Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 11:06:21 -0400 From: "Richard Brown" <esoft@ix.netcom.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2053$foo@default> Subject: Re:Sad Little Nep
Hi Angela, Perry, Tom and everyone,
Trent here in south Florida. Like Tom, I have a number of those clones from
the tissue culture lab here in Florida. Their N. madagascarensis is the most
vigorous I have seen. A number of them have bloomed (they are males). I
believe the secret to growing this species is not too wet. Bob has his plant
down by the evaporative pads, where temps are moderate and humidity
consistently high. I'm going up there within the next few weeks to check it
out in the middle of our heat wave
Perry commented:
>But no tissue culture lab is going to spend the effort for a hybrid,
>I think. _Species_ is the name of the game for TC work.
Not only not spend the effort on hybrids, but lose all the diversity of the
siblings. In my view, the single major flaw in tissue culture is the lack of
a gene pool. It would be nice if tissue culture labs would clone multiple
seeds of any one species. I know this is expensive and space consuming, but
it should be done more often. It would allow horticultural breeding of
species, taking pressure off collecting in the wild. Imagine if their were
ten different clones of N rajah or N. macrophylla available from a lab. True
fanatics would buy all ten clones (that would be most Nep nuts)!! From the
"ten" tissue cultured plants, odds favor male and female plants, so breeding
a rare species in cultivation becomes a realistic goal.
>I read with interest Johannes Marabini's informative posting on
>Nepenthes cultivation. Has anyone had any experience, good or bad with
>volcanic scoria. It is cheap & plentiful where I live (5 minutes from the
>quarry) & much favoured by many local orchid growers.
I use the large chunks as crocks in the bottom of the pot. All my Nepenthes
are grown with one third of the pot filled with the large grade lava rock,
same as Cattleya growers here and in Hawaii use. I have used smaller grades
as part of my mineral component in my Nepenthes mix, along with pumice. I've
been moving away from perlite, and more towards these "natural" components.
Enough for now. Gotta go.
Until later,
Trent Meeks
Pompano Beach
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