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Hi all,

As some of you may have read, I'm planning on figuring out if it is possible to switch the gender in Nepenthes plants. For this, I will need known males, as I will be attempting to switch gender from male to female. I'm doing this for the reason that not only are females more rare, but if this is possible, at least to change the gender of the inflorescence (and I do believe there is a very good chance of this), this information will ultimately help in the production of N. clipeata seed (clone 3 is a known male). I would use my own plants, but the only plants I have of known gender are female, which is not applicable to my experiment.

Therefore, I'm kindly asking for cuttings of known males. I don't care what species/hybrid it is. I don't care about anything really, save for the fact that it is alive and male. If you strongly suspect that your plant is about to flower, all the better. I have heard of a way to induce flowering in neps which apparently works well, so I should have some solid results within a year (I hope).

I will also be carrying out a similar experiment on my own lot of seed at early development to see what percentage of those plants will eventually become female. Unfortunately, that will take years to see if it worked, but again, if it works, 80% or more should end up being female. In this case, it would make the survival of threatened or extinct (in the wild) species much more feasible.

I would appreciate any help at all anyone can give. I'm not looking for a huge garden of plants to do this with, but will need at least a few, as I will be using different concentrations to hopefully find an "optimum".

If anyone decides to help, I will pay shipping.

Please PM me if you are interested in making a donation, or have any questions.

Thanks,
Ron
 
Your mission sounds very interesting - good luck with it and please let us know the outcome in the future.

Julie
 
Will do. If its possible to actually change the genders (fingers crossed), and i can switch 2 at once to have both sexes (fingers double crossed), I'll try and breed them to see if they are capable of setting seed.
 
Well, we learned how to change the gender of humans... I say go for it! :)
 
Be careful when handling that sex changing Chemical X. You don't want to get any on yourself. Or on your girlfriend.
 
Be careful when handling that sex changing Chemical X. You don't want to get any on yourself. Or on your girlfriend.

LMAO!

I have two x 'Miranda's, which are all known male as far as I know - and all sterile. Does sterile matter to the experiment? I could snip you some Miranda vine, if you'd like.

Let me know.

-Dave
 
schloaty,

I appreciate the offer, but I would rather not use a sterile plant. In this case there is something not "normal" with the genes/hormones regulating flower viability, and I wouldn't want to obtain false results. I'd hate to think the experiment didn't work when it really could've.
 
On Bob Z.s' Humbolt Cp photofinder site Nepenthes "Miranda" is not only fertile, but is a female parent in several hybrids of Hans Breuer.

Take care,
Steven Stewart
 
'Miranda' is a name many plants of the assumed hybrid (mixta x maxima) are called. the true 'Miranda' however is supposedly sterile. for example. the miranda x lowii that Hans has is actually (mixta x maxima) x lowii. Christian Klein made the hybrid...so he would know for sure.

Alex
 
  • #10
Yeah I think only the DeRoose miranda is sterile, but mixta x maxima is fine. You'd have to know the lab origin of your plants
 
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