Coloring nepenthes

[Neppen]

I've read about people who have put coffee powder in the pitchers and had great result, (I be tried the "traditional" coffee watering before) so I decided to give it a try on my old ventrata.

While I pured some powder in the oldest pitchers I started to think, how much is the plant taking up from the pitchers except from nutritions. What if one put some blue food color in the pitchers would this go out in the plant and turn it blue? I know is possible to dye flowers by adding color in the water. I'm just courious :-)

//Jonas

[NatchGreyes]

I don't know of anyone who has done this experiment, but my guess is that you won't see much bluing. Not because the plant isn't breaking down and absorbing the useful ingredients from the coloring, but precisely because it is doing that. Generally, the way they dye flowers is that the color the water that will be wicked up the stem into the flower. As it spreads around, it colors the flower. (This is true even for still living orchids, which are injected with dye at the base of their flower stalks). I would expect that the pitcher to plant membrane will not allow "undigested" molecules through to the rest of the plant. As a consequence, I would not expect to see any coloration due to the food coloring.

 

Of course, I don't know of anyone who has tried this before, so you'll have to let us know how it goes.

[Dave Evans]

Well I used food coloring to highlight the veins in cut leaves.  You wouldn't believe how different the venation can be in different species!

[NatchGreyes]

Well I used food coloring to highlight the veins in cut leaves.  You wouldn't believe how different the venation can be in different species!

 

Right, but - and this is an assumption here on my part - you color the water which is being wicked up the stem to the leaves, right? Not adding color to the pitcher water (which is what I believe Jonas is doing).

[Neppen]

Well, actually I'm not doing it... yet. I was mostly curious if anyone knew if it would work...

But now I think I have to give it a try just to see if anything happens... I do have a spare ventrata I can try it on. Do you think it could cause any harm to the plant? Other than perhaps med upp the pitchers I add the color to?

If this work someone else can give it a try with something fluorescent ;-) haha

//Jonas

[TCurrell]

you should try with a proper dye like methyl blue if you can get it, provided it can be taken up it would show better staining. for the love of god wear gloves though as that stuff stains for ages.

[Guest paul y]

wear gloves when handling methyl blue, if you walk round the streets with blue hands every copper that sees you wil assume you have been hit with blue security dye and you will be stopped and searched and your house and family and friends will be searched regardless of your explanations, nothing you say will convince the old bill that you haven't been dyed by a security pack until they have searched everything you own.

[vincent]

@ Paul: it sounds a bit as if something like this happened to you already... 

[Guest paul y]

@ Paul: it sounds a bit as if something like this happened to you already... 

never been arrested in my life, my dad used to work for the police my brother still is working for avon and some kit,

I considered becoming a pcso police constable sort of, but im too easy going and tolerant to spend half my life stopping and searching teenagers for cannabis just to keep the public under the impression the police actually do something productive.

7% conviction rate for rape in the uk 93% conviction for cannabis possession,

priorities people ffs priorities.

[Neppen]

Ok, so now its done! I decided to go with regular blue food color, instead of the "geting caught by the police color" you were talking about. Mainly because I've no idea where to get it but also because I don't think my poor plant would make it in prisson, it's just to darn pretty! ;-)

So what I did was basically to add a bit of blue color into the two pitchers currently on this plant. I had about twice as much color in one of them, just to see if that makes any different.

I actually don't think this will result in much really, but if it does work it would be rather cool.

I also had a few cuttings in water that are just about to shoot roots, so I took one of the more bad ones that I probably wont keep and placed it in blue water instead. Just to see what will happens if it roots in colored water.

I'll keep you posted about this!

Oh.. And I know its a little bit of school science project over this and I'm way too old to be fascinated about it... But hey, I'm childish then ;-)

[TCurrell]

this would be cool to do if it works on an white form ventricosa.

[Dave Evans]

never been arrested in my life, my dad used to work for the police my brother still is working for avon and some kit,

I considered becoming a pcso police constable sort of, but im too easy going and tolerant to spend half my life stopping and searching teenagers for cannabis just to keep the public under the impression the police actually do something productive.

7% conviction rate for rape in the uk 93% conviction for cannabis possession,

priorities people ffs priorities.

