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Trimming

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I plan on trimming my 32" bongso x maxima, and my 26" sanguinea to produce basal growth with lower pitchers, and make cuttings.  But, my ventricosa produced a basal shoot, and startedforming a vine immidiately.  Will basal shoots from the other plants produce lower pitchers, and for how long?  I'm hoping they will be able to form full sized lower pitchers before they move on to uppers.  I also plan on trimming my 20" khasiana for cuttings, seperating the five offshoots, and repotting the plants.  Does this sound safe?  I'll probably have some cuttings to give away, but I'm not promising anything
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.  Notify me if you are interested.
 
Hi,

basal offshots do produce lower pitchers first, but they don't need long to start climbing. I. e. my N. maxima took two years to start climbing but the basal offshot did only need half a year and only seven leafes before starting to climb.

Cuttings produced from climbing parts of Nepenthes will only produce offshots which also do climb immediately, you won't get a basal rosette from such a plant.

Joachim
 
Well that's a bummer
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! I remember ordering the plants, thinking they would be producing large, colorful pitchers, only to find they were cuttings of plants forming uppers. Guess I'll never see the dark red in that sanguinea, or the vibrant size and colors of the bongso x maxima
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. What a shame.
 
Nate, Joachim is right however there are exceptions.

Bongso x Maxima should be large and colorful regardless of the pitcher form. Bongso has very large upper pitchers and Maxima is large overall.

N.Bongso upper pitcher.
nep-bon2.jpg



Sanguinea might show some red but yes it is very vibrant and more pronounced in the lower pitchers.
 
I agree Joachim is mostly correct. There are exceptions also. One N. maxima cutting I took recently is producing a rosette with lower pitchers. This vine when I got it was all upper pitchers with a flower spike, and has produced nothing but upper pitchers from the original growing point. I do suspect as Joachim mentions that it will not stay long as a rosette and that it will convert to upper pitchers faster than a young plant raised from seed/TC.
Tony
 
I don't know about the bongso x maxima. My vine has ceased to growin size, and the pitchers stay at about 3-4". The leaves stay rather small. Hmm, what if it's not bongso x maxima
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! I just don't know. Anyway, the upper pitchers on my sanguinea are pretty, with some red speckling on the upper portions of the pitcher, and look like any other sanguinea's. I just wated to see the dark red coloration of the lower pitchers on this form of sanguinea
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.
 
And will the mother plant recover quickly on my windwsill?
 
Hey, if you are giving away free cuttings far be it from me to say no.
Is the mother plant currently growing on the windowsill and is it doing well? If it is doing well on the windowsill then it shouldnt have a problem recovering there as well. If your windowsill is not very humid the I would mist it more often and place a plastic bag over it to retain the humidity.
 
Nathaniel,

I found a photo showing N. bongso x maxima to help you ID your plant. Trouble is I'm not sure how to post it here without linking to the image on my own website which I think is not alowed. Would someone tell me how to post a photo in the body of a message please?
 
  • #10
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Aha, thanks for the advice Pete. Nathaniel, the bottom two pitchers in the display in the tall vase are the clone I have of N. bongso x maxima. It's one of my favourite hybrids. The pitchers are both lowers and whilst the uppers are less colorful, it still has a red peristome.

This is my first attempt at linkiing to a photo from this forum, hope it works...

http://www.borneoexotics.com/photos/icps_2002/Borneo_Exotics/Set1/BE 1.jpg
 
  • #11
OK, I got it wrong.  Left a gap in the URL which is a no-no.  Here goes again:

BE_1.jpg


(fixed the syntax.. Icon board uses its own code .. html code recognition is turned off I believe)
 
  • #12
Whohh
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! Very nice. What are the other nepenthes in the picture? Mine looksvery different, altough mine is producing uppers. The pitchers on mine are green, with little red speckling, and a green peristome with some red on the very edge. They only get to about 3-4", and somewhat narrow. My theorie is that the uppers are much smaller and green. So, I'll never get to see the beautiful lower pitchers on my plant. DAG NABIT
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!
 
  • #13
Upper pitchers are usually smaller and more funnel shaped. Transforming to a funnel shape reduces the weight of the pitcher significantly as the volume of fluid is much less even when full of fluid. This helps prevent the vine from getting torn to the ground from the weight.

You might be able to induce it back to lower pitchers by pruning it back.
Tony
 
  • #14
Will the lower pitchers on the basal shoots have time to reach full size?
 
  • #15
The big pitcher upper right is N. alata (highland) and the other pitchers are mostly assorted N. rafflesiana.

I'm not *completely* sure about this since it seems to vary from species to species: Try getting the growing tip of your plant to hang down below the level of the media. If it's a vine you might be able to bend it to achieve this. Most Nepenthes will produce basal shoots when the growing tip is below the base of the media and You should be able to break off the new basal growth(s) when they are large enough and root them and I *think* that you should then have new plants that will produce lower pitchers in the normal way.
 
  • #16
That sounds cool. But, if I bend the vine, the fluid will fall out of the pitchers, and I just fed all of them. I'll probably be making cuttings anyway, like I said in the beginning of the topic.
 
  • #17
Nathaniel,

I'll take some photos of upper pitchers next week when I'm in the highlands.

If you cut off the growing tip from a Nepenthes vine and root it, the rooted cutting will very probably produce another vine with no lower pitchers. However, the node beneath the cut portion should produce a shoot and if you're lucky, a few more nodes below that too. I'm propagating my N. bongso x maxima this way. Try waiting until the new growths are a few inches across and break them off (don't cut them -it's better to literally snap them off). They should root easily since this is a vigorous hybrid and you'll then have new plants that will produce the desired lower pitchers.

The growing tip of the plant produces an auxin that tells all the nodes below it to stay dormant. Once the tip is gone, they are free to grow.

Good luck!
 
  • #18
Thanks
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. That's what I meant when I said I would take cuttings, that hopefuly, the plant will produce offshoots. Last night, on my hairy alata, I saw two offshoots forming on a bit of exposed, underground stem. They just look like little green buds, and are very close to were the roots are.
 
  • #19
Hi,

I talked to Christian yesterday and I'm afraid, I do have to correct my initial statemanet concerning offshots
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He did second Rob's statement. Bending down climbing stems below the roots will promote offshots at the highest point of the stem. And the plant will produce a basal rosette there. He explaind it with the natural growth of the plants. When climbing stems do fall back on the ground in nature, a basal rosette is much better suited for catching prey than upper ones growing near or on the ground.

My experience originates from plants producing offshots by their own without such a treatement. The plants which did produce offshots on climbing parts of the stem did only produce also climbing offshots. But of course there is no reason to produce a lower one at all.

Joachim
 
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