Hi, for many years my main passion were only cacti but last year I fell in love with tree ferns. Most of all I like Cibotiums. Unfortunately I found that on ebay there is no much choise of species. There was only Cibotium glaucum from Hawaii. The cold winter weather didn't let me to buy till the spring 2014. In our local Botanical garden I found many Cibotium species: regale, schiedei, glaucum, barometz, barometz v. cumingii
I have some pictures
regale






schiedei (with wrong label)


glaucum


cumingii

I asked for some spores to try. I've got schiedei.
My first try started good:

But finally I failed to get my first Cibotiums. As you can see they were too overcrowded. I understood it and tried to transplant some sporelings. I chose the biggest gametophytes. It was my mistake. I chose the weed species from many real Cibotiums)))) When I realized that I grew Pteris and Anagramma It was too late, because all the real Cibotium gametophytes were plunged in an unknown sticky fungi that did fertilization impossible....

In April 2014 I got one cutting of Cibotium glaucum from Hawaii. In few months I found some gametophytes on the cutting. Now the young sporelings look like this:




Could that be Cibotium sporelings? I don't know how they should look like. Maybe someone had the same gametophytes on the cuttings from Hawaii? I would like to know your results.
Now I have many gametophytes of other Cibotium species, but I'll tell about my second try in the next posts.

Hello Alexander

Great to see you have caught the Cibotium bug and even better that you are growing them from spore. It's the only way to get most of them as they are not available (legally) through any mainstream supply chains.

Those little ones you have there do appear to be Cibotium youngsters. It is most unusual that you managed to pull these off of a mature trunk of the same species though. Can't say I've ever heard of anyone doing that before so well done.

Incredible - a fellow Cibotium enthusiast in the wonderful city of St Petersburg, of all places! Mark and I are your kindred spirits when it comes to Cibs, Alexander - he and I have been corresponding about this fascinating (often difficult to the point of futility) branch of the tree fern hobby for ten years now. So, is that latest pot of yours the real thing and developing its frond shape in the way we would expect? Hate to be the sceptic here, but I'm not confident that it is. Not for another few weeks of growth anyway. The only example at a similar stage of development that I could find just now for comparison was this pot of C.glaucum...



The elongated and straggly look of your pot has got me worried...

Thank you for your kind replies! I know that I became Cibotium fun for the rest of my life)))) I understend, that these sporlings could be any species that grew near Cibotium cutting. You are right, that much more time is needed. I don't loose hope)) They could be too elongated because of lack of light. I'll post new pictures next month.
New gametophytes still appear on the cutting:

I know that I planted the cutting in a wrong way. I should have buried it much deeper. After 7 months my cutting doesn't have any fronds. New roots grow from the top, I know that it is still alive. I'm going to repot it. I didn't do it yet because of gametophytes.

I have much better resullt with Cibotium barometz that I got from Thailand last month. Now it has first frond near 70 cm and new one emerging. I paid for it only 25$ + shipping (shipped with Angiopteris evecta and Nephrolepis cultivar).

My second try with Cibotium spores also failed. I got C. regale spores. They germinated very well as green carpet on the surface, but all died in few weeks. I thought that I should try other soils. The keeper of Botanical garden's fern collection proposed to use sphagnum moss as soil. In the end of august 2014 I got new spores of Cibotim regale, Cibotim barometz. Cibotium barometz v. cumingii, Cibotium schiedei, Angiopteris palmiformis, Dicksonia sellowiana, Cyathea smithii. I used small flat containers, filled them with sphagnum and some boiled water, placed them in the microwave oven for few minutes. After the temperature became normal I sowed spores. In few weeks I saw mold on the dead sphagnum in all the containers. I was desperate. The mold became denser and denser. I decided to just observe. After one month mold disappeared leaving only dead sphagnum. I didn't lost hope because the usual time for spore germination didn't come. In October 2014 I saw first gametophytes of Cibotium regale. Now I have many gametophytes of all the Cibotiums and I'm very afraid of loosing them. I didn't tell, that I sowed spores in two different ways. Some spores I placed in small plastic containers with sphagnum without cover. These containers I placed in the larger containers with some water in the bottom. My previous experience shown that gametophytes grow much better in such conditions than in single containers. This time I have the same result. Both methods worked. But gametophytes in double containers much bigger.
this is regale gametophytes:






Yesterday I repoted overcrowded gametophytes in other container:


C. schiedei is even more overcrowded:


I repoted them also:

Great to see a photo of a Russian Cibotium regale - my favourite fern species - in a place we never expected. I used to have an impressive one in my living room in Brighton, which coped reasonably well with central heating and low humidity. The cat used to bask under the spreading canopy...

