Staghorn Elkhorn propagation?
 

Propagation is not my strong area. Help needed please.

Have got a nice lot of Platycerium superbum spore to germinate over the last 12 months. With still more very small plants to come.

Unsure how to harden them off and at what size from being locked up like as in a flask?

We are going into winter here so was thinking it better to wait till spring before planting them out?

Thinking by using a timer misting system to help the small plants to harden off next spring?

Have been hunting down Platycerium spore over the growing season and have 8 different in reasonable amounts. 6 of them can only be reproduce naturally by spore.

Going to make a propagation house under shelving in my tillandsia bush house. Going to use solid shade cloth surrounds with heating mats, timer misting system and try to get the spore to germinate over our winter here. Lowest temp 7c or 45f. Just really trying to speed up the germination time of over 12 months. Do you think this general idea will work out?

I don't know. I've never read about Platycerium sprouting. When do spores in the wild mature, and are released, in relation to when it rains? Are there any Australian fern societies? Would anybody at the Australian native plant society be able to point you in the right direction?

I was growing this on a wall above an indoor display pond before I retired the business, along with several other native plants of Australia gifted to me by a friend.

Below website is specific to your plant, but the main site had a wealth of information for me at the time, which is why I still have it bookmarked. You may already know of it, but if not...

Platycerium superbum - Growing Native Plants

Sadly, I have no space like that now that I've retired. I don't miss the work, but I sure miss the plants. ;)

Thank you both for your replies.

The spore forms late spring here and matures by the end of summer or earlier.

Have spore naturally forming on the shaded side of low down on the trees trunks and timber garden edging. It being the very common P. bifurcatum which I harvest as pups from the mother plants.

The only source of the harder to get plants, are like $100+ mailing for a very small plant which I am not a player at that sort of cost.

Have read that most spore will germinate at a temp of over 21c or 70f. The heating mats will do this I believe over winter here.

Looks like trial and error type of situation. Use some well educated guesses and hope for the best. Will keep my germinated spore until spring before I take them out of their flask like container.

This link has been good to me.

Hobbiist's Guide to Identifying Platyceriums

---------- Post added at 04:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:01 AM ----------

Thought I had the best seller only to find out they are from the US.

Fern Factory - Fern Factory offers a wide variety of ferns and tropical plants

In my experience, the germination of platycerium spores does not require flasking, just a moist substrate in warm conditions! The hundreds I've pulled out of orchid pots in the greenhouse attests to that.

That said, warmth is a major plus, so if your growing conditions are cool, and the little ones can survive in vitro over the winter, it's probably wise to wait.

Thank you for your reply Ray.

You just can not beat that hands on experience. Your comments makes the research I have done make a lot more sense now.

Must admit it is nice doing something new in horticulture.

With germinating spore green slime can grow on the soil surface and stops the spore from growing. So sterilising the container and soil is an important part of it all.

The other moss looking stuff is what the stags are coming from?

This is an image of some of my spore that has just started to look like staghorns.

https://i.imgur.com/J8KHoRI.jpg?2

Hi! Ray
A question please about your area you keep your orchids.

Are your orchids in a higher humidity area?

Have made a spore germinating area. Now just hoping it will work out.

Have got an area in my bush house with heating mats on a very low, bottom shelf with sealed plastic containers holding wet peat moss and spore sprinkled over the top. As per the way I got the P. superbum spore to germinate.

The sealed plastic containers temp is now around 25c or 77f to 30c or 86f. Night temp at present is around 14c or 57f. So should be able to hold this temp with expected night lows of 7c or 44f to come. Temps needed for the spore is a low of 20c or 68f.

The heating mats are on top of a flat type seedling trays turned upside down so as to get the temp down for the spore.

With 4 heating mats I have room for 10 plastic tubs. The size as per the image of the spore germinating.

When I lived in Pennsylvania and had a greenhouse, definitely! Now that I moved to North Carolina, where I have no greenhouse, I grow in windowsills in winter (low-to-moderate humidity), and out on my deck in summer (high).

Image of the different spore that has been incoming over our summer/ autumn. Only Platycerium Mt.Kitshakood to come.

All from Thailand. Now 18 months to find out if the spore is what it is said to be.....

https://i.imgur.com/02n13sn.jpg?1