate to tropical.....

drmikewiser.bsky.social•41 days ago

If it makes you feel better, a good friend of mine attempted doing undergrad research on Japanese knotweed (a famously invasive species, for the non biologists reading this), which she was ... unable to get to grow in the greenhouse.

art-weis.bsky.social•42 days ago

Holy (cama)christa!

smwadgymar.bsky.social•42 days ago

Pretty little things 😍

flwrecoevo.bsky.social•42 days ago

I think a lot of us who have tried to grow our little plants can relate to this! wooooooo!

emjo.bsky.social•42 days ago

Thanks for the tag but this is 100% you and your lab. 😍😍😍

smwadgymar.bsky.social•42 days ago

Well you're doing stuff with all their DNA.. It takes a village. 😁

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