Re: Flowering neps?
I never used any plant hormones, or deliberately induced any stress to force them into flowering. I found that the seasonal shift in temps and day length was usually enough to get them to produce flowers for me anyway, provided that the plants were mature enough, and well rooted. They also seem to respond well to some fertilizers, especially those high in the middle number (phosphorous), and with trace minerals, (and those without urea) when the plants are in full growth. Fertilizing them when they're resting, or recovering from transplant shock and stressed is dangerous, and may even kill them. The seed was always very strong and viable, especially the N. ventrata.
This year, I put the N. ventricosa (porcelain form) outside in full direct sunlight for the early part of the morning by my driveway, nestled in the lawn after the risk of frost was gone, some time in late April. I just took it inside, and stuffed this monster inside a 4 foot long chamber in my basement nearly all by itself, (where it will spend the winter under lights at a 14 hr photoperiod), and noticed that one of the 2 foot-long stems is producing a flower spike! This is the first time I have ever seen this plant flower! I hope I can get some pollen of perhaps N. veitchii or some other wide peristome Nepenthes to pollinate it! It would be even better if I got some pollen of another N. ventricosa just like this one, which can produce pitchers about a foot tall! I wonder if the full spectrum of direct sunlight (without any glass) may have given the plant some wavelength in enough intensity to induce flowering. In all the years (about 50+ years!) that Longwood Gardens has grown this plant under glass (some really huge monster plants too!) and myself and others who has grown this plant for well over 20+ years, and let the stem grow up to about 6 ft or so, it refused to flower for us, until now! - Rich
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22nd September 2009, 01:42 PM
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