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Light levels/temps for rooting Nepenthes cuttings

Hello all,

Up till now I've mostly grown American CPs but recently came by some nepethes cuttings. Not sure which species, but I think pretty basic ones like N. ventricosa and N. rafflesiana. Again, not sure.

Just was wondering how best to root them. I have them in high humidity in a white bucket with a lid outdoors, in LFS and perlite, in the shade. The bucket helps lower light levels and cool things down. That's how things currently stand but I was wondering if there are more optimal conditions.
 
theres alot of different ways to do nep cuttings...

almost every person on this forum has their own special recipe, somethings work for someone but may not work for another. it takes expirementation with your conditions to figure out what'll work best for you...

When I tried rooting a nep cutting in LFSM I ended up losing it, so far now I've done mine in just in water and i've had 100% strike rate... but some people will lose everything they put in water... i dont really know how to explain it...?

-Chris
 
I've had almost 100% using a mix of LFS, perlite, vermiculite, peat in a 3:1:1:1 respectively. I slit the base of the cutting upwards about 8cm with two cuts directly up the center in cross section a shape like:+ I then let the cuttings sit in rain water for a few minutes and finally dip the wet base of the stem into Rootone or similar rooting hormone powder. I make sure to cut the bottom leaf nearest to the cutting base off completely and when I dip the cutting in hormone I cover the first node where I cut the leaf off with hormone. Finally, I plant the cutting in the above media making sure the first node up from the base is below the surface without disturbing the hormone powder (now all over the base of the cutting plus the first node) as much as possible. I place in humidity above 60 under artificial bright light. This works well for me and the roots seem to explode out of the cuts fairly quickly with node activation not far behind.

Like Chris said everyone does it different. I've seen folks that have good results just dropping the cuttings in water with good light. I've also heard of people having luck in the dark?
 
I've just cut the first layer of the stem off on the bottom 1/4 inch , dip them into rooting hormone, and placed in water. I then put this inside my highland terrarium with my other neps. I change the water out about once a week, and have had great success.
 
Thanks guys.

Droserabug--It's interesting you mentioned light levels because I was interested in them too. Auxin, a naturally occurring plant hormone, is what partially controls rooting of cuttings. It decays in light, so by this theory cuttings rooting in darkness or less light should root better by retaining more of that hormone. It might be interesting to use your same method, but in different light levels as a kind experiment and prove its efficacy. Anyway, that's where the current research stands on lighting as it affects rooting. I would try it but I don't have enough cuttings to put separate buckets in the sun and shade.
 
Thanks guys.

Droserabug--It's interesting you mentioned light levels because I was interested in them too. Auxin, a naturally occurring plant hormone, is what partially controls rooting of cuttings. It decays in light, so by this theory cuttings rooting in darkness or less light should root better by retaining more of that hormone. It might be interesting to use your same method, but in different light levels as a kind experiment and prove its efficacy. Anyway, that's where the current research stands on lighting as it affects rooting. I would try it but I don't have enough cuttings to put separate buckets in the sun and shade.

Agree,

You could add several treatments:

1. full artificial light w/hormone (3" below)
2. medium" " w/hormone (20-25" below)
3. dark " " w/hormone (dark)
4. same light as 1 without hormone
5. """2
6."""3

You would need a bunch of cuttings of the same plant species/cultivar. Hmm, you could even apply some statistics with a decent design. Good idea!
 
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