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Hi,

as my plants do mature and start to climb, they normally do produce one single basal offshot. Exceptions from this rule were N. ventricosa, its hybrids and N. gracilis which did produce at least two. Other Nepenthes like N. fusca, N. carunculata, N. gymnamphora, N. talangensis, etc. do only produce one - and of course, I'd like to get more for experiments or trade.
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So, what are the reasons or factors for producing multiple offshots, do Nepenthes in the wild produce multiple offshots and will a Nepenthes immediately produce a new one after cutting of an existing one?

Joachim
 
Joachim
most of Nepenthes would produce multiple offshots after cutting.
Few of them at nature produce multiple offshots when they reach some hight but others has no shots just one long stem.
Arie
 
Joachim,

I finally have permission from my wife to purchase a rather expensive little container of plant hormones called 'keiki' paste. This is used by orchid growers to promote 'keiki's, or 'baby plants'.

I should have some by end of november, and will be experimenting on several plants. I will let all of you know how it turns out.
 
Hi Joachim, the main reason Neps do offshots is to well live and thrive!
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The one plant in the genus Nepenthes that is nortorious for this is N.Tobiaca regardless you cut it or not!
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But after a cutting even slow growers like Lowii,Villosa would most likely produce a basal shoot eventually.
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RamPuppy,I am interested in how all turns out in the KeiKi adventure.
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BTW, where are you buying it? (You can private messange me if need be.
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) Thanks!
 
If you don't wish to actually "cut" your plant, try just sitting it on a wooden wedge or something so the vine tilts at the soil line and leans over -the farther the better it seems. Perhaps this prevents enough of the auxins from reaching the main growing point and tricks the plant into believing it's lost it's top?
Both my khasiana x ventroicosa and alata x ventricosa  sag quite hard to one side  naturally due to several leaves on the opposite side not having made pitchers in the plants "youth" they produce a great many basal shoots!
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In fact the khasiana x ventricosa produced about 5-6 basal shoots since I got it in June, of course they're small (tallest pitchers on the basal shoots is 2" while the parent vine makes 4 1/2-5" pitchers). Also, I kept these two rootbound through summer so that may have something to do with it as well...?
 
Close Swords, you got the concept right ;>

Auxin is produced in rapidly growing meristem and young leaves/shoots. It promotes root growth and inhibits shoot growth. As it travels down the plant to the root system it inhibits lateral buds from initiating growth. Cytokinin produced in the roots travel up the plant and promote shoot growth. At some point as the vine grows taller, the effect of the cytokinin on dormant buds around the base of the plant will overcome the effect of the auxin and the lateral buds will break dormancy. Typically when you cut off the top the buds right below the cut will be the ones to break dormancy because the highest level of cytokinin is right at the cut point. I have also found that sometimes when more than one bud breaks dormancy the one lower down the stem will stop growing if a shoot above it noticably outgrows it. Probably an effect of auxin produced by the other new growing tip in halting growth in it's neighbor.

Keiki paste works by artificially raising the cytokinin concentration at the dormant bud in an effort to break it's dormancy. Whether or not the bud will continue to develop after the keiki paste wears off remains to be seen.

Bending the vine over or tilting the pot is an effective method as the auxin then settles in the lowest portion of the stem. This naturally works best on vines that are fairly long.

There are also other things to consider. Some plants just naturally produce more side/basal shoots while others don't.
Tony
 
my N. x Ventrata has one basal shoot, and another one coming. They are both coming from under the soil, not an axillary bud (or at least not one with leaves around it... It seems like its fromthe roots or something like that...). I was talking to Alan Bickell and he told me that if u can get the growth point below the level of the surface of the medium, it will produce an offshoot. Like Tony said, it's a more feasible practice with longer vines... My x Ventrata vine is about 30 cm tall, with a few more than twenty leaves, stading straight up, tied to a stake...
 
