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Medium for Nepenthes cuttings


vincent

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11 hours ago, Karsty said:

They never do

In fairness to them they did say they did not stock it at this time of year, so maybe in spring when people buy it to line hanging baskets.

I noticed that seller lists it by weight, 2kgs being the smallest. As I've never used it, apart from a couple of plants I bought which came potted in the stuff, how far will 2kgs go? Sounds like quite a lot for maybe 3 or 4 smallish pots to try and get those Nepenthes cuttings to strike in. Is it easy to keep if I don't use it all? Will it survive in a greenhouse over winter (unheated)? I've read it likes humidity so I could put it in a fairly large propagator. Does it just grow or would I need to lay it on say a bed of peat?

Any advice for keeping/using it most welcome.

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Live sphagnum can be put in an empty gravel tray with half an inch of rain water, in a bright or sunny position.  It should be safe to keep outside in the garden or in a greenhouse, most types available seem to be hardy (although tropical forms do exist).  It can grow quite quickly if kept in good conditions.

Live sphagnum is best for rooting nepenthes cuttings, it seems to have anti-fungal/bacterial properties that encourages root growth.  Not so good for adult plants in the long term in my opinion but great for rooting cuttings.

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Hey H&S, do not fear!

Number 1 - I think nowadays it's pretty hard to find genuine live sphagnum in any garden centre. They often stock some other kind of woodland moss, used for hanging baskets. Even on eBay, not all that is labelled sphagnum is actually sphagnum. Once you've seen a few types, you can recognise it very easily.

Number 2 - It is a hardy plant! it is bone hardy. It grows all over Scotland. All you need is a waterproof container, rainwater, and good light/sun. It doesn't grow when it gets really cold (probably below 6°C, that's the cut off point for most (all?) plants), but if you keep the temperatures mild it will grow all year, but it does like good light. You just keep it wet/damp. When it is too dry it turns white.

I'm guessing 2kgs would be about 3 litres of moss.

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Thanks manders and Karsty for the info. Sounds like it's pretty easy to keep.

18 minutes ago, manders said:

Not so good for adult plants in the long term in my opinion but great for rooting cuttings.

manders what do you suggest for adult Nepenthes then? I probably need to pot up my N. Alata, which the cuttings came from, at some point. It's still in the same pot it was bought in from some nursery many years ago. The N.Linda cutting I bought from a guy on ebay probably also wants repotting at some point as its in sphagnum moss from where it was initially rooted. Might leave that for a bit as its just set its first pitcher.

Sorry for all the questions, Nepenthes are relatively new to me and so I'm feeling my way a bit. I always used to think they were the preserve of people with hot houses so avoided them till I was given my N. Alata which seems to love my bedroom windowsill, a feeling not shared by my wife :( I sort of understand where she is coming from as it does go through patches of just rambling, putting on a metre or more of growth with no traps, hence why I thought I should cut it back and try and root the trimmings.

Sarracenias, sundrews and venus flytraps I've had since the early 90's so I'm much happier when dealing with them. That said, I do have a bit of a problem with the flytraps at the moment, I seem to have ended up with 100+ plants since I repotted them earlier in the year and split off all the self-sets from the main rhizome. Just got to figure out what to do with them all.

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Everyone has there own opinions on nepenthes composts, i usually use peat/perlite and pot in very large pots.  Nepenthes roots are very fine and easily damaged so i prefer to repot very rarely, large pots also help to keep the conditions more constant.

compost isnt so critical provded it can hold some moisture but not go too soggy.

The problem i’ve had with spaghnum (not only with nepenthes but also some utrics) is it works great for a while, but it can suddenly turn to mush (after a year or three) which very quickly becomes really bad for the plants.

several people seem to use a mix of live spagh and perlite and maybe that works ok ive not tried it.  

The other issue with live spagh is i like to occasionally spray nepenthes with orchid fertilizer, and that kills the spagh.

 

 

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2 hours ago, werds said:

2Kgs= 10 liters

Gosh that is quite a bit. Shall have to think of other uses for it. Can you smoke it :biggrin:

On a more serious note, my nepenthes cuttings that stubbornly refuse to root, if I get some sphagnum should I re-cut the ends to get back to clean tissue or do you think that given they are still alive, the ends must be at least letting water into the cuttings so they will probably sprout roots also? How far do you bury then in the sphagnum moss?

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