Nice picture! Cibotium regale is my favourite fern species also )))) My photos from mobile phone don't let see the greatness of the plant. I guess the fronds are more than 5 meters. It is interesting, that it has one big pup. I thought that only C. schiedei get pups well. The main trunk is more than 60 cm as I remember maybe much bigger. The biggest schiedei of two is in the same greenhouse. It has more than 10 pups. The hairs are pale, not ginger. It has smaller fronds:


And what happened to your regale? It became too big?

That regale got too big over the next couple of house moves and eventually shipped out to a tree fern orientated estate in the mildest corner of South-west Ireland. Didn't survive though. But a companion specimen went to another Irish enthusiast (our forum friend Phemie) and she has now taken it to her new home and garden project near Barcelona. Kew Gardens used to have the best regale in collection anywhere - in the Princess of Wales Conservatory - but they dug it up last year and ruined it. I think that comparatively pathetic three-fronded substitute must be a smaller pup that's been popped into a space nearby to where the old version once looked so impressive.



Still three super fronds, but not something for which you'd necessarily make a special visit... which I would readily do for the venerable old giant. If anything the neighbouring and hypothetically much smaller Cibotium schiedei (below) is now the star fern in that section of Kew...

"they dug it up last year and ruined it". It's almost a crime.

Hi Alexander

Kew seem to be far more concerned with preserving the construction of the glasshouses themselves rather than the plants within them. The really interesting and rare plants are kept well out of the public domain. Unfortunately rare plants tend to get stolen from public gardens so I can't say I blame them really. I would like to think they were propagating their own Cibotiums such is their exoticism and grandeur but I doubt they are despite them probably having the best equipment available anywhere in the world to do so.

Those St Petersburg Cibotiums look in terrific condition. Always worth keeping some of that regale spore in the fridge as it will only get harder to source if the Kew specimens are going downhill.

Regarding your own gametophytes, I think you've done exceptionally well to keep them healthy as that microwaved sphagnum moss is not a method I would recommend. I hear so many tales of people struggling to keep their spore pots free of mold and yet the simple kettle of boiled water poured through standard potting mix has given me 100% mold free spore pots for some years now. Resealable plastic sandwich bags ensure an impenetrable barrier thereafter. The sooner you can get those gametophytes fertilised and start pricking out baby ferns the better.

Getting Cibotiums to germinate and produce a pot full of baby ferns is relatively easy. It's actually when you think you've cracked it and got a baby Cib into a 10cm pot of it's own that things can turn sour as they are prone to rotting when disturbed. Generally speaking this is a trait specific to Cibotiums. Well if it were that easy everybody would be growing them!

Hi Mark
I chose this method (microwaved sphagnum moss) to avoid omnipresent sticky fungi that cover the surface in few months. These fungi doesn't consume gametophytes but slowly kill them by sinking them in slime. It is almost impossible to pick them out of slime because the gametophytes are too fragile. As I wrote the mold visually completely disappeared from containers. But you are right saying that I struggle to keep them alive. I'm going to transplant more gametophyte in other container this weekend. I don't want to "keep all the eggs in one basket")))) I believe you, how hard to grow Cibotium sporelings. To prevent rotting I use only boiled water for young ferns. Unfortunately our B. garden don't try to propagate Cibotiums by spores. They said that spores didn't germinate. And they would be glad if I give them some sporelings. I asked them, do any treeferns propagate themselves in greenhouses. The response was "no". It's strange because in my opinion the condition for germination are excellent in one of glasshouses: 25-27 °C, 100% humidity, daily watering. The same thing is with Angiopteris species (palmiformis, polytheca, yunnanensis). Angiopteris's spores don't germinate at all even in container.
It's interesting that some of Cibotiums grow in tropical glasshouse (25-27 °C all year round), some in subtropical (regale, biggest schiedei, barometz) with 15 °C winter temperature. And I see that it doesn't matter for them.

small schiedei:

Cibotium regale gametophytes, 3 weeks after transplantation (first pot). You can see that the repotting is a very good thing for overcrowded ferns.