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Joseph Clemens

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Below you will see an image taken this morning (Friday, 7Feb03) of three different Pinguicula. The front row in the little red pots are what I call my "Mother Plants". Behind them are slightly larger (3 inch), green pots containing propagations produced from the "Mother Plants". After the image I will explain the story.


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These three plants were offered to me and I gladly accepted them. What I like to do whenever I get a new plant is to immediately use it to propagate others. This is my, "Prevention". For me, without this "Prevention" there can be bitter medicine (the loss of the original plant) and now I have no replacements
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and I have dishonored the person who sent me the plant.

How I do, what I do:

1. Upon receiving the plant(s) I carefully unpackage them.
2. If they were sent in a sealable plastic bag, I simply place some just slightly damp Sphagnum moss, long-fiber dead, into the bag. If they did not come with a sealable plastic bag I use a new zip-loc sealable plastic bag.
3. I prepare a fresh pot of 100% thoroughly leached peat moss for the "Mother Plant".
4. I then carefully and gently remove nearly all of the leaves on the "Mother Plant" leaving one or two leaves that are nearly mature and the leaf that is usually just emerging from the crown/center of the plant.
5. I then plant the "Mother Plant" deep in her own pot but just place her gently into a depression in the peat moss and I do not pack the moss around her base, but simply use a spray bottle of pure water to wash her into her media/substrate. I keep all of my plants in shallow trays of pure water --- 24/7/365. Even the Pinguicula which form underground "bulbs". I rarely ever have any loss whatsoever.
6. I sprinkle the detached leaves over the surface of the Sphagnum in the sealable plastic bag and then seal it and place it between pots on the shelves. It does get good light here but not as directly as the plants in pots.
7. I check the leaf cuttings several times per week, and as soon as they have gotten to the stage where small plantlets have formed, I move them onto the surface of a pot with their own peat moss media. I then keep the newly begun plantlets in their community pots in larger zip-loc bags that are sealed, but directly situated to receive good light. After they have rooted well I remove them from the zip-loc/plastic bags and keep them side-by-side with the other Pinguicula.
 
Taking cuttings is a very good way to insure against the lost of the plant in a person's collection(or even in cultivation). Usually, the leaves detach from Pings I receive in shipping(the plants can be quite fragile). I use these as cuttings. The year before last year, I remember taking at least 30 cuttings from my P.xGeorge Sargent. Last year I ended up with lots of this fast growing moranensis var. caudata x gypsicola hybrid, which I shipped to a dozen growers.
 
A very effective demonstration, thanks for the lesson! I think it is important to propagate as well as have a plant. I feel in part your success is due to the very clean conditions that you generate by leaching the peat. Do you have a way of dealing with fungal attacks when and if they happen?
 
If I don't want to disturb planted plants, can I remove a leaf close to the base with a razor blade, or must I have some of the whitish tissue?
 
It would be best to pull the leaves to include the whitish tissue, although cutting the leaf might also work. About 2 months ago, the glass lid of one of my terrarium fell into the terrarium and cut off some leaves(without the base) of my P.ehlersai. I placed these on the soil of my mother plant, and they grew a dozen tiny plantlets.
 
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Do you have a way of dealing with fungal attacks when and if they happen? [/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

Rinsing the plants thoroughly with pure water from a spray bottle, then submerging them in pure water for a day or two. If I actually lose one plant, I generally just clean out its pot and put the old media in a bin to be pressure sterilized and recycled. Then I plant a new one of the same kind into the old pot from my cache of propagules.

I have very rarely ever had anything like that happen, usually my only loss of plants has occurred due to my own laziness (misbehaviour).

I also have powdered sulfur, but I've never used it.
 
Applause, Pingman! The plantlets are so pretty...and only to scroll down to see their beautiful mums...
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Thanks for showing us the way to propagate pings.
 
First I will preface this by explaining that I have not recently been fortunate enough to attempt growing CP under natural light. So all my advice is strictly slanted to growing under artificial light (specifically fluorescent).

