lesthegringo

*Update* My Maxima, Sibuyanensis X Maxima, Truncata (Ventricosa X Trusmadiensis) , Nepenthes veitchii x burbidgeae, Nepenthes truncata x mira and Nepenthes Truncata striped x Insignis Biak have all either started producing basals, or dormant nodes on the stems are budding, or both

Growing CP's and having a job where you get moved around is a frustrating thing. I've been given the heads up that I will be moving on at the turn of the year, so now I am in my last 9 months with these particular plants. Sad to say that over the next few months I will be selling them on, and some lucky people will be able to take away some very large and beautiful plants. I plan to give some to some local schools too, to try and encourage youngsters to have some interests in something beautiful that does not involve a PlayStation or Xbox. Nonetheless, I will feel a pain every time one of the plants leaves the greenhouse. I'm not sure that I will be able to have plants in my new (proposed) destination, so will try and maximise my time with these. (a very sad) Les

So a few months on from my last post, I am now convinced that the live sphagnum method is the best for the seedlings, at least the ones I have managed to grow. The ones on sphagnum are way ahead of the ones on other media, although to be fair the sphagnum is actually growing on the same media, it just acts as an extra layer separating the two. It seems to make sure that the humidity and wetness levels are good and constant. I would say that losses of seedlings is probably equal between the two media, but some of my 18 month old seedlings are 8cm across in the sphagnum, and only 1 to 1.5 in the other media For me, if I were to do it again, it would all be on beds of sphagnum

Mine have plenty of room for the roots and the bottom of the greenhouse gets down to just below 10 deg C in winter; growth definitely stopped during August and September. Got some lovely leaves and I can see lots of the white thick roots spreading around, but they don't have anything to limit them. May have to try putting some in a smaller pot to see what happens Les

From my experience over the last year, I think that in warm conditions adult plants are pretty tolerant of perhaps overwet onditions as long as the excess is allowed to drain away or as Manders says, in a deep enough pot to keep the pooled water away from the roots. Seems preferable to the potential of them drying out too. When it comes to seedlings I think slightly drier is better, I'm pretty sure that I lost quite a few seedlings through them being too wet. While the substrate on which they germinated seemed less important, most of the ones that have done well are growing on live sphagnum, which keps the roots moist while allowing excess water to drain right away. Les

Guys, I have a reasonable number of Nepenthes plants, most purchased from specialist traders. I have a few species, but most are hybrids, with quite a few being hybrids of hybrids too. You buy them often because of the interesting mix, or in some cases because they will supposedly produce large showy pitchers. When all is said and done they are all nice, but truth be told, some of them were purchase because you hope that the plant will have particular characteristics. Truncata and its hybrids are a favourite of mine due to the impressive pitchers. Veichii and it's hybrids give great colouration and shape. Maxima hybrids give reliably pretty hybrids. But I did buy some hybrids to get the some of the more dramatic types. For instance, I have some Lowii hybrids, apparently. Now I know that the upper pitchers are the ones that give Lowii its fame, but at the moment the hybrids I have are only producing the lower pitchers, and will continue to do so for a while yet I suspect before any uppers will appear. So that's the issue really - it says Lowii X Maxima on the plant tag, but it just looks like a dark Maxima. Was I sold a Maxima X Heinz or is it really a Lowii X Maxima? The Truncata mixes are easy to spot, the pitchers are bulky and there is the particular leaf end shape, Veitchii are hairy and have the very vertical peristome, but there are a lot where I look at the plant tag and wonder! Let's face it, you can't guarantee it and it will be years before we know either way! Les

I have lots of U reniformis growing very happily in sphagnum in a number of places in my nepenthes house, with leaves three inches across. Not a single flower though. Is there any trick to getting them to bloom? Cheers Les

Over here in Australia I can get an imidocloprid based insecticide in a spray that I have used on droseras, dioneias, nepenthes, sarracenis, utricularia, heliamphora and cephalotus without any ill effects Cheers Les

