Re: pruning and dormancy

From: John Walker (jorwa@syspac.com)
Date: Fri Sep 19 1997 - 11:16:23 PDT


Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 11:16:23 -0700 (MST)
From: John Walker <jorwa@syspac.com>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg3606$foo@default>
Subject: Re: pruning and dormancy

At 04:36 PM 9/17/97 -0700, you wrote:

>Question: Do the plants instinctivly know when to enter dormancy or is =
>this a phase invoked by the change in temperature humidity and =
>barometric pressures brought on by the change of seasons? If the latter =
>is the case, what would be a safe method of invoking dormancy?
**********************************************************

>From what I've seen posted on the list it seems that a shortened photoperiod
and lower temps are what signal dormancy.

The first couple of years I pulled the vft's out of their pot, cut the
leaves off, and wrapped them in a moist paper towel. This then went into a
poly bag and was placed in the fridge. As this worked well for me I should
have stuck with it! This last year I just put the whole pot into the poly
bag and then put it in the fridge. I guess I had them to moist and I had a
100% loss of plants due to mold :( Moral of the story is to have the plants
just moist and not wet. I do not put my tropical plants such as Nepenthese,
Drosera capensis, etc. through dormancy

******************************************************
>2) Also, would it be safe to prune the dying leaves? The traps are =
>rather unsightly when turning black as they die. I've had several =
>people comment on the dying leaves. While most plants turn shades of =
>brown, I've found VFTs go from green to black and it looks rather =
>scary!!!
*******************************************************

Yes, you can remove the dead leaves.

**********************************************
>3) Will pruning the plants <VFT or Neps.> promote fuller, thicker =
>leaves on vines of Neps and wider larger traps on VFTs as it does with =
>non CPs???
********************************************

I have not found that removing leaves from vft's promotes fuller grouth.
Pruning the growing stems of Nepenthese will cause new shoots to start
growing below the spot that was pruned. It can also cause the plant to put
up new basal shoots.

Hope this helps,
John in Phoenix



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