i more realistic statement is that some growers are ill prepared to deal with TC plants......ive got a dozen adult blooming Pings 2 to 3 inches in diameter with about that much for roots........does it mean they are ill prepared? no.....it means that they dont require much in roots for how i grow those particular plants which get their moisture from the localized high humidity and not directly from the soil.......the TC plants have grown what roots they need to live in TC conditions...."your" the one that chose to buy a plant fresh out of TC conditions and choose to try and grow it in something else.....there aint much trick to acclimating properly shipped TC plants...just brains enough to know sticking them in a tray along everything else as soon as you get them aint likely going to work.....i received 5 lowii with almost no roots 2 or 3 months ago.....all i did was put a ziplock tent over the pot and i still have all the plants alive, healthy and growing....and other than the tent they have received no special attention....i run into more problems with small seed grown neps than small TC....why? cause if yah grow alot of neps from seed your still going to run into runts and weak growers....just like any other plant....i see it in the veggies and fruits i plant in my garden and in the tropical plants i grow indoors....
Rattler, that is a very good point (sincerely). In fact, I'll have to revise my statement, because I didn't fully take that into account. It is safer to say that TC plants are ill-prepared to adapt efficiently to harsher conditions (after all, they are grown in 'perfect' conditions in-vitro until removal from TC), because they didn't need strong, healthy tissue in TC. They got their nutrients and moisture from the agar and ~100% humidity in their flasks. TC plants may not pose much of a problem to growers with a greenhouse(s), but growers without that luxury will very likely find them troublesome due to their lack of roots and resilient tissue. Of course, this applies for plants 'fresh' from TC, not the ones that are recieved hardened off well - those perform fine.
.....Whereas seed-grown plants have a root system that they've grown out and relied on for as long as they have been alive, so they have healthy roots and (likely) resilient leaf tissue that is adapted to <100% humidity. Therefore, they are easier to adapt to new, harsher conditions. For freshly-TC'd plants, anything outside of 'perfect' is harsher, and they may be able to adapt quickly to a certain degree, but nicely-grown SG plants can take much more.
Yes, there is the problem of weak SG individuals, whether it be by nature, or by the grower's hand. I've had a few pop up, one of which grew a round, conical green leaf rather than a proper cotyledon, and could not produce any more leaves because of that wonderful thing called natural selection. It happens. I don't purposefully send weak seedlings, because I don't take the time and effort to plot growth rates for each, etc. But weaker seedlings are bound to get distributed. That's why I am very generous in my seedling trades.
In summary, freshly TC'd plants are ill-prepared to adapt relatively quickly to new, harsher environments and to undergo rigors at the hands of growers than established SG'd plants, due to the differences in their tissue substanciality and propagation methods.
I started this thread to show off the nice roots of seed-grown Nepenthes, vigorous hybrids or not.
They amaze me, that's for sure. I really don't want to get into a TC vs. SG debate, but i think there's something to learn from growing Nepenthes from seed.