Phil said:
>I am going to try to root some cuttings following Barry's
>directions.However, the humidity here in New Orleans during
>the next few months is over 90%, so I'm going to leave them
>uncovered.
I'd still keep the cuttings covered. With humidity any less than 100%, a
cutting with no roots may lose more moisture than it can absorb. The soil
will be more uniformly moist with a covering too. Remember to squeeze as much
excess moisture out of the soil or moss before potting so the cuttings won't
rot. A handful of perlite will help even the moisture through the soil and
will help with aeration. I don't think the hormone in Rootone is concentrated
enough to be much help. Hormex powder (strength #30) or Hormex liquid (with
added B-1 vitamin) seems to work better. Typically, there will be a batch of
little bugs crawling through the soil after a month or two. These are
probably fungus gnats. These aren't considered harmful by most people but my
plants grow much better after any bugs are killed. I suspect these bugs feed
on the roots of the plant rather than exclusively on fungus. I like to use
Sevin powder for insecticide. It's used as a flea powder for pets so it's
fairly safe. You'll have more bugs using a soil with dead peat moss than if
live moss is used. If you see top growth, this doesn't necessarily mean you
have roots growing too - as many CPN articles state. I'd keep the plant
undisturbed and keep a baggie over it for a good five months. An old CPN
mentions the method of taking cuttings where a terminal tip is cut first, then
sections of the stem are taken below the cut after the dormant buds break and
a couple leaves have formed. This will take quite a while - 2 to 3 months of
waiting for only 1-2 plants each time. The good part is that you can take 1-
leaf nodes (1-leaf of the main stem, with the sprouting dormant bud) and the
success rate is a little higher. What I usually do is just let the stem grow
until the bottom leaves start dying then just cut the whole stem off. When
Nepenthes get to this size, there should be 3-4 stems growing from the soil so
the plant won't miss losing one. Once the bottom of a stem loses leaves and
turns woody, the chance of rooting that part of the stem goes way down. As
the lower leaves die at the same rate as new leaves form from the tip, the
usable length of stem that you can use to make extra plants remains constant.
It would be best to cut this stem as soon as you can so there won't be as much
useless woody part. The four-five leaf terminal tip is cut as above and the
rest of the stem is then cut into 2-3 leaf sections. The bottom of each
section is cut at an angle with a sharp knife, the bottom leaf is taken off,
and the other leaf/leaves are cut in half. If you have good weather there,
you really ought to try growing an extra Nepenthes plant outside and letting
it grow naturally up a tree. If you have the room, you can try growing two
plants of each species or hybrid. With one, you would use for propagation
and trade off cuttings in exchange for other species, or for selling. With
the other, you can put it in a large pot and let it grow into a huge
specimen plant, never cutting it back.
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Sarracenia:
S. leucophylla is just starting to grow its first trap leaves for the season!
Nothing but phyllodia till now. I have another one with wider red veins (most
growers think this shows S. rubra influence) that that has been growing trap
leaves for some time now. They both look healthy otherwise.
The Sarracenia seeds and seedlings Barry sent last spring are growing well.
Seedlings from crosses involving S. flava 'Maxima' are much taller than those
from other crosses.
Does S. alata 'biflora' refer to the plant whose flower is mostly green with
whitish petals? I have a plant like this that Michael sent to me a few years
ago. I didn't think it was that rare. Is the "typical" flower yellow for S.
alata?
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Drosera:
I had good germination from Allen Lowrie's seeds of "D. sp. (Auyan Tepui)".
These are about 2 cm. in diameter now and are not very interesting. Just
another rosette type that looks like D. capillaris.
D. graminifolia has promise. My plants are starting to grow semi-erect
leaves. These are still very small. D. chrysolepis looks great too.
How big does D. villosa get and how big does it need to be before it flowers?
My biggest ones are 10 cm in diameter.
Unfortunately, my D. hamiltonii still hasn't flowered. This produces lots of
extra rosettes from its roots. P. grandiflora hasn't flowered either, and
this plant is 10 cm. in diameter.
What is the difference supposed to be between D. occidentalis occidentalis and
D. occidentalis australis? Both have flowered this past summer but they look
identical.
Among my D. pygmaea, I found some unidentified pygmies - rosettes that look
identical to D. pygmaea. Like D. nitidula nitidula there are many flowers and
there are five white petals, but instead of the three spherical orange/red
stigmas these unidentified plants have four linear orange stigmas (looks
identical to the sexual parts from D. pygmaea flower). Is this another form
of D. nitidula, maybe D. nitidula allantostigma?
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Thomas Alt:
Has anyone bought in-vitro CP from Thomas? Did his address change in July?
Does anyone have a price list for his plants? Does he have N. rajah for sale
again? A previous e-mail message said he sold out of N. rajah several months
ago.
Are there any others who sell in-vitro CP? Andreas Wistuba never replied
to me and Robert is still waiting for Joquim Nerz. As Perry mentioned a few
days ago, our group purchase from Uwe Westphal is cancelled - he's taking
far too long to respond to a simple request.