Well, I almost forgot to mention what I have found to be one of the most important factors in growing CP, especially Pinguicula indoors, under lights. That is LIGHT. Pure and simple. I use as many 4 foot fluorescent lights as I can fit above the shelves and position them as close to the plants as possible (usually within 3-4 inches). Then I keep the lights on for at least 15 hours per day using some digital timers. I run the lights from 6pm until 9am (15 hours) at the present time. I have run the lights for as much as 20 hours with no visible adverse effect.
 
  • #10
Just an odd question, why the inverse photocycle? Are you a major night owl?
 
  • #11
Pingman,

Thanks for the ping prop article! I will have to try the lfs and ziplocs. I've tried with limited sucess in regular peat moss with natural light. Artificial tends to do something funky to my pings, they lose all of their dew despite increased humidity to compensate. Since you're in Arizona and I'm in S. California, do you ever worry about the heat inside those ziplock bags? It can get up to 100 in my house during the summers.

Oh, what I like to do to pull off the leaves (so I don't have to dig up the mother plant) is to gently use the blunt handle end of my tweezers to pull the leaf down while holding the tip of the leaf by either pinning it down to the soil with my finger or just holding it. The end of my tweezers are flat and about half an inch across, like a popsicle stick but thinner. Less scary than using a razor or digging up roots.

And is this the reason for the inverse photocycle? Less heat during the night?
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  • #12
I use the inverse light cycle due to heat of lights added to heat of day. In the Summer I run the A/C during the day and I don't want to pay to remove the heat I generate intentionally. In the Winter the night heat from the light fixtures helps ensure that the plant room does not get colder than it should. Here in the Winter we choose not to run the heat at all (waste of money). So it is a benefit both in the Summer and in the Winter to have the lights on during the night.
 
  • #13
Hmm, good idea. I thought of that a few months back when I put in the terrarium, but I tend to open the blinds and windows after the morning sun passes so they're used to a very indirect natural cycle in the terrarium. The rest are on my desk by another window in that room.

I do like having the ultrasonic fogger and lights on at night, it's great to wow the guests and relax. Probably would keep me awake if I have the terrarium (computer) fan on though
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  • #14
hi Pingman,

recently i've acquired a small hybrid (zech x rot), of about 1/2" dia.  i hate to lose this beauty and naturally i want to take a few leaf cuttings as soon as i can.

im wondering if its okay to take cuttings from such a small plant.

and if you remember what your record smallest size that you took leaf cuttings from is
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  • #15
Yes, I also wondered about the size of the cutting.

Well, I took two cuttings after reading this thread, and both have small plants coming out of the base.

What I did was go to the local dollar shop, buy a package of those cheap plastic containers, fill it half full with wet peat put the two leaves on top with a small bit of rooting hormone, and put the lid on.

Thanks for the idea, and again I'd like to hear the smallest size any of you have ever done.
 
  • #16
Here's what one looks like now, it will be fun to see how many I get.

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  • #17
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">hi Pingman,

recently i've acquired a small hybrid (zech x rot), of about 1/2" dia. i hate to lose this beauty and naturally i want to take a few leaf cuttings as soon as i can.

im wondering if its okay to take cuttings from such a small plant.

and if you remember what your record smallest size that you took leaf cuttings from is [/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

Ken,

Yes, I would. I have found that the size of the leaf only regulates the size of the plantlets produced and how quickly they grow even larger. One note of caution: my experience has shown me that smaller leaves are even more sensitive to the environment they are kept in (i.e. they rot quickly if kept too wet, and dry out quickly if not humid enough).
 
  • #18
thanks pingman for the advice.

i've taken 3 leaves and see how they go on sphagnum in a ziplock bag.  ill do everything i can to make it work!  over the years ive learned sometimes failure is a necessary step in successful plant growing.  i just hope that's not the case this time
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