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Remember how I descoverd letting the soil dry out and putting a Nep into the dark for a few days seems to trigger a new shoot to form? Yah, the N. ventricosa and the N. sanguinea that I abused by mistake this fall when I ran out of water and then forgot they were in clear plastic trays and started watering the terrarium floor so they stayed dry. And then they BOTH made new shoots. Yah remembering now? If not then uh welcome to the experiment... anyhow, this sparked the question, if you do this to get a new little shoot and then immediatly chop the top off of the origenal parent vine does it produce another new shoot and then fork from the top of the old one like they usually do, or does it not bother with a new shoot because it had just started one?

...Of course, right as we were asking this question, my mom was hard at work, droping the lights on my N. ventricosa, severing it's growth point... Ta da, now we get to find out what happens I say, and that is were I left you all last....

Drum roll please....

Little Gulp, my N. ventricosa, has begun swelling the auxilery(sp?) growth points were the tip snaped off. Only the first one has swelled, but I figure the hormons haven't built up to trigger the lower one just yet, but probublu will... so this is like normal.... but what is also like normal, AND SUPER AWSOME is that is had just pushed up A BRAND SPANKING NEW shoot
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Yup, the secret to moving from 1 to 3 ...er 4 if the old shoot forks I guess... growing points in almosy no time is out! Horray!

So, now all we need are a few more brave voluntears to intentionally cause their Neps to wilt slightly while in lower light so the poor things don't burn, bringing them back, leting the new sprout immerg and grow till it has a baby trap (just precaution). Then prune plant as normal and see of you get a second new shoot to pop up!
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think of the time this could save in getting bushy plants. I still wouldn't stress the plant untill it was ready for it's next pruning, but even then it cuts the time in half
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This would also be good for people who want to propigate their plants, but want multipull shoots at the same time, now they don't have to choose, they can do both
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....Theory: Why this happens....

Background storey...maybe I should polish this into a childrens book... it starts to sound like one, lol:

Many plants have an interesting survival mechanism. Proticularly those that must compeat for both light and moisture. It has long been known that many trees, proticularly hardwoods (I'll use oak as an example), do not go insain making large new shoots from there roots like Aspens or Poplers(sp?), but that insted use their origenal sprout to send out roots every which way. The next spring, every single location the roots hit that warms a little extra (indicating light) burst forth with a tiney new stem. This stem is just as puney as the first years, but hopefully it can get enough light to again send roots every which way. Over the course of many years a massive root system divelopes. What looks like several dozen oak seedlings are actually the young shoots of a plant that could be hundreds of years old. The Oak plants hope is that some day, a tree will fall and that a large area of light will immerge. Then it must race with the Aspins and other softwoods. Normally, these trees overshadow each years little sprout, making it useless the next. But the oak has been waiting. It's massive roots feel a large area of warms. It take all the reasources it's been saving for years, decades, maybe even centuries and sends a chosen spout skyward at amazing speed. The normally slugging sprout burst past the aspins who only grow to a set hight regardless of the location of the light. Soon they are surprised to find that their light has been shut off. How did that happen? Surely the weekling oak could not have had the reasources to out grow them, but the oak had the reasources, because it did not squander them as the aspin had... At first the oak is tall and extreamly skinny, with mearly a tuft of leaves up top, but the next year it grows larger, and larger... it drops it's highly acidic leaves on the ground. The Aspin real as the PH of the soil changes, some fall and the oak sends up more shoots. Eventually, an entire oak forest forms... a forest... a plant... a very patient plant.


Okay, so how does this relate to the Neps. Same basic concept. By stressing the plant a little with less light and less water it starts to look for a new location to grow from because oviously something has happend to it's current one. But it is in a pot, so it's not exactly going anywere...
When I put my plants back into proper growing conditions, they were so focussed on finding a new part of them that could get proper resources that they instantly feel that they have had great luck and must send up the new shoot in this newfound location... which is still in the pot but they don't know that. And what is this? My goodness, the origenal shoot is has been liberated from it's turmoil as well. Excelent! Now they feel they can keep the shoot and keep growing from it and oh yah, might as well go with the new one since it is also in a nice spot. All seems well and then, AH! the tip of the bigest shoot brakes. Gosh darn it all, now they are in a dangerious area, better find a new spot to sprout from, oh this seems nice. Hey, that old stem is still usable, they'll just pop out a few new buds and that will work just fine.... oh wait they already had a back up shoot that was forgotten... oh well, it's already started so might as well go with it......

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Plant logic good.
 
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