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Vines: What do they Climb?

  • Thread starter Acro
  • Start date
What do most people use for vining Neps? Will a simple bamboo pole work, or do people use things like tomato cages or lattice?
 
I use bamboo stakes but if you have the space for it a tomato cage would be a lot more stable and could look pretty good with it having a lot of places for upper pitchers to grab onto.
 

Another simple trellis is to get three or four bamboo stakes/poles (they'd be more rot resistant that regular wooden dowels) or plastic poles and make a teepee frame. Tie them at the top, stick them in the pot and then, using string or wire, create further connecting ties amongst the poles at 6-8" intervals. (That will provide additional places for the tendrils to twine.)
 
Thanks for the replies!

What gripping diameter do they need? They just twist the part, between the pitcher and leaf, around something right? I've actually never had vining Neps before. I'd either cut them down, had (and still have) slow growing species, or ones that just kept throwing basals.

Also, do you have any good photos or links to photos? I can't seem to find good photos showing this.
 
What gripping diameter do they need?

For the aforementioned teepee frame I had made, the bamboo rods were probably 1/4 -3/8 of an inch in diameter. The tendrils wrapped around them just fine.
 
I've been wondering the same thing. There's no problem with using metal? I was wondering if it might leach something into the planting medium - I'm always wary of how sensitive these plants are!
 
Picking up on an old thread here after searching for the topic.

I have a couple veitchii cuttings that are going to need a repot soon. They came from a large plant and are turning into pretty big plants themselves. I want to give them something appropriate to climb that will also end up looking amazing.

My thoughts are that the plant would enjoy some horizontal support, some texture and/or some girth. A bamboo pole would be vertical, smooth and straight. Of course a trellis would solve some of those problems but in that case I'm afraid it would be hard to untangle or remove when the plant eventually outgrows it.

The solution I was thinking is burying a driftwood branch in the new medium when I repot. I'm worried about 1) rot and 2) leaching. The best source of driftwood for me are from beaches near where I live. I can add water-repellant treatment but would that introduce a new leaching problem?

Anyone have any recent experience/thoughts on this? Attached pic searched from internet and represents my fantasy aspirations for my plants.
 

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I think only certain locations forms can form the tree trunk wrap around, however, I am unsure
 
Only the highland veitchii from the Maliau Basin are known to wrap themselves around trees like in your photo. I'd probably avoid driftwood if it has come from a saltwater environment. That would just be a timebomb of salt.
 
  • #10
Second the concerns, unless it's drifting out of a bog or fen etc., it's loaded with minerals and salts and will be a death sentence for most epiphites.
 
  • #11
Yea.... maybe I have to look in a freshwater bog for driftwood. And I can always attach it to the outside of the pot to mitigate the concerns, just seems like a pretty inelegant approach.

Not 100% sure the origin of my plants' ancestors but the guess of the original owner is Hose Mtns. The new leaves do come out at approximately 180 degrees to the previous, rather than the rosette pattern.
 
  • #12
Cork bark wrapped PVC will give you the aesthetic you are looking for and it's a technique that has been shown to work. You can use rounds or sheets depending on if your light source will move about the mount. Hope that's easier than trying to source a log from the wild 😜
 
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