Nep flower hand pollination
 

This is a short pic illustration on how I did manual pollination for my female neps. If you have a better method and idea, please feel free to share. Thanks. :smile:




Female nep flower. Points to remember :

• Not all flower will open at the same time. Usually flower open and become receptive in stages, from bottom of the stalk. The whole process might take about a week or more for all the flowers to open fully.

• 3 signs to show when the stigma is receptive for pollination

1. the stigma (green bud) will look glistening green or shining green
2. there will be a fragrance (sort of like pandan leaves smell)
3. the female flower petal/sepal is fully opened

Please take a closer look at the pic
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/875/seed1.jpg




Pollen application - In this case, a twig was use to apply the pollen.

• I usually repeat the pollination process once a day for 3 consecutive days (3 days just to make sure but not neccessary) when the female flowers become receptive.
• Avoid pollination before you water your plants as the water might flush away the pollen from the stigma. Same thing might happen during rainy weather.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/7932/seed2.jpg

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/5429/seed3.jpg

Successful pollination - you will see the stigma turn black color and the body (fruit) will enlarge.
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9651/seed4.jpg

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/4410/seed5.jpg

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/5593/seed6.jpg

Hope this help. Thanks for viewing. :smile:

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Boss, you are the best!!!!

Thanks for sharing!!!!

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Boss, don't say like that lar... :shy: Just trying to encourage more people to make their own species/hybrid cross :smile:

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

How I wish my flower for me... Male/female I dont mind... :crying:

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Thanks!!this makes me want my nep to flower.my nep nvr flower for me.

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Nepnut,hw long does it take for the stigma to turn into seed pods ready for harvest?

if it rains,pollination fails?it means i need to move my nep somewhere else when pollinating

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Your the man... now im eager for one of my neps to flower... just to give this a try.

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

also,mind if i spread this link to other websites?

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Hard to say, perhaps ~ 1 month?? The seed pods will turn to dark brown color when it's "ripe". I usually wait for one of the seed pod to split open before I know for sure all seeds are almost ready to be harvested.

I guess it's ok, if you just post the link. :smile:

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

of course just the link.im not gonna copy it and paste it xD

so i must put my nep away from rain for 1month?

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Be patience, if the plant is healthy and mature, grown in the right condition, it'll eventually flower... :smile:

Thanks, hope you'll get the chance to try soon. :smile:

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

so i must put away my nep from rain if in pollination?

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

wow, interesting...hope there's a female flower around...by chance...gracilis give the the biggest hope as all other's never seems to be flowering any time soon apart from the campa...

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Just think, if wild nep couldn't be pollinated sucessfully, won't they be extinct by now?? :smile:

What I'm stating is just so the odds of pollination is better (to avoid pollination before watering) since most of the time, we only have very limited amount of pollen available to be use.

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

owh....i understand.thanks!

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Great instructions and pics Robert!
I'd like to add that I wait until most of the pods have split. To not loose so many seeds falling out of the pods I'll make my flowerspikes a bit more sexy and put on some stockings when the first pods are starting splitting :biggrin:

http://www.3ddart.com/neps/neps_in_stockings_01.jpg

http://www.3ddart.com/neps/neps_in_stockings_02.jpg


Edit:
I thought I'll share two pics of my crazy female N. spathulata. It has put out at all 20 flowerspikes in the past two months:

http://www.3ddart.com/neps/spath_flower_01.jpg

main vine climbing at the ceiling of my basement:

http://www.3ddart.com/neps/spath_flower_02.jpg

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

wow...it look so sexy....btw, are the cloth are socks????!!!:confused:

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

yes ... nylon socks ... I should have taken fotos when I used better looking stockings ... the black ones or so *biggrin2*

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

wow....i can imagine what it will be when you remove it, imagine, black socks with a lot of fur.......:spinning:

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Thanks for sharing the "riping" part of the seeds. :1thumbup:

I also noticed some of my female nep will produce a few flower stalks in one go but I found the seed pods produce under this condition tends to be smaller in size. I guess it's logical since flowering process drain a lot of energy from nep and if there's more than one flower stalk, the limited enegery will have to be divided. That's my humble opinion... :smile:

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Yes ... I agree ... I was also thinking to cut some of the flower stalks. One of the already pollinated stalks stopped developing already. But I think that had another reason because this stalk was directly in the way. So I always touched it while walking in the room. Other pollinated stalks are developing fine atm.

I had this once before on the spathulata with five flower stalks and cared a bit more for the plant. I gave it some more vitamins, fertilizer and microorganisms. Also I watered the plant a bit more often. All 5 stalks developed well and produced viable and germinating seeds.

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Still have bad skill in nepenthes, hopefully someday i will be able to have my nep flowering, btw, what is your nepenthes hybrid that you going to make?

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

that's often not a question of your skill. That's more likely the age of the plants.
I've already pollinated with talangensis x boschiana, veitchii, truncata (8 months old pollen) and bicalcarata (9 months old pollen). The next opening pods will be pollinated with campanulata x veitchii, boschiana and ventricosa x xiphioides.
It'll be very interesting if there'll be success with this old pollen. Fingers crossed.

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

wow....impressive......can i get my hands on them?*biggrin2**biggrin2*

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

edmund bring up 1 of topic regarding collecting "sperm".

Now, I bring up "ahem..." threa... wakaka

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

hahahah ...

lets happy pollinating...

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

My Mixta and indah are about to send flower spikes this week. Its my very 1st time to see my neps in flower. *biggrin2*
I hope its a male and a female though. I hope to cross them.
This site is really very informative. Thank you much for sharing the infos.

Re: Nep flower hand pollination
 

Great work.
Thanks for the tips :1thumbup: