Doomed nep 1 year later

[alandallas]

A year ago I got this nep for a dollar. I had low expectations of having it survive and with my limited knowledge of neps, it looked like a