I’m on mobile so trying to dig up the link is a pain, but the company is against commercial propagation/breeding, not personal propagation/breeding. Basically, be reasonable.
Note for others that it’s actually very difficult to accurately take a photo of the glow. They are overall quite “dim”, requiring near total darkness and eyes adapted to darkness for a bit to see. Unfortunately, if you expect what you see in the marketing materials, you’ll be disappointed. Cameras tend to either be unable to see the glow, or blow it way out of proportion. They are quite a bit above your typical glowing fungus though.
They can also be kinda finicky to grow until you learn what they need. Basically:
-Full sun. Internode length directly correlates with light received. I can make them “leggy” or ultra dense with my adjustable lights.
-Prefer cooler temperatures. They don’t seem to like high 80’s to 90’s. Seem to prefer 60-70 degrees F
-They happily survive the winter while inside, and can survive multiple years. Temps below 40F will cause them to start shutting down, with freezing/frost having a good chance to kill them.
-Need well drained soil. Straight potting soil will hold too much moisture for too long, causing root rot.
-Prefer bigger and deeper pots, like 10+”. I’d consider 6” the minimum
-Like being spoon fed fertilizer with waterings. Jack’s petunia feed is perfect.
-May be slightly sensitive to chlorine/chloramine in tap water. I suspect it contributes to some curious yellowing on the leaves. A bit of API stress coat takes care of that. This is good for other house plants as well.
-Sometimes the leaves will have curious yellowing (yellow veins, leaf tips) no matter what you do. It may just be how it is.
-Can be prone to fasciation (mutant flowers or stalks)
-When outside, can get bud worms that chew the flowers, leaves, or developing seed pods
-Fungus gnats can be an issue, especially when propagating cuttings.
-Susceptible to downy mildew (seen mostly in late summer/fall)
-They respond well to being chopped back every so often. I’ll occasionally remove 1/3rd to 2/3rds of their top mass. This also has the benefit of removing weight from the initially thin and weak stems (which thicken over time).
-Can be crossed with other petunias, and sometimes even tobacco. Note that pigments in the flowers from other petunia varieties block the glow, so they’ll be dimmer.
-Wild petunias (or whatever the ancestor plants are) rely on moths for pollination. You can get lots of seeds by manually pollinating the flowers.
-They tend to emit more fragrance at night (for attracting moths)
-The newest growth is the brightest, in particular the recently developed flowers that haven’t opened yet which truly look “glowing”. Normally the glow of most of the plant, is comparable to taking it outside into moonlight. The brightness will shift from day to day as well. Sometimes it’ll be much dimmer or brighter than normal.
reddit.com/r/FireflyPetunia/
If you want “cool glowing thing” but something less intensive, and momentarily much brighter, you may look into getting a glowing algae kit, like pyrofarms.com/
Note for others that it’s actually very difficult to accurately take a photo of the glow. They are overall quite “dim”, requiring near total darkness and eyes adapted to darkness for a bit to see. Unfortunately, if you expect what you see in the marketing materials, you’ll be disappointed. Cameras tend to either be unable to see the glow, or blow it way out of proportion. They are quite a bit above your typical glowing fungus though.
They can also be kinda finicky to grow until you learn what they need. Basically:
-Full sun. Internode length directly correlates with light received. I can make them “leggy” or ultra dense with my adjustable lights.
-Prefer cooler temperatures. They don’t seem to like high 80’s to 90’s. Seem to prefer 60-70 degrees F
-They happily survive the winter while inside, and can survive multiple years. Temps below 40F will cause them to start shutting down, with freezing/frost having a good chance to kill them.
-Need well drained soil. Straight potting soil will hold too much moisture for too long, causing root rot.
-Prefer bigger and deeper pots, like 10+”. I’d consider 6” the minimum
-Like being spoon fed fertilizer with waterings. Jack’s petunia feed is perfect.
-May be slightly sensitive to chlorine/chloramine in tap water. I suspect it contributes to some curious yellowing on the leaves. A bit of API stress coat takes care of that. This is good for other house plants as well.
-Sometimes the leaves will have curious yellowing (yellow veins, leaf tips) no matter what you do. It may just be how it is.
-Can be prone to fasciation (mutant flowers or stalks)
-When outside, can get bud worms that chew the flowers, leaves, or developing seed pods
-Fungus gnats can be an issue, especially when propagating cuttings.
-Susceptible to downy mildew (seen mostly in late summer/fall)
-They respond well to being chopped back every so often. I’ll occasionally remove 1/3rd to 2/3rds of their top mass. This also has the benefit of removing weight from the initially thin and weak stems (which thicken over time).
-Can be crossed with other petunias, and sometimes even tobacco. Note that pigments in the flowers from other petunia varieties block the glow, so they’ll be dimmer.
-Wild petunias (or whatever the ancestor plants are) rely on moths for pollination. You can get lots of seeds by manually pollinating the flowers.
-They tend to emit more fragrance at night (for attracting moths)
-The newest growth is the brightest, in particular the recently developed flowers that haven’t opened yet which truly look “glowing”. Normally the glow of most of the plant, is comparable to taking it outside into moonlight. The brightness will shift from day to day as well. Sometimes it’ll be much dimmer or brighter than normal.
reddit.com/r/FireflyPetunia/
If you want “cool glowing thing” but something less intensive, and momentarily much brighter, you may look into getting a glowing algae kit, like pyrofarms.com/