The difference is you can steal money from a cannabis user, but a rapist?  It is far better to send them out to rape again.  Dude, there is no reason for the police to be hot about finding marijuana.  They/you just don't have to do it.  Focus on crime.  If you're going to arrest someone for marijuana, arrest them for something that makes sense, like selling a controlled substance to minors.  Zero tolerance is for smucks.

[Guest paul y]

dave evans, you are a man with a very sharp and grounded mind, its nice to share an opinion and be met with agreement,  I personally know of 2 people caught for cultivating cannabis, both the cases were dismissed by the judge because of missing evidence,  it never fails to amaze me just how corrupt and self serving the police really are.

when the time comes in new jersey for the people to speak for the love of god give it a yes vote,  the whole world is holding its breath in anticipation of the Colorado/Washington model getting approved across the us,  it was Nixon who started this disastrous un led global war on drugs and all its accomplished is the rise of the cartel to some of the richest organisations on earth, the death of hundreds of thousands of people, the incarceration of millions and drug use globally is at an all time high excuse the pun,  only the usa can reverse this disastrous prohibition policy, you would of thought the rise and continual success of the us mafia as a direct result of alcohol prohibition would be enough.

prohibition is one of the greatest ideological mistakes in mankinds history.

every spring in Saudi Arabia they shoot dead hundreds of drug users,  and every year they shoot dead more people than they did the previous year,  so if the very real threat of being executed isn't enough to stop someone from making their own choices what chance will prison or fines stand?

and coupled with the fact that alcohol in any form of measurement is far more addictive and damaging than heroin and is still legal just proves that drug policies have nothing to do with harm reduction but everything to do with profit and business.

in the uk the 2 biggest cash contributors in donations to any political party are made by the Gallagher group and the diaggeo group, those 2 groups are responsible for ALL tobacco and alcohol sales in the uk, they have stopped plain packaging and minimum unit pricing through financial back handers to the govt.

big alcohol and tobacco are terrified of the public finding an alternative to their disgusting addictive and killer products.

[19Silverman93]

in the uk the 2 biggest cash contributors in donations to any political party are made by the Gallagher group and the diaggeo group, those 2 groups are responsible for ALL tobacco and alcohol sales in the uk, they have stopped plain packaging and minimum unit pricing through financial back handers to the govt.

big alcohol and tobacco are terrified of the public finding an alternative to their disgusting addictive and killer products.

and they say the govt. isnt corrupt...by who's standards? russias? burmas? I don't see the point in prohibition, I really don't. it just criminalises whole segments of the population for no good reason. people like heroin addicts are to be pitied, not abused and incarcerated.

[Guest paul y]

pity alcoholics the most, paying for and dying from state sponsored addiction, at least a heroin addict is sticking one up to the govt by choosing an alternative to their choice of population control,,  I remember reading a very famous quote but forget who by  "the masses loved their football gambling and above all alcohol, how easy it was to maintain control"

6.5 million cannabis users in the uk consuming three metric tons of herbal cannabis per day,  and the main political parties are fighting for votes?  lol even the lib dems could landslide the next general election if they agreed to repeal prohibition. 

[Dave Evans]

Actually, it would have been great if the world just gave the USA the finger when Nixon started his illegal war on "everyone we label as a drug user" while we exempt of bunch of other druggies... Just to keep up the general number of addicts. In pain? You can way too easily get a proscription for a heroin based drug and then your addicted to heroin! Thanks doc! Now there are a bunch of people waking around with monkeys on their backs. Maybe they should be been given marijuana to try first and maybe use the heroin drugs as a last resort? Or does that takes too much thinking???

[TCurrell]

I love how this thread has developed :)

[Neppen]

Ok, here comes the result :-)

Let's say it like this, I don't even bother with adding images ;-)

I put colors into two pitchers, one of them rot away in just a few days, it started to turn brown in the bottom and then brown all over, I removed it after a week or two, I was abit afraid it would start to leak and I didn't want the blue color all over the place :-)

The other pitcher did fine, turned a little brown in the bottom but over all just fine, I emptied the pitcher of color today and filled some destilled water instead.

But there was no effect on the plant it self, nothing turned blue ;-)

The cutting I put in blue water has just started to make roots, but so far nothing blue there either so to speak. I will let it stand in the water till it starts to grow and see if something happens a then.

Well, now I've tried so you don't have to :-)

// Jonas

[TCurrell]

Thanks for posting the results, this piqued my curiosity and remember "The only difference between science and screwing around is writing it down!"