I don't know enough profanity...

[swords]

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!!! (up on roof with shotgun shooting into the sky)

I was doing my watering for the 75 gallon lowland tank and the lid fell off it's track and into the terrarium and smashed my bicals growing tip and snapped it right off!

Of course, my bical was one of the biggest and most robust grower in my lowland tank - so it just had to be this one! Lord knows it couldn't have been the now fungus free tiny $6 ampullaria!

I am assuming it's toast since the point where all new growth comes from is now gone (the new developing leaf (as yet ungrown and unfurled was severed off) it's only got maybe 8 leaves on it (5 have pitchers whch had been well fed before tonight) is it possible a side node will sprout if I let it be? It is in it's rosette stage but it is about 14" across with 5" (largest) pitchers.

Any tips to give me on nurturing what's left of my poor Bical or should I just toss the plant in the trash and go back to screaming profanities in the woods?

 

[Travis]

Technically, I would try to save the plant and shout out profanities while doing that!

travis

 

[swords]

I've left it in the pot in it's same place and treated the beheaded area with fungicide powder which had just pulled away today from the last leaf which unfurled. Should I do a superthrive bath to help it recover from the decapitation?
I wouldn't be freaking so much if it was a taller vine but I don't see any suggestion of side nodes between the leaves yet (usually they appear as red bumps on my mature vines) so I'm afraid it's too young for this kind of treatment but maybe not?  Any chance it has side nodes in it's young age (not yet climbing)?

 

[carnivorous23]

As long as there are leaves and roots, never give up. As long as it can still photosynthesize, it may recover. I'd actually expect that with 8 leaves, it probably could make it, unless the leaves are severed from the stem. Don't throw it away, it may take a while, but every day it doesn't die is an indication that it's a bit more likely to recover.
Good luck.

 

[swords]

Heres a pic of the plant after the decapitation. I circled the area which was severed.

 

[RamPuppy]

Deep breath man...

Neps are TANKS... I think your bical is going to shrudge this off, and keep on trucking...

I really do, the plant still looks healthy, just be patient, it may stagnate for a while, but it WILL recover.

 

[NickHubbell]

You should get new growth from the dormant buds just above where the leaves attach to the stem. If you look close, you should see a small bump.

Nick

 

[Dyflam]

Consider it a pruning... your plant will suffer a setback and then blast out with new vigour. You couldn't have designed it better. (That's the bright outlook.)

 

[swords]

Thanks Ram, say lemme see that mallet for a few minutes...!

I'm calmer now what makes me so furious, is not only is N. bical my fave nep species it was also my fave plant in my collection due to speed of growth (second only to the N x ventrata for growing/increasing pitcher size), now it'll take "forever" (to me) to regain it's vigor if it can make side shoots at this age.

As far as I know it's still "young" because the internodes would be much longer if it were a vine cutting. Can rosette age plants make side growth or from where might the plant begin growing again?

 

[Tony Paroubek]

Deep breath....

Ok now the good part. There is always a dormant node at each leaf junction regardless of plant size or age, rosette or climbing.

Now the bad news.. it will probably be 6 months or more before any side shoots are making decently large leaves. You might get more than one new start though and have a nice multilead plant in the end.
Tony

 

[neps]

Your plant will be fine, trust me!

One of two things will likely happen:
Either you'll have a dormant node break, as others have mentioned, *or*,
if the tip didn't break off too far down, you'll have new growth still produced
at what's left of it. Either way, *don't* get rid of it. It's going to be just fine!

 

[schloaty]

You know, the same thing happened to me with my first nep... N. x Little pot of horrors (we think it's alata). You know what happened? now, 4 or 5 months later, the darn thing forked! It developed new grow points! One is even coming up from the roots (at least I think so). So don't panic. Just a little TLC, and it will be just fine.

 

[GEORGE-CP]

sword how much of it was cut off. you might be able to start a new plant from the cutting. if it is big enough. just a thought

 

[eplants02]

Swords,
Don't worry, your plant will be fine. I have a N. x Ventrata and the same thing happened to me. Putting it in a terrarium, a couple of months later, a little node appeared on the side of the stem. I can't wait till it starts growing once again.

 

[swords]

Thanks so much folks!

Tony, I'm glad to know the plant does have dormant nodes even at this age-that's what I was most concerned about. Since I grow in chambers I didn't wanna give it space and care if it was most likely a gonner anyway.

There's no way of planting the part that was severed cos it was only just the growing tip about 3" long (it had just pulled back from the new yellow/green leaf in the photo above). It almost looks like the cut was intentional cos it's such a perfect cut exactly level of the new leaf top... couldn't have cut it closer with a razor blade!

A real heart stopper accident. You see your plants life flash before your eyes!

You see all those months of care and nurturing-and electric bills-spinning down the drain! As careful as I was when removing & replacing the lids before I will certainly be even more so now!

....sigh. Finally a breath!

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

And that's why we tell people use plastic to cover your tops of your growing chmabers ladies and gentlemen.

just jokin Josh. wanted to throw a little humor in to help ya calm down.

It is a major downer though.

Won't see any big pitchers for a while. But Bical is a weed in warm/humid conditions so let it come back and then you'll have big pitchers again.

 

[swords]

At least I won't be using this tank too much longer. I will probably build the new lowland tank this weekend which will have a sliding shower door instead of having top access so there's no chance of another mishap. At least not a mishap just like this one!

 

[jodajo21]

hey i intentionally cut the tops off my neps it causes even small ones to form multiple stems. plants that i have cut that were growing strait up are now almost bushes. i cut the top off a sanguinia and it was only about  4 inches high and about an 8 inch leaf span and now it has 4-5 growth points coming out.  

so you learned a lesson in good peruning today!

 

cheers,

Joel

 

[Darcie]

aw cool, I just studied this in bio lab. Your plant will probubly use it's backup tip buds and make two growth points ensted of one

And if all else fails, most plants can send up a new "shoot" if they have ssome roots left anyways

 

[Stefano1]

speed of growth? my bical is here in fl with tons of sun humidity and a nice big pot, its growing so slow, nep g tells me his rajah grows faster than a bical so i am assuming i got my self a lowland rajah

dude this thing is so sLOW!!!!!! but its getting big leaves and stuff but its SLOPWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!