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Nepenthes ampullaria basals and stem questions.


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Do N. ampullaria produce basal pitchers on their own or is it necessary to bend the stem in order to encourage them? When basal pitchers are formed, is the main stem of the plant still required or are the basal pitchers self-sufficient? The reason for the latter question is because I have read that the main stem (vine) can become very long but I know that many growers have this plant in terrariums so how is the long stem dealt with when it starts to outgrow the terrarium?

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Do N. ampullaria produce basal pitchers on their own or is it necessary to bend the stem in order to encourage them? When basal pitchers are formed, is the main stem of the plant still required or are the basal pitchers self-sufficient? The reason for the latter question is because I have read that the main stem (vine) can become very long but I know that many growers have this plant in terrariums so how is the long stem dealt with when it starts to outgrow the terrarium?

I have always waited for my N. ampullaria to basal prior to removing or bending (with damage) the stem of the main plant. This species does get quite large, but I have simply directed the stem out of the terrarium and let it grow out into the room. I have been surprised how little light and humidity my plants main stem withstand, when the base of the plant is in optimal conditions. The leaves that touch the lights will burn, but the stems of my plants seem to tolerate quite a good deal of heat from the balast of the 40w shoplights, and have continued to grow, with healthy pitcherless leaves, more than a meter in length before I was forced to cut them. The poor growing conditions outside of the terrarium will encourage basals. Larger plants will consume much more water than plants that have no climbing stem, so your culture must change accordingly. I had once hoped for flowers, but with the poor conditions, I am not too shocked they haven't ever flowered.

I hope this helps.

Take care,

Steven Stewart

Florida, USA

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I would second what Steve has said exactly.

My Cantleys red has grown up and out of the tank with the leaves getting very little in the way of humidity but still doing ok. Perhaps with some browning of the edges and the traps aborting.

The basal production was quite quick and extnesive and the pot soon filled with pitchers and several basals.

I didn't bend or cut off my amps vine but I'm sure the hostile environment encouraged the basal production. I too was hoping to have flowers, but who knows what may happen with better conditions.

Dave.

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Very interesting observations and thanks for sharing! I just let my plants grow but when they got to to the same length as the terrarium I had to move them out to the greenhouse. In the terrarium the main stem scrambled and was kinked at the edge of the pot - this may have helped with basals (more numerous on this particular plant). Other plants grew vertical but also produced pitchers at the base. On moving to the lower humidity of the greenhouse they stressed badly. This was quite different from a gradual acclmatisation! Unfortunately I had little choice. On the plus side I got uppers on one of the plants -

http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/uploads/gal..._876_55_427.jpg

It would not be unreasonable to suppose that basal production, although more common, may be similarly induced...?

I also noticed that once the vine is longer than about 2m it seems to produce fewer pitchers anyway regardless of the environment.

Edit: Forgot to add that although rare uppers on this species are minuscule (~3 cm or so). I cannot say I was overwhelmed...

Edited by Leo
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  • 1 year later...

We all want basal pitchers, don't we? You may be interested in reviewing this thread concerning the role of auxins which regulate basal growth vs. apical dominance. Whether bending the stem (or keeping the plant horizontally) would augment basal growth is not clear, even though there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to support the practice.

N. ampullaria not pitchering

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Mine just makes basals when it feels like it. It seems quite random, but I get a flush perhaps only once every two years or so. No specific training, but the main stem has grown quite horizontally of its own accord. The main vine is just kept trimmed every year or two to be a manageable size for its tank. The prunings are typically used as cuttings, and then grown on until they are strong enough to sell as new plants.

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