Coloring

[leafedwellsofwater]

well, it finally happened.

my 20gallon long set-up with twin-tube shop light fixture pumping 80watts has been made dated.

i now have 33gallon breeder which is the same length as a 55gallon but shorter so the light is closer to my plants with satelite coral fixture with two compact flo. lights pumping 65watts each at 10000/7000 while decked with lunar lighting to impersonate the moon. decking the sides out in reflective materials and making a removable front piece so that the light can bounce around the terrarium while i am at work and be taken off when i come home.

not only do i have double the space but the coloring in some of plants have gone somewhat, out of control.

my n. x 'judith finn' is displaying brutal color with a peristome so purple that it's black while my n. hamata is looking more and more like that purple clone and my n. mikei is living up to it's colorful name with purple leaves and black pitchers and flamboyant throats.

should this occur? especially with my n. x 'judith finn'. i have never seen such coloring in one before and this happened almost overnight.

i will be posting pictures of my new set-up along with plant pictures soon. but now, i must go be a live nursery specialist at lowe's.

 

[Kirkscoastalcarnivores]

yay, i eagerly await the photos, hope evrything works out teejay

 

[leafedwellsofwater]

my new terrarium set-up

the brutal x 'judith finn'

another shot of it

the lighting isn't playing eye games, that's the color of the pitcher.  is this normal?  has anyone ever seen a judith with such dark coloring?

i don't know, tell me what you think.

is it possible i have a different hybrid of x 'judith finn' that reacts this way to the upper spectrum? if so, am i in the right to name it? i don't know.

 

[Kirkscoastalcarnivores]

wow very nice

 

[NepenthesMaster]

Sweet. I think you might want to get a less powerfull light though. You might be toasting the poor things...

 

[leafedwellsofwater]

i am pushing them slowly into the lighting.

an additional hour every day until they are going through a regular cycle with these lights, they are almost there and the rest are coloring up in the colors they should, it's just this n. x 'judith finn' changing so violently and the pitchers are still this color after another day and there is no signs of being burnt as the leaves would show signs, as well. the first that would go is the lid and it's still a nice green.

i must say this n. x 'judith finn' was from my first batch of seeds that germination when it comes to nepenthes and well, i think i might got something on my hands here that deserves a cultivar name unless this is not abnormal.

the leaves started to turn a bronze color awhile ago before i got the new lights similar to that of a n. ampullaria 'tayeve' where they grow an extreme bronze then fade to a bronzish emerald color, it's quite odd but i really don't know what to think except i think the lights have shown the true colors of seed-grown x 'judith finn'.

 

[rlhirst]

Hi T.J.
nice little settup you have there. Your Judith Finn looks fine. Your next leaves should be much smaller too. Most neps can take a lot more light than people think. I use the same technique to get my neps to turn envious shades of red and purple.
The trick is to see how close you can get them to the light before they show negative effects.  

Robin

 

[leafedwellsofwater]

so could this be a cultivar? i mean, for a judith finn to be basically black with bronzish red leaves when exposed to the upper spectrum...is that normal?

 

[rlhirst]

I'm not at all clear on the naming of cultivars. Perhaps Trent could help us on that question? However, I would not be so quick to try and give it cultivar status just yet. I would be willing to bet, that if you put several more Judith Finn just as close to your light, they would all look very similar in color to the one you have there. Very nice color though. The next challenge would be to see how small you can make the leaves relative to the pitchers.

 

[Trent]

Hi TJ.,
It certainly seems a distinctive trait, but will regular tc'ed Judith Finn do the same thing if put under your lights? Also, on the otherhand, will your clone of Judith Finn retain the extreme color if grown in sunlight. Once you've established a cutting from the plant and others have grown it and its unique characteric is proven stable, it may indeed be registered as a cultivar. You would not call it Judith Finn, however, even if it is the cross of spathulata x veitchii. You could name it after someone or give it a fanciful name.

