Induction of spore germination in Schizaea pusilla. Synopsis: try putting the spores on Knopps agar at pH 4.0 (natural bog pH). Incubate about 20 days in dark at room temp, then move to 120 uE/m2/sec light for about 20 more days. We got about 65% germination with that combination. If your spores have been stored dry and cool, you can probably omit the dark pre-treatment. We got up to 95% germination with such spores. Our spores were field harvested and so were very fresh from robust plants (well, as robust as S. pusilla gets). The bad news...we got HUGE gametophytes (they are filamentous) filling Petri dishes, but NEVER a gametangium and NEVER a young sporophyte, so I don't know what we weren't supplying but something (maybe time) was not quite right. Induction of spore germination in Schizaea pusilla. 1984.