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U. reniformis

nepenthes gracilis

Nepenthes Specialist
Hi guys and gals, I've recently aquired U. reinformis 'giant' form and would like to know if any of your Utric gods would like to share any vital information or tips!

Thanks!
 
One tip - let me know when you have a start to trade
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Peter
 
Hey Dustin How are your plants. I forgot to bring mine in this winter. have to start over this spring.
 
I am far from being an expert in Utricularia, but here is a link I've found useful

Utricularia endresii and asplundii

I am following few on these statements with my plants (received last fall) and they are doing great. All mine are in pure LFS, and are not standing in water, but the mosses is humid. They are propagating easily with distilled water via leaf cuttings.
 
Hey Gasman, gotta keep them plants warm, specially with this past winter temperatures!

Tom, thanks for the link. As for the soil media and such, my U. reinformis is in peat and sand mix with 1 really large and thick/glossy waterlily like leaf pad. Tony did show me some of the underground traps and stolons just to show me the undergroudn developement in the "typical" carnivorous plant soil mix. I think i may transplant it to a living moss based media when it needs to be repotted.
 
Reniformis doesn't need the "pure" epiphytic conditions that are suggested for asplundii and endresii. I believe that it grows in general detritus on the ground in the wild. It will grow quite happily in a wide range of mixtures. I use a mix of live moss, peat and branded orchid compost in about equal parts, with a handful of sand and perlite thrown in (try and imagine "loose forest floor" and then do your best
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). Mine is in a 10" round waterlilly basket.

It can take minimums of 40F, but loses its leaves under about 50F, when it should be kept drier. There is no summer dormancy. When in full growth it could be stood in water, but I find the fleshy stolons can be prone to rot and prefer to water it overhead once a day, the same as all the other "epiphytes" I have. It wants good light, but not too much in the way of direct summer sun.

Best wishes.

Rob.
http://www.rob-rah.com
 
Hi Rob, Thank you for the great advice! When I transplant it I'll probably use an orchid mix, mostly of sphagnum, peat moss, and some perlite and orchid bark. Um how do you know when its time for dormancy? Thanks
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Reniformis doesn't require a dormant period. It will grow quite happily with your highland neps all year. It has no true dormant period in the wild.

However, some people believe that flowering is encouraged by allowing it to go dormant over winter. This would be as a response to a type of stress, rather than replication of natural conditions. In NY, you could just allow the temperatures to drop naturally as winter approaches and the plant will do what it wants by itself (bearing in mind not to let it freeze). It will start back into growth when the min temp rises to about 10C, which you could do artificially as and when you fancy seeing leaves again. Don't overwater it while dormant, and don't let it get stale in summer. I really don't recommend standing it in water.

I would suggest growing the plant on without dormancy until you have enough of it to divide up. Then see how some pots of it respond to different regimes, keeping your backup.

Best wishes.

Rob.
http://www.rob-rah.com
 
  • #10
Rob, thank you very much for the informative replies! They've really helped. It gets to around as a low of 10 at the elast to 15 at the most degrees C in my greenhouse at night. So i assume it should grow fine. Unless of course it shows signs of wanting to go to sleep that is. I will see how it goes.
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  • #11
I just want to add a small adendum to Rob's comments. I have my clone of this growing in my sunporch where temps have dropped below freezing a couple nights and the plant has suffered no ill effects (i.e. the leaves are still present) so long as the day time temps rise enough
 
  • #12
To all (especially Rob),

Here is yet another chapter of my never-ending crusade to disassociate U.reniformis from the epiphytic Utrics...

Unfortunately in the past, popular CP books lumped U.reniformis together with epiphytic Utrics simply because of its size. It's true that there are 2 epiphytic species in its section (Section Iperua): U.nelumbifolia (exclusively epiphytic) and U.humboldtii (optional epiphytic). The 2 other species in its group (U.nephrophylla and U.geminiloba) are only known to grow as terrestrials.

As for U.reniformis, I do not tire to say that 99.999% of the times it is TERRESTRIAL!!! The only case I know of where it was growing anything close to epiphytic was when a friend found some growing among dead leaves surrounding the base of a large terrestrial bromeliad.

And for anybody wanting tips on cultivating this species, I'll repeat what I've said before: it's a very widespread species and it grows from sea level to nearly 3000m altitude, in boggy soil or nearly dry sand, from pure moss over rocks to coastal habitats which may be slightly salty, in alcaline to acidic conditions -- you name it, and it's there!

So it would probably be best to ask WHERE they come from when somebody offers you plants. At least one thing they ALL have in common is a winter dry season. Since most are seen in flower in the winter, one can guess that either dry stress or photoperiod are responsible for flowering, but my field observations suggest its dry stress.
 
  • #13
So a winter rest period should be achieved with dry conditions. And this should be around the same time US. Sarracenia would go dormant I assume?
 
  • #14
Thanks for the infos Fernando, they are very appreciated, as usual
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, and I will (try to) ban the idea that this plant is epiphytic in my mind
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  • #15
Thanks for that Fernando - I knew that it wasn't epiphytic, but didn't fully grasp the wide range of soils it could be found in.

Do you know what the winter temperatures are where it is found? I have never tried an enforced dry winter dormancy without an associated temperature drop (which for the clones I have had was the initiaiting factor for the dormancy).

Cheers.

Rob.
www.rob-rah.com
 
  • #16
It would be really difficult to give you winter temperatures because it grows from steamy sea level to almost 3000m where it probably even gets snow once in a while. So it really depends on where your plants come from I guess. I'm not sure I'd say it has a winter dormancy, although they may slow down some in autumn and winter. Usually the species in Section Iperua seem to grow like mad during early spring to early summer.

Fernando
 
  • #17
So, U. reniformis is pretty easy going? And the summary I am getting is that you don't want to sit it in water up to the rim of the pot like other Utrics are sometimes grown?
I just got one from Tony(thanks, Tony).
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Regards,

Joe
 
  • #18
I have a plant of one of the small reniformis forms which I grow as an aquatic, and have done for quite some time. It has the main stolons submerged, with some Sphagnum but mainly (rather dirty) water. It grows leaves & flowers OK and goes dormant in winter the same as the ones I grow terrestrially. There is a little bit of stolon rot, but I think mainly of the older portions and mostly they remain healthy. Remember that this species is extremely closely related to U. nelumbifolia - the small form looks superficially more like my nelumbifolia than the large form of reniformis, in terms of general habit. U. nelumbifolia is an aquatic epiphyte - which I don't think can be really compared to a tree-growing species like alpina or endresii - so I don't see why U. reniformis shouldn't do well in similar conditions.

Giles
 
  • #19
This is fascinating! Maybe the trick is just to try various things until you find what suits your form and other growing conditions.
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Rob.
www.rob-rah.com
 
  • #20
I sure don't wanna put anyone off cultivating this species! Surely it would be best to know where the original plants came from, but fortunately it's an easy one to grow.

It does also grow in really wet boggy places, usually near running water. In regards to the comparison with U.nelumbifolia, even this species seems to prefer growing in the outer leaves of bromeliad rosettes, where they're usually kept humid, but not soaked in water. In fact, it only seems to flower when pushed to the outer layers of leaves, where the water has dried up (that is, there's no more pool of water). This is in a way a water stress I guess, which is what probably triggers it into flowering.
 
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