Flowering neps?

[Aliamyz]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering.Will cutting the basals and pitchers of a nep will force it to flower?

Well,i'm doing this to my ventrata now and seems the leaves are getting longer and the stems are getting thicker too.

The plant is now 2 foot in height and still no flower.

Thanx!

[NepNut]

Ali,
Why rush things?? From my personal experience, induced flowering due to strees or using hormones/chemicals will only produce weak flowers especially on female. The seed pods produced this way will usually be smaller in size and might dry out even before it's ripe.

I don't have any exprience with pollen obtained using induced method, perhaps somebody have tried it before and can comment about the viability of those pollen? Thanks.

Anyway, flowering takes a lot of energy out of neps and it'll need time to recuparate properly from the stress.

[Aliamyz]

Rob,

I know neps do consume a lot of energy if they want to flower.So cutting the basals,side shoots and pitchers will help them save energy and finally flower.

What do you think?

[marvin1997]

But no photosynthesis?

[Aliamyz]

Originally Posted by marvin1997

But no photosynthesis?

Photosyntesis is done by the chlorophylls in the leaves and not the pitchers Marvin.

[NepNut]

IMHO induced flowering will weaken the plant and the seeds/pollen will probably be weak hence low germination rate. Just remember in nature, nep flower when the condition is ideal for factors like weather, health and maturity of the plant.

If the plant is not ready in the first place, by cutting away the pitchers, side shoots and basals, you actually cut down the nutrient intake of the plant even they still can photoynthesis. Be patient, when the plant is ready to flower, it will if the condition is right.

In the wild, in certain locality, I had seen N. ampullaria climb all the way up the forest canopy (~3-4m in height) before it flowered.

[kentosaurs]

Hi Ali.. Since we are in the topic of flowers...Hows your female gracilis doing??? Are the pods swelling??

[Aliamyz]

Still no sign on that Ken as this is my first attemp.I did correctly though.I will keep you updated.

[rsivertsen]

N. ventrata plants are nearly weeds as it is, and they will flower profusely when they're ready. You can fertilize them with a high phosperous (the third number in a fertilizer, NPK) fertilizer such as "Blosson Booster". You can also let the long stems hang over the sides of the pot so they hang down below their root ball. This will almost force basal growth. Some species seem to be more difficult to get to flower than others, and require a shift in temps combined with a change in daylength (photoperiod), but N. ventrata is not very difficult. Mine used to flower during spring. - Rich

[Aliamyz]

Thanx Rich.