***sorry about the weird formatting of this message, despite closing IE and logging out, every time I went to reply to this the draft message was still there and could not be deleted!*** So, the following don't seem to show any propensity to want to produce basal shoots (those with an asterisk I think would be too small, those in bold are pretty big plants) Nepenthes (eymae x maxima) x platychila Nepenthes (lowii x veitchii)-yellow x (boschiana x campanulata) Nepenthes Hamata * Nepenthes Maxima Nepenthes Rafflesiana x Ampullaria Nepenthes sumatrana x boschiana Nepenthes Truncata (Ventricosa X Trusmadiensis) Nepenthes Truncata striped x Insignis Biak Nepenthes truncata x mira Nepenthes Veitchii Bario Nepenthes veitchii x burbidgeae Nepenthes Ventricosa x Ephippiata Nepenthes Fusca On the other side of the coin, these all seem to produce multiple growing points (note the Bicalcarata I would have thought was too small, but there you go) Nepenthes glandulifera x veitchii -H/L Nepenthes kongkandana x veitchii-H/L Nepenthes lowii x (sibuyanensis x maxima) Nepenthes Maxima X Lowii Nepenthes sibuyanensis x maxima Nepenthes sumatrana x (platychila x fusca) Nepenthes Truncata Nepenthes Truncata (Lowii X Spectabilis) Nepenthes truncata x (carunculata var robusta x merrilliana) Nepenthes truncata x macfarlanei Nepenthes truncata x merrilliana (a) Nepenthes truncata-giant x alata-giant Nepenthes veitchii x burbidgeae Nepenthes Ventricosa X Rafflesiana Nepenthes Bicalcarata Nepenthes bellii x [(veitchii x maxima) x veitchii] Nepenthes Hamata X Truncata Nepenthes bellii x boschiana Nepenthes Ventricosa Nepenthes Ventricosa Nepenthes Maxima x Vetchii Nepenthes Spathulata X Tiveyi Nepenthes Alata Nepenthes boschiana x (truncata x campanulata)

Interesting discussion guys. As for which do and which don't, I have to list them; off to the greenhouse I go! Cheers Les

Thanks Manders. I can attest to the theory being at best dubious, as my (for example ) N Sibuyanensis x Boschiana fits firmly into that category and despite being a healthy vigorous plant is not sending out shoots. Others in my collection have five or six but the stems go up and entwine on the string lattice strung across the roof of the greenhouse. Curiously the biggest offender is my N Maxima, which I always believed to be one that was renowned for sending out shoots. Instead it has a four foot vine with lovely upper pitchers but stubbornly refuses to put any other growth out. Generally, i believe conditions to be good. Light is good, they are getting full sun (albeit through a twin wall polycarbonate sheet) for a lot of the day, temps in the high 20's and humidity in the high 70's to low 80's. With only a couple of exemptions they are flourishing, I'm getting 10 to 14 inch pitchers with beautiful colouration from some of them, and no shortage of pitchers from the others. Oh well, I will have to let nature take its course Les

Guys, a couple of my nepenthes have vined, and are producing some nice upper pitchers. As there is only one growing point, of course they have stopped producing the lower pitchers, which in some cases are more showy than the uppers. So, I don’t want to cut off the growing point, as this will stop the upper pitchers for at least a few months, but would like some basal shoots to appear, as they have in some of the other plants. Is there a way of inducing them without drastic surgery? I know that cutting the tip will give you a cutting you can root, but right now I am happy with the quantity of plants I have Cheers Les

Bit of a more positive update today, at least when it comes to the Alata cuttings. I'll have get photosclater but all the cuttings that are not growing tip cuttings have growth from the axillary buds, about half an inch to an inch long depending on the cutting. I haven't exposed the root area of the cuttings yet, I'm in no hurry and don't want to rink them through rash action. The two cuttings that were from the growing tips are still alive and apparently well, however no new growth is yet evident. Again, I'll just leave them to it and see how they go. I suspect the lower winter temperature was a factor in the slow growth of the cuttings, we are heading into spring here now so maybe the growth rate will take a hike. As for the Maxima x sibuyanensis arial cuttings, nope, it was a failure. However as I mentioned above, I didn't affect the main plant so some nice upper pitchers are forming. Will get some pics to put on here later Les

It's been two months since making the cuttings and I'm here to report... well, nothing really. None of the cuttings look even the slightest bit different, there are no growing buds from the dormant points, and there are no roots growing on the cuttings. That goes for the arial cuttings too. Going to leave it, obviously, but a little surprised to see absolutely no change. I'll give another update in a month or so Les

Sort of surprised that there were no answers to this. For info, I noticed that while my plants continued to produce pitchers, on the plants that seem to be slightly more affected by the drop in growing temps, virtually all the older pitchers (i.e. any that were produced even immediately before the temperatures dropped) went black at the top; not browning off like the normal pitcher ageing process, they literally blacken and quickly too. However new pitchers that form while being smaller are not as sensitive, and have not browned or blackened. These plants don't show any other particular traits that show they are suffering so I just wonder if it is just an acclimatisation process. The Bicalcarata was brought indoors rapidly because the pitchers died very rapidly plus brown spots appeared all over the leaves, again quickly. Indoors new leaves are normal, although I'm still waiting for the first pitcher to appear since bringing it in. Others have just stopped growing, with no other apparent effects (for example the Veitchii H/L, surprisingly), whilst ones like the Fusca, Max X Sib, Trunc X Mira, Trunc X Alata, are apparently a bit slower but otherwise unaffected. The thing that gets me though is that when you look at the parentage, what seems to be a cross between two intermediate to lowland plants (Trunc X Alata for example) are fine, yet others that have highland Maxima and Lowii in them seem less tolerant. As a result, you can't decide on what it needs or how it will act based on what the apparent needs for the parents are. Roll on spring, it's so much easier! Les