Hi,

thanks for all your replies! Arie's comment on wild plants and Tony's remarks concerning his experience of plants with multiple offshots are most helpful. It matches my experience that even when multiple offshots do start to grow in first place, only one will survive and does get big.

Bending over a plant won't help however, it'll still produce only one offshot due to the Auxin produced by this one. N. khasiana and N. mirabilis did also produce multiple offshots for me, so I would also put them to the group of "multiple offshot" Nepenthes. Keiki paste is not recommended from what I've found in German Orchid-forums, risk of loosing a plant seems to be very high.

What I'm going to do is to cut off the offshot off, when big enough for rooting. The next offshot should emerge soon due to the drop in Auxin levels - following the arguments of Tony. It will be interesting to see if the cutting continues to grow as fast as if it would do still attached to the mother plant. (Basal offshots do only need four to seven leafes to reach the size of mature plants from my experience.)

The logic behind Auxin and Cytokinin is also in line with my experiences with plants having two or more similar sized growth points. Those are extremely slow growing and only when one growth point takes over or the plant is divided they do really take up speed.

Joachim
 
Parasuco - Most likely what you are seeing is shoots coming from stem that is under the surface. Even on fairly young plants there will be some amount of stem material that is below the surface. Usually there will be roots growing from it. It is very common to have shoots develop from there as they are farthest from the auxin source and closest to the cytokinin source.

Joachim - Interesting observations as well. I suspect that if you remove the offshoot you will find it will develop more slowly as it will need time to build its own root system. Keep in mind that usually an offshoot can not only draw on the parents root system but any leaves remaining on the main stem. Perhaps by removing an offshoot when it is sufficient size for rooting and is still in the rosette stage, you can prolong the time before it reenters the climbing stage and upper pitcher production.

I will hypothesize also that a plant with two or more equally sized growing points does grow more slowly because cytokinin produced in the roots is now going to two or more shoot tips. Remove one and you increase the amount of the cytokinin traveling to the remaining growth point. Perhaps what might help is giving such a plant a larger room to grow roots, thereby giving it a chance to produce more cytokinin for both shoots. Of course one then has to be cautious of overpotting and root rot.
Tony
 
  • #10
I figurd that it was coming form the stem somwhere, I just puleld the moss down a bit to really see, it is down low though. But yea. I'm quite pleased! Hehehe...
 
  • #11
I guess that's why it's a good idea to regularly prune your plants
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  • #12
Hi I thought this might help somebody out.
Here's what my N.Ventricosa did when I cut it.
Circled in RED is the place where I cut the stem.
Circled in YELLOW are the new shoots, two near the cut and 1 basal rosette.

Picture%20559.jpg
 
  • #13
Very succinct explanations Tony.

There's a place I love in Brunei, Borneo where there's an enormous female bicalcarata growing on a roadside bank. She scatters her seeds oll over the surrounding area and there are literally thousands of seedlings and small plants within a small radius (not to mention some rather funky looking hybrids&#33
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. The grass in the 12' or so next to the road is regularly cut with a strimmer by the Government to a height of about 6". All the young Nepenthes in that area therefore get regularly decapitated. Firstly they turn into little bushes with every node growing. Then finally they give up trying to reach for the sky and produce horizontal runners rather like a strawberry, even though this phenomenon isn't usual in plants of that species.

So, the point is that regular pruning can produce really interesting looking compact plants. We now decapitate all our lowland species when they get too big to ship and end up with better plants as a result.

I've tried that Kiki Paste, but it didn't work for me.
 
  • #14
Beeee.... the bug. nick the growing tips! Thats just what everyone else was saying but simpler to read, lol.
 
  • #15
True.. although Nepenthes can be finicky and sometimes just nicking the bud off only produces a single new shoot. There might be other reasons for not wanting to keep cutting back a vine also.. Trying to get upper pitchers or flowers perhaps.
Tony
 
  • #16
Looking at my N. sanguinea today, I saw that it has THREE offsshoots forming. I don't know why though. I haven't even cut it yet. Guess it will be further ahead when I do cut it though
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