Trent

 

[rlhirst]

Thanks Trent.
So who would you tell about this cultivar in order to make it official? Who keeps, and verifies "the list" of cultivars?

Robin

 

[Trent]

For carnivorous plant cultivars, registration is handled through the ICPS. A description must be published, along with illustrations (photos), and the IRA (International Registration Authority) form must be filled out. The ICPS handles all cp cultivars on behalf of the ICRA (International Cultivar Registration Authority), who handles all plant cultivars.
Orchids are different, however.
Robin, Nepenthes 'R.L. Hirst' is looking good!

Trent

 

[Tony Paroubek]

Color alone is generally a poor choice to consider a plant for cultivar status. Temperature, daylength, light levels can drastically alter the color.

A cultivar should also be from the description of a mature pitcher and plant. With Nepenthes I would also consider lower and upper pitchers if possible.


Robin the ICPS handles cultivar registration for cps.

Tony

 

[rlhirst]

Thanks Trent, and Tony.
Trent, that cracks me up. Glad to hear it's doing well. Guess I should look into making it official.  

Sorry for hoggin your thread TJ

Interested to see what your hamata ends up looking like.

Robin

 

[leafedwellsofwater]

perhaps cultivar was the wrong word.

i am not too sure because this plant has been definitely doing pressing forward to this for some time, the color of the leaves have been changing as it gets older, and the colors have been becoming darker, perhaps it's coincidence i added a new light fixture? i'm not too sure, a new pitcher has opened a few days ago and it's not colored yet so it's definitely not a "burning" result.

there are three plants in this pot doing all the same thing, from the same line of x 'judith finn' as well.

i'm just curious on a few things, not in reference to this plant persay.

in order to have the right to name a new variant in hybrid or a cultivar or anything of that sort do i need to be the one who had seeded it or processed it through tissue culture? or simply the one to describe it and name it first?

 

[NepenthesMaster]

Dunno, i guess if somebody created a cultivar and have ALL the seeds to you and you describe the new cultivar, you could claim it as your own.

It would be neat to do that. Or to create it yourself.

 

[Tony Paroubek]

Although there is nothing stopping you from registering a plant that someone else created, general consensus is to give that person the opportunity first.

 

[Trent]

It is recommended to get permission from the originator of the plant, and in fact, the origin of the plant is part of the registration process. Interestingly, you do not have to know the parentage, but if it is known, it should be part of the description process. The description should be as detailed as possible to point out the plant's uniqueness.

Trent

 

[philcula]

Although I'm not an expert on light spectrums or wavelengths I do know for a fact that flourescent lighting has a tendency to produce specialized colors that sometimes are un-achievable in natural lighting. For example...I recently obtained several plants of Ping. Pirouette that were the deepest, darkest pink I have ever seen on a plant. These were grown entirely under artificial lighting when I received them. These were placed in my very bright greenhouse and within 2 or 3 weeks they all lost the beautiful pink and turned completely green. I then put one under my light setup and within a few days it began turning bright pink again. I've grown hundreds of Nepenthes under my light setup which consists of 125W high output compact flourescent bulbs and they have always developed better colors than they do in the greenhouse.

I don't know what it is in the flourescent bulbs that brings out these colors or even triggers the plant to produce them but they always lose these especially vibrant colors when they are moved to or are grown exclusively in the greenhouse. Of course I have specific plants that retain their colors when grown in both conditions.These are mainly lowlanders and I don't know the reason for this. It is an observation I have made with many of my collegues who have similar growing arrangements. Their plants always have deeper colors under the grow lights and then either lose them completely or lessen them when moved to the greenhouse and are grown under duplicate foot candle exposure.

It would be interesting to see what your results would be if you moved these plants into natural lighting. If you retain the same characteristics then I would say you probably have a unique color form of spathulata x veitchii.

Has anyone else performed similar growing experiments or observed similar results when comparing artificial light grown vs. natural light grown?

Phil

 

[Amateur_Expert]

wonder why my post keeps getting cut out. something i said tony?