Re: N Maxima cutting

Ninja Squirrel Master (Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM)
Mon, 13 Apr 92 14:45:10 PDT

>>Davin,
>>
>>The chop and ship method is okay, I suppose, but I have never had a try
>>at Nepenthes cuttings. I have the technology (live sphag, rootone), so
>>you think it's worth a try? If you think it's risky, maybe someone else
>>could benefit more than myself from the cutting.

Go for it, it's not hard if you have a terrarium with even halfway decent
humidity. I've tried rooting two cuttings in the past year. The first one,
I think from Michael, eventually rotted. It was two nodes as I recall, and
appeared to be a terminal cutting from a previously truncated plant, which
had activated a dormant node. Anyhow I trimmed about 1/8" off the cut end
to get fresh plant area, dipped it in rootone, and stuffed it in a ventilated
styrofoam cup full of live spahgnum. After many months it hadn't done much.
Eventually it rotted, at which time I found out that an ant colony was living
in the cup. To this day I have three relevant opinions: 1) don't ventilate
the cup too much, just put some drainage holes in it, 2) don't bother using
rootone, and 3) leave about 1/2" of the leaf on each leaf. The cutting I
had had VERY thin leaves, only about 1/4" wide, and maybe this was part of
the problem.

I've since rooted a cutting from Don. I just trimmed the end, stuffed
it in a cup of moss in my terrarium, and left it alone, pouring some
water in the top of the cup, to drain through and out the bottom, when
the moss looked dry. It's now rooted and activating several nodes.

It's easy to do, or at least, if it fails it won't necessarily be
because you blew it. Some root, and some don't. Don't let the moss get
soggy. And DON'T pull on the cutting to see if it's rooted. You'll
know if it's rooted when the leaf nodes start sprouting.

IMHO of course.

r.