Heliamphora minor division

[dudo klasovity]

Hi!

My heliamphora minor after months of vivid growth started to grow smaller pitchers and got a bit crowded which means there is no more room for root expansion, this is what it looked like:

Instead of repotting it once again into bigger pot I cannot accommodate in my terrarium I decided to divide it into several plants. I have done this many times before but never had enough time on my hands to make a photo-report. This time I tried to take some pictures of how i do it.

First I removed all of the topping (sphagnum moss) and learned that roots have already started to shoot through the surface (indicating the need of repotting):

Using spatula, I carefully detached the substrate from the potside and by turning it over got the whole contents of the pot out:

It is clearly visible that the roots have already started to grow through bottom drainage mix:

Then I removed as much loose peat as possible. It is very important to do this with caution because even the strongest roots of Heliamphora are very easy to break (especially when they are new they are fragile). It is unwise to try to remove the bounded peat by force.

The residual peat I usually remove by dipping the root part into a vessel filled with distilled water. Then I swirl it around for a bit so the peat falls to the bottom:

It is very important to remove all the substrate because it allows us to see where exactly the roots are connected to the pitchers!

This is very regardful way of getting rid of the remnant peat from the fine roots. The plant now looks like this, free of substrate and ready to be divided:

With some Heliamphora species, the roots grow stepwise into the row as new pitchers form. Heliamphora minor has 'central' root system which means that most of the pitchers form radially around the main roots and there are not too many side-roots. This makes it really hard to divide the plant into more plants by just cutting them off. Sometimes we break off pitcher or root if we are not very careful. See how the root is centred:

Now people often get confused about where to start...the pitchers are often crowded and roots tangled. The best way I think is to find some juvenile pitchers and start from the side. Never use knife and try to divide the plant from the middle. You might break off a large clump without roots attached and possibly lose half of the plant. Then instead od propagating you make the plant smaller. Juvenile clumps usually have young roots connected with them and they break off easily:

It is considerate to put the detached plant into distilled water. Sometimes the 'surgery' take a long time and you dont want to leave the exposed roots dry out:

Then find some other clumps on the side (never break off clump with no growing pitcher/growing point!). See here a large clump on the side:

[dudo klasovity]

I never use a knife to cut it off. It is wiser to grab carefully that part of plant we want to break off and wobble it to shake it loose:

Even with the greatest caution sometimes we can loose a pitcher or two but that are the 'casulties of war':

Sometimes even rootless pitcher like that can grow its own roots but it takes too long for me.

As we proceed to the heart of the plant, it is more and more easy to detach other new clumps, when done well, we end up with several plants. Some of them in the picture look like they have no roots left, but from my experience if there is a tiny piece of root tissue they grow it back and live on. I always leave the last part of the plant the largest, which has excessive root system. This I call a mother plant and it my insurance in case of all other die (never happened so far):

Then I get the pots ready (drainage with ceramsite and river sand, small pots coarse river sand only):

...and the sphagnum moss for topping of course (rinsed in distilled water several times):

Then I pot plants up and let some distilled water to run through the pots several times to ensure there are no air bubbles under the roots. It is much better to use water stream to place the substrate in between the roots than just tamp the soil down (that might break the roots and has feeble effect):

I add sphagnum on the top for the microclimate. Here are 8 plants out of one, all eager to grow I hope:-):

Finally, for the start, I use doping mix in amount of 100mg per plant to ensure the nutrition before the roots kick in. This way the plant starts new growth very fast and early:

For first 3-4weeks, do not let the pots stand in the water because rootrot might occure. Spray the pplants very often in the beginning. Later, the tray method is fine.

Thats it:-) I hope my English is understandable and also that this post will help others in case they will need to propagate their helis via clump division.

GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY!:-)

Edited July 14, 2009 by dudo klasovity

[MarcelvW]

Thank you for this helpful information. I might need it some day

[fly guy]

Thanks for this very useful guide.

I think it is going to be frequently used.

[Phil Green]

Fantastic guide - thanks very much.

MODS - I think this should be pinned, so it doesn't get lost.

[AAJ]

Excellent, Thank you.

Just 2 questions, what is your substrata mix ?

& what is a doping mix?

[dudo klasovity]

Thanx for nice comments:-)

AAJ: Substrate- fibrous white peat/silica sand (95/5)

doping mix- is a specific mixture of L-AAs and vitamins plus a bit of sucrose

[superpaia]

very GOOD reportage!

Thank you

[calek]

Very clear and straight to the point.

THANKS A LOT FOR MAKING THIS!

And yes...mod's should pin this so that everyone can find it easily and doesn't get lost. =)

[dudo klasovity]

Just so you see this really works, here is a picture of the plants 2 weeks later:

All plants thriving, mother plant put up 3 new pitchers since then and daughter plants are growing continuously as well:-) All fed LAAmix (except the 2 juvenile plants, see they are a bit behind but they will catch up with the others once they develop adult pitchers so I can feed them too:-)))

Edited August 1, 2009 by dudo klasovity

[wadave]

Hi Dudo,

Thanks for that awesome photo report.

I'd like to ad that I've found my heli's will form roots on leaf cuttings quite easily if they are given good humidity and light.

I've found this to work on all of my heli's in the collection; tatei, het x minor, and pulchella.

I found out by accident when I was pulling out the dead traps and occasionally some live traps would get pulled out at the same time so I just plugged them straight back into the potting mix to see what happened.

12 to 18 months later they have sent up plenty of new growth and are all doing really well.

Dave.

[Javier Fernandez Diaz]

Very good document! Increible heliamphora! Thanks

[droseraman]

Beautiful plants. Is there any way we can get another update? ;)

Also, is there a thread that you've described your growing conditions? I definitely want to give Helis a try soon.

Very good document! Increible heliamphora! Thanks

[dudo klasovity]

Hi droseraman!

Thanx a lot. Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with the update, because I have space issue and all but the mother plants had to go. I can post a pic of the mother plant though, it is flowering now. Just yesterday I tried to pollinate her. My conditions are simple, lots of light, high humidity, distilled water, and temps between 18 and 30C. To me, not a demanding species, really. I had to put much more effort into growing other helis (like tatei) successfully.

[dudo klasovity]

Here is a current picture of the mother plant, it is in flower now so my task No.1 is to pollinate her successfully so I can get some seeds to try in vitro.

[frangelo]

Hi Dudo, the bed that I see is for the plant?

[dudo klasovity]

Yes, Frangelo, that is where she falls asleep as I tell her fairy-tales and sing lullabies

[naryn]

Just a few days ago I followed Dudo's excellent instructions and I've posted a couple of pics of my Heli division in the thread here

http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=35372

[Penke]

Excellent post!!

Can anyone tell me what is exactly this Heliamphora LAAmix and where can I get it???

Thanks a lot

[mobile]

Excellent post!!

Can anyone tell me what is exactly this Heliamphora LAAmix and where can I get it???

Thanks a lot

See HERE for details.

[OctopusInc]

They look great. What is the 'doping mix'?

I have heliamphora hetrodoxera x minor. It grows lots of little tiny extra pitchers but rarely grows the girthy strong looking pitchers. Could this be a result of my lighting (cfl 4' shop fixtures w/ 5600k bulbs)?

Thanks for all of this info!

-Greg

[Klugi]

This is really good, so well photographed and explained, top marks

Question : what ratio do you use on the AA mix please, you have beautiful plants that are so healthy.