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Double basals

While watering the Neps tonight I ran across a pleasant surprise, one of them is sending up a basal. But when I took a closer look I noticed that right next to the first basal was a second basal being sent up. Is it common for Neps to send up multiple basals? The mother plant hasnt stopped growing or stalled, it's doing quite the opposite and the leaves and pitchers are increasing in size with each new leaf.
My concern is that the basals may crash the mother plant because it's just a juvenile. Has this happened to anyone before? Any info/tips are greatly appreciated!
 
HAHA. The same thing has happened to me a couple times. One time on my Thorelii x Rafflesiana x Talangensis x Inermis and 1 time on my Jamban. But yes. It still is a very un common thing to have happen.
I think your mother plant will be fine. May want to use some superthrive on the plant just to be safe in case. Superthrive never seems to fail me.
 
my ventricosa has 4 basals, and they all came out at the same time, all right next to each other. In my case, i think it might be due to shock, and the plant sent out some backup ;) I'd say keep doing what you are doing, and making sure it is fed and it shouldn't be detrimantal to the neps health. congrats!
 
Menehune 9 at once
 
stupid question, what are basals, is it hwere the main stem divides.
 
Basals generally come from the very base of the plant,, they appear to be new plants coming from the roots.
 
Ok, that's reassuring to that. Wow 4 and 9 ?! I'll keep feeding the pitchers but I used coffee on the soil a couple weeks back so I'll just water normally. Sounds like I'll have some some sang x trunc basals coming up for trade :)
 
My original N. rajah had started making basals soon after I received it. By that first winter it had 4 basals. I let them get a bit of size on them (about 3" diameter each) then removed them and rooted them, ran some soil experiments with them and then sold/traded them off. A year or two later I removed four or five more small rosettes. After that it finally quit sending off basals and just put all of it's energy into the main plant and it grew big relatively quickly but I fertilized quite often as well, trying to go by the orchid growers axiom of "weakly weekly" (1/4 strength every week or at least every other week, watering 2 - 3 times a week) as well as feeding the pitchers with defrosted crickets.

I don't remember who got the basals I'd removed, so I don't know if theirs ever sent off their own basals or not. I sold the mother plant and most of my other huge plants to some doctor/plant collector from Northern MN when I got out of the hobby in late 2006/2007 so I don't know if it ever started making more basals or not, the trunk was woody by the time I'd gotten rid of it. Other plants I grew never made any attempt at making a single basal from seedling to flowering. Nep vines that dangle over the pots rim and then grow up of their own free will seem to make more basals than ones that get tied to a bamboo stake so they will grow perfectly straight.
 
my talangensis sends outs multiple basals quite frequently. i few months ago, my talan sent up 5 basals at once. my densiflora sent up 2 basals, gave one to a friend and left the other on then sold that plant...currently my glabrata has about 6 or 7 active growth points on it, my sibuyanensis x (northiana x veitchii) sent out a basal which grew a bit then died, i cut it back a bit only to see 3 growth points activated on the dead basal.
my miranda activated 2 basals.....lol and i have an argentii which activated 4 basals and drained the mother plant before i caught it lol. so now ive got a 4 growth point argentii.....
 
  • #10
I had 3 or 4 basals come out in a short time together on my ventricosa also.
 
  • #11
Since I've never separated a basal before, I've always just left them on, the question is: Is it easier to cut and root the basals after they've established a good size (4-6 in and up) or is it better to get them while they're small (1-2 in)?
Is it better to cut as close to the stem as possible or cut closer to the base of the basal?
 
  • #12
I don't think there's really a yes/no answer to that question. Young basals are easier to remove and repot, but being unrooted or just recently rooted, they're harder to get established. When removing, I believe the idea is to cut as close to the original vine possible, but I don't know how critical it is. I think the idea behind cutting close is to include the newly activated root nodes at the bottom, so that the basals will root and resume growth faster than a totally unrooted cutting.
As for the number of basals, I've had as many as eight or nine pop up at the same time on the old woody vines of my Deroose's Alata. But usually, when I get a bunch like that, only about half continue to grow. My ventricosa x inermis likes to make two, drop one, make two, drop one... all year long. I've never lost a mother vine as a result of new basals, although I can imagine an already sickly plant might stall or peter out altogether. My oldest Deroose's Alata vines will slow down and die from the tip after a few years, but the basals come up after the mother vine starts to die, not the other way around.
~Joe
 
  • #13
seedjar: when you say vines, i have to know, how tall/long are they!?
 
  • #14
Uh, it's hard to tell, because for a while when it was my first and only vining Nep, I would just push all the climbing stems together towards the center of the pot whenever it would start reaching out to adjoining plants. As a result, there's quite a few loops and bends in the length of the eight to ten vines in that pot. Presently two have climbed onto the shelf above on the grow rack, and a third one is getting close - I'm pretty sure those are each about four to six feet. The longest one may be close to seven feet - I'm bad with distances. The internode length is three to five inches, and it grows quickly. The one that produced nine basals is a woody stem that I've cut the top from once or twice - I believe the lead node grew into one of my shoplights and burned itself, and that's why it produced basals at a bend in the stem below. But the mother node came back after I found it and picked the burnt stuff off. (And moved it away from the lights - at least, further than wedged between a tube and the fixture.)
I'm going to hack down that pot for cuttings, soon. I'll try to remember to make a picture thread.
~Joe
 
  • #15
When removing, I believe the idea is to cut as close to the original vine possible, but I don't know how critical it is. I think the idea behind cutting close is to include the newly activated root nodes at the bottom, so that the basals will root and resume growth faster than a totally unrooted cutting.
~Joe

Perfect, thanks Joe that's just what I needed. I'll try to get as close to the stem as possible and cross my fingers!
 
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