Odd activity at dormant node

[swords]

Hmm, a couple of my neps (rajah & fusca) have started putting out small leaves on all their dormant nodes between the leaves, any idea why they would be doing this?

Their growing conditions have not changed, I haven't dosed with superthrive (I rarely even use it for cuttings these days), nothing has changed since I got them in June or so. Their growing tips are just fine and have continued putting out leaves & pitchers with no slowdown.

It's weird!

 

[Jeremiah Harris]

wow that is cool

My rajah has put out 4 basal shoots but no growth in the dormant nodes

what size is your N. rajah

 

[swords]

My rajah also made 4 basal off shoots starting when it was only 3" in size. I've removed and rooted them all as seperate plants and they are all now the size of the plant when I first received it. If you wanna have extra rajahs it's a very simple procedure to sever them with either a scalpel or retractable longblade box cutter (this way you don't have to uproot the mother plant to do the removal). Dust the cut ends with rootone and plant in pure LFS grow as mother plant. Superthrive wasn't critical to rooting mine, two I soaked in ST solution and two I did not, all have rooted and are doing fine.

The mother rajah is 20cm across with 3.5cm pitchers. The other plants growing at this bench level are making 1:1 or 1+:1 pitcher to leaf ratios, I don't understand why the rajah does not do so as well?

Perhaps my removing the basal shoots caused a surge in hormones up to the other nodes? But if this were the case it wouldn't explain the fusca who has had no basal offshoots.

 

[Jeremiah Harris]

that is great

what size were the basal off shoots when you removed them

did you have 100% of them root

 

[schloaty]

Swords,
No environmental condition change at all? Not even a small temp fluxuation? Weird. Any chance you bumped into the fusca by accident and bent the stem?
The Rajah may be reacting to having it's Basal shoots removed. That would be my guess there.

 

[swords]

Yes 100% of the rajah offshoots have rooted and are doing fine. Two that got the super thrive were planted in LFS, Bark and granulated laterite & LFS, bark and Seachems Flourite as experiments with a semi "ultramafic" soil and the other two were simply rootone'd and stuck into pure LFS.

Well, every night the plants do experience the standard highland temp drop (from 75*F to 50*F), but nothing more dramatic than this.

The fusca is 12" across and seems to want to start climbing but I haven't attached a climbing stake for it yet-perhaps more light at the nodes causes this since it's started arching?

 

[Jeremiah Harris]

that is very cool

do you have any photos

and what size were the off shoots when you removed them

thanks
Jeremiah

 

[swords]

I have a pic of the offshoots and mother plant just when they were potted up somewhere. I can take some new ones when I have time this weekend. (Gonna do a photo shoot of all my plants so I can finally open my d*mn website I realized I've had it for almost a year and still isn't open to the public yet&#33

I don't remember what size the offshoots were when I removed them, perhaps an inch in diameter? Other people said their plants have made offshoots but did not remove them. I don't know if this will slow growth or not.

I ordered both clones of N. rajah from Germany and they each have arrived as several small plants in a clump on a common "stalk" and rootsystem. Neither "clone 1" batch or "clone 2" batch are growing with any speed at all-but then they did only just arrive (in December). If things do not speed up by summer I will divide them into single rosettes and pot them up seperately.

Now that I think of it, that will bring my total N. rajah collection up to 11. Nobody needs 11 rajahs!