Pollinating nepenthes

[NepsAroundTheHouse]

Hey all,

I'm curious as to what is the most successful way to pollinate flowering Nepenthes. Currently when I have a male and female in flower, I introduce the male plant to the female plant (without buying any drinks first&#33

by rubbing the male flower stalk to the female flower stalk. As of late, I'm waiting to see if the resulting female seed pods will have viable seed. I tried this once before by freezing a male flower stalk (at the time there were no females in flower) and then trying to pollinate when a female was available, but nothing happened. The female plant produced "dummy" seed that didn't germinate. So I'm hoping that seed pods will split and open so I can collect seed. Can anyone tell me: a. how do you know you have a successful pollination, b. if so, what medium do you use to grow the resulting seed and how long should one expect to wait before the seed germinates? Sorry about the two part question in part b.

thanks folks,
Late,
Joel

 

[agustinfranco]

Hi Joel:

I have not had yet the pleasure to pollinate neps, but One thing i learned from a nepenthes specialist and that is that you never collect the seed from the mother plant, you'll have to collect it when it falls naturally. In most cases, according to this gentleman, when you collect the seeds from the mother plant, very rarely germinates and this is due to the fact that the pod may not still be ready. so if i were you, I would create a little basket or container (net perhaps) and place the female flower in it,so when the seeds form and fall, you won't lose any.

Gus