Nepenthes cutting trouble

[Pk93]

Hello,
I'm currently trying to root a couple cuttings I purchased this past Saturday, I thought they were doing okay until I looked at them today. One of them (a mystery cutting) has started to turn brown at the middle of the stem, the stem is still firm but I can only imagine that it is some sort of rot settling in or possibly a burn. The cutting, along with a cutting of N. reinwardtiana, was placed outside in the shade and each were covered with a plastic baggie. The cutting of reinwardtiana still looks fine, however, the mystery cutting did receive more light in the afternoon, possibly along the portion of the stem that has turned brown.

There is a node in the sphagnum and another further up the stem. Is there any way to save the cutting?

 

[FLTropical]

Cuttings should not get ANY direct sunlight. They have no roots, so cannot make up for water lost through transpiration. Medium bright light only... I have mine hidden behind my phalanopsis, an orchid that cannot take direct light either. This goes double if they are bagged - any sunlight will shoot the temperature inside up to 120 to 130 F, effectively steam cooking your plant.

As far as this one, if you have two clean nodes above the brown spot you could recut and try starting over. If not, move it into deep deep shade and cross your fingers.

 

[nimbulan]

I doubt that section of stem will recover from that damage, but if there's still healthy leaves above it, there's still hope. You'll likely have to recut above the damage and start over.

On another note make sure you don't keep the rooting media too wet, which is really easy to do with LFS since the cuttings can easily rot. I used 50:50 LFSerlite my first time with cuttings and only successfully rooted 2 out of 7 (cuttings from 4 different plants, the two I saved were from different plants thankfully.) The second time around I'm using 100% perlite on recommendation from a local grower which seems to hold the perfect amount of water for Nepenthes cuttings. I added a little LFS on top so I can more easily feel when it needs water and both cuttings rooted quickly and are very healthy.

 

[Pk93]

Thank you for the replies! I have moved it to a spot that only gets shade. I will probably take a cutting from above the brown area tomorrow and try and root that. I have some pumice so I might try adding that to the sphagnum too.
Thanks again!

 

[nimbulan]

If you have live sphagnum handy, I've heard that's probably the best thing to use.

 

[BigBella]

I typically take the cutting, apply some rooting agent; wrap in live sphagnum; and bag the whole thing in a gallon ziplock, until I see new growth. I have done that for years, to great success . . .