Caring for baby neps

[joseph]

I rescently recieved several varieties of nep. all of them are extremely small around 1-2cm and a few don't have much in the way of roots if any. I assume they are cuttlings since they don't have roots although they look just like tiny neps with miniature pitchers. currently I have them in a planting mix of mostly shredded peat moss to ensure that moisture is available at the base. the soil is constanly wet-soggy and humidity is 100%. I only water once every 3-4 days due to the water retention of the mix.

Q. Will the shredded peat moss help to ensure rooting or am I asking for root rot?

Q would it be safe to attempt transplant should this be the wrong mix or should I wait and hope for the best.

Q. What else can I do to ensure the root growth and suvival of tiny neps, I have no experience with cutlings.

thanks
joe

 

[swords]

Joe to me it sounds like you received some neps which are not cuttings but ex-vitro (meaning just taken out of a tissue culture flask) or seedlings since you say they are 1-2cm. cuttings would be far larger plants.

Either way, I preffer to use pure long fibered sphagnum in a 2" seed pot for any nep rooting as it stays wet/moist but not soggy. Sopping wet is an invitation to rot but being dry will kill them as well. LFS in a drained pot in a high humidity terrarium and some occasional foliage misting will help get those seedlings the water they need.

You might try misting the plants with a single drop of superthrive (or any other plant hormone, HormoneX is just as good) in the mister. Some people beleive it helps settle the plant down, I use it but it may or may not truely be a necessity.

Hope that helps -good luck!

 

[GEORGE-CP]

Joe, keep the humidity high as possible, soil mix damp, i would take the mix that the roots are in right now keep what is around it and put it into some lfm/peat more one the side of lfm. water every 3-4 days like you have been doing but just keep an eye on the mix to make sure it doesn't dry out.
like sword said it does sound like you got some neps right out of TC they are to small to be cuttings to try to root. good luck w/ your new neps.

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

I would opt for moss or go with a peat/perlite mix. Remeber numero uno rule for baby vitro Neps is that they need to be in "Cream Puff" conditions, meaning they need very ideal conditions as they are establishing. I wish you the best of luck!

 

[Tim]

As a related question, is it recommended to spray with a fungicide after receiving bare root neps? I expect the several plants I ordered from Phillip in about a week or so, and am I safe in assuming very warm conditions would be helpfull?

 

[joseph]

thanks guys,
the humidity is high and I mist them about once a day. As for LSF all I have is the dead stuff which I don't find very good but hopefully it will work. I'll just soak it for a day or two first.
Also I will try the superthrive on the foliage. They already have been watered once with a superthrive mix.

joe

 

[swords]

LFS is always "dead" it will become "live" (the surface spores will sprout) after some months in the terrarium. It is not so much the "living aspect" of the moss as it's ability to soak up water and remain moist but be coarse enough to drain leaving tiny air pockets for the forming roots to keep from becoming suffocated.
Once your plants get larger 6-8cm or so then it can be put in a more specialized mix for that species, if the plant is from a peat swamp forest then peat, LFS and charcoal will be a nice mix but not til the plant has some size and a good set of roots to work with. And as someone said above, if/when you transplant it don't bare root it just remove the soil around where the roots are and leave them in the soil clump to minimize any excess shock.

 

[Borneo]

Joseph,

Seems you have already had some good advice. The plants you describe are almost certainly ex-vitro (what I call a "plantlet") and should form roots quite quickly if you can give them the right conditions. I suggest you don't worry about giving them too much light and risk lowering the relative humidity around the plant. After some weeks and the roots will have formed, then you can increase the light levels. it's a delicate balance really.

Most of our losses if we have any occur due to rot in the first few days after planting out. If they survive the first week they're usually OK. We've tried using funcidal dips, but it hasn't made any difference really. The trick seems to be humid but not soggy.

I don't think you mentioned what species they are. It makes little difference to their care in the early stages, but I'm just curious.

Good luck!

 

[joseph]

thanks everybody. I have some moss soaking now to get ready for replanting. I can't really lower my light levels without killing baby vfts but the light is provided by florescent tubes external to the grow chamber so I don't believe they will affect humidity. My meter always seems to read over 90% humidity.

Borneo, I have N. ephippiata, N. spectabilis, N. ovata and some N. Amps. The amps are larger (3-4cm) and don't look great but they do appear to be growing slowly despite the browning of older leaves.

Thanks everyone. These plants weren't cheap and I really don't want to lose them.

joe

 

[GEORGE-CP]

Joe, all the Neps. except for one of them the N. Amp. are all highland Neps. they do require a cold period at night. if you have them in a lowland set up you might want to move them. to a colder set up at night and raise the humidity to 90-100% try to keep them at 55-60 degrees for a night time temp.

 

[Borneo]

  Quite a mixed bunch.  As George said, you'll need to treat the highlanders differently from the N. amps (eventually).  The N. amps probably won't mind having their roots  in a wet environment, but the others will need to be treated carefully.  We've found that in general you can waive the night-time minimums and grow highlanders in warm lowland conditions for at least several weeks with no ill effect provided they are returned to highland conditions fairly soon.  

Higher temperatures promotes root formation and we sometimes use the technique of plainting out highlanders from sterile culture in the lowlands and keeping them here for a while. Hope that helps.

 

[GEORGE-CP]

Joe, i wouldn't wave the night time drop right now due to you just got them in the mail and they most likly are in shock right now. with not having seen light or anything for a little while. so do treat the plant with some TLC and follow up with the misting and everything else.

 

[Joachim]

Hi Joseph, what size of plants did you order? A diameter of one or two cm is a very small size to sell them and most first time customers would have big trouble establishing those plants, especially when they are not hardened off from TC - Of course all reputable sources do harden them off for some weeks at least. Small roots are not that unusual for very small plants though. In case the plants don't meet the description I do strongly recommend contacting the seller and try sorting it out.

Joachim

 

[Cindy]

See the baby neps in the top right hand corner...I keep them in perlite...and surround the stem with a little live sphagnum to keep the humidity high...until the roots start to grow and they put out one or two new pitchers, then I transfer them to peat...

They were basal shoots that I removed from the mother plant...

 

[joseph]

Cindy, Can't see the pic, but my amps are large enough to be in a regular pot. There could be less peat moss in there and more LFS but they will live. I have prerlite but I prefer orchid bark because it should do the same job as well as add some nutrition to the mix. They run from 70-80 on the temp and hi humidity.

All of the baby plants presently reside in what I call my highland tank, but the chamber only gets down to 68 at night and up to 84 during the day, I could possibly lower it a little more by turning off a fish tank heater I keep in a bucket of bubbly water. This would mostly likely affect my humidity and I don't think my VFTs would appreciate going too much below 70deg. So, is 68 low enough for highlands?

Also, I just have them all a light spritz of weak superthrive but the pitchers are way to small to even attempt aiming for, will this stuff be absorbed through the leaves?

Too late to replant last night, will do this weekend or tonight. I'm going with LFS/orchid/peat, good? I use rainwater so I'm not adding charcoal.

thanks again

 

[joseph]

deleted double post

 

[GEORGE-CP]

Joe, i do not have any prior exspeance with some of the plants that you have but from doing a little research on them i would say they would need to be a little colder than 68 degrees. it depends where they were taken out of TC. i would bring them down even colder than that since what i have read up on they are somewhat hard to grow and the extra cooling at night would make it alot easyer for them. i do agree w/ cindy that 2-3cm is to small for them to be sold but heck it shore would be a learning exsperance on growing them.

 

[joseph]

Alright I'll turn the heat completely off at night, that should bring it down to an appropriate level. Guess I'll have to buy a terrarium air conditioner for the summer months.

I better find a cool mist humidifier in a hurry then.

joe

 

[GEORGE-CP]

Joe, with my highlander babys. i but them in a zip lock bag that has moisture dripping from the inside of the bag and then but them into the refrig at night and they seam to be ok w/ it

 

[joseph]

Thanks for the info. I may do that, I'm thinking of buying one of those small car fridges and putting them in it at night untill I get my highland terrarium built in the living room. Then I'll use the peltier chips out of the fridge to cool the terrarium at night.

joe