Last years pitchers

[David Manning]

What do you do with them? I have been cutting them down throughout the winter, getting rid of the brown parts as it goes down the tube.

Now some of the plants are coming into flower, some are not. The ones that aren`t flowering this year are sending up new pitchers which are now mixed with last years.

So what to do with the old ones.

Do I carry on cutting them off as they brown or cut them hard back to the base of the plant ?? Or try to pull them away from the base ?

Don`t like the idea of the latter as they are still firmly in place.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

[Guest Aidan]

Thread moved to Pitcher Plant forum.

See this recent thread:

http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14049

[Bob H]

I have 'tried' to tidy up my plants, taking out old pitchers where there are good new pitchers coming through, saves trying to remove them at a later date. I'm with Aidan though, I don't like taking out anything photosynthetic, if avoidable.

Down to personal taste I guess. :-)

[Alexis]

You can cut off brown parts or pull the whole leaf off the rhizome if it's completely dead. I do give some of mine a vigorous prune if they have pitchers all over the place, getting in the way of other plants.

[Guest Sheila]

I prefer to remove the entire leaf when cleaning up the plants. If you keep chopping them down to the base of the plant, the rhizome starts to look a mess. I have not found any detrimental effect removing old pitchers completely when the pitchers have been cut down to around 4 inches tall, as long as there is plenty of new growth and some open pitchers to carry on the photosynthesis. Just pull the old bits of pitcher away from the rhizome. They may seem firmly attached but as long as you take the outermost ones first they come away quite easily.

[David Manning]

Thankyou people for the responses, and thanks for the link to the other thread Aidan. I must have missed that one, sorry for asking the same question again.

Dave

[Loakesy]

I normally leave the leaves until they are completely dead, then remove them. This year though, I have removed everything, almost back to the rhizome, in order to allow the new growth free space. The collection actually looks quite good for it.

It's all down to personal choice. This year I decided to try something different!

[Guest Aidan]

I understand why growers cut plants down to the ground. It's easy, far less time consuming and the plants look pretty with all new leaves. However, I can remember reading a paper (somewhere!) that said approx. 30% of the photosynthetic area of a plant may comprise of leaves from previous years. I think it has to affect growth if that much area is removed.

How much plants die back over the winter is also very variable. I have S. rubra clones that die right back to the rhizome, yet all my S. minor var. okefenokeensis plants look little changed from last summer.

[Guest Sheila]

How much plants die back over the winter is also very variable. I have S. rubra clones that die right back to the rhizome, yet all my S. minor var. okefenokeensis plants look little changed from last summer.

That is very true which is why I only remove all old growth once it has already been cut back about half way. Anything that is still ok, even though some of it is tired looking I leave on until it starts to die off naturally. I Have already cleaned up most of my plants this year but several still have intact pitchers, in fact my excellens and minor var okefenokeensis still look almost as good as they did at the end of last summer.

[Alexis]

On the other hand, plants which get burned every winter have completely bare rhizomes. You see photos of empty fields with hundreds of alata flowers emerging from bare earth.

[Guest FredG]

Hmmmmm, I seem to remember a young student who used to set fires on top of his pots each winter.

I wonder if Dr. A. Culham is still doing that.

Fred

[Loakesy]

Ooh! I feel a bit guilty now! Still nothing is learned without a little experimentation!