Vining Nepenthes Can I see yours?

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Hello everyone. I would just like to see how some of you guys/gals that allow your nepenthes to vine do it. I have a ventrata that is starting to vine and want a support system for it to allow it to continue to vine, but yet still pitcher. Since I know the vine needs to be supported for the plant to allot itself to pitcher. I am just looking for ideas please and would love to see pictures of other vining nepenthes to boot. Thanks everyone.

 

[elgecko]

I have some of my neps in hanging baskets. I have 2' in extentions from the ceiling. I use clips for orchid flower stalks, circled in red, to hold the vine up.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Elgecko do your plants still picher on the higher leavs of the vine??

Nice plants you have there BTW.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Come on guys I know some people let their nepenthes vine, and have some sort of neat trelis(sp) setup for them to climb onto.  I am looking for ideas.  I have a ventrata climbing and want to see how others accomidate their vines.

 

[Clint]

Tomato cages! Then you can say you keep your plants behind bars.....

 

[elgecko]

Most neps like to have something to grab a hold of when making pitchers further up the vine.

 

[Capslock]

You don't have to support the vine for pitchers to form. If anything, the tendrils like something to wrap around, but some plants have vines hanging straight down. Check out this pic I took at the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco a while back:

Capslock

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Interesting Thanks Capslock. I knwo this ventrats though will stop pitchering if it doesn't have somthne to grab onto. I will try to take a picture of it tomorrow, but I like to use long wire hooks to hang my pots with, and this one is hanging on to the pot hanger now and going up. The tendrals have wrapped therselves around the wire but its gotten past the hanger end and still going. Its a little ro ridged to turn it back around on itself and I don't want ti to get unsightly, or wrap around something I don;t want to too. Everyone by now should know I like well groomed plants. LOL Thanks for ideas. I will get a picture up tomorrow.

 

[Hans Breuer]

For the smaller vines, I use orchid clips, the larger ones I tie to the greenhouse structure with loosely tied wire. If the plants are very heavy, I use S-hooks for extra support. Here's my largest one, a ventrata, attempting to cross the greenhouse...

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Thanks Hans. I see that the last part of the vine just has tendrals and no pitchers. Thats what I am trying to avoid. I rieved a LARGE ventrata, I posted a picture of it, and it had stopped pitchering. It had a few vines that swung down and back up to the pot, but no pitchers. So if this is an older picture and it has pitchers now then Awesome. Once I get the GH rebuilt I might let it do something like that. Maybe putting it against some heavy gauge fencing or something for it to grab onto. Thanks everyone!

 

[Hans Breuer]

Quote[/b] (JB_OrchidGuy @ Sep. 09 2006,6:00)]I see that the last part of the vine just has tendrals and no pitchers.

True, but the lower part has 50 or so pitchers, and so will the "scouting" front end in a few weeks. With this plant, the front end never pitchers. Once it's become the middle, it does.

I also have a six foot khasiana x mixta that makes huge pitchers all the way from root to top (will try to take a picture tomorrow). Guess it very much depends on the plant.

 

[Clint]

It's a confusing concept, for me atleast, to explain in words.

What he means is the tendrils stay dormant for quite awhile untill your plant grows a bunch of new leaves, then the old dormant tendrils start to activate.

Lets say you have a ten foot plant, the top 3 feet have no pitchers. when the plant grows to 13-15 feet, the 3 feet of vine i mentioned before will be growing pitchers while the new growth has dormant tendrils still. when it grows some more, those too will activate and grow pitchers.

Hans is right, it depends on the species (and to a lesser extent, the growing conditios)

I feel like I'm rambling (pun not intended).

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Thanks Clint, but I got what Hans was saying.

My IQ is slightly larger than 10. LMAO just picking Thanks for looking out for me.

 

[Clint]

Ahem excuse you, it's 11.5 , I'll have you know.

Lol seriously it took me awhile to get what he was saying hehe.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Thats cool I am just raggin ya bro.

I think different than alot of people and I probably would have said it like Hans said it too so I got it the first time I read it.

 

[Drosera36]

I suppose if you really don't want to buy anything, you can just find a really long, relatively thick stick, and tie your plant to it as it climbs along. Or, make some moss poles or buy some.

-Ben

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Interesting. I will post a picture of what I come up with after the GH project. I just got phase one almost complete. Once I move out all the plants I can start on phase two. The GH reconstruction.

 

[Clint]

Why don't you sell the old?

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

The old GH? Because I built it from scratch and its nor worth anything but some PVC and 2x4s The plastic if gone. I didn;t use GH plastic. Plus some of the 2x4s are warping. I didn;t build a header and brace it like I should. The next will be awesome though.

 

[Cindy]

You can let the vine go all over the place with any support and yet it pitchers. How? Just hook the latest two tendrils together. I do that with N. gracilis, N. mirabilis, N. ventrata, N. albomarginata and N. x Emmarene. Not only does it help the pitchers to form, the pitchers formed are larger than those formed in the air i.e. tendrils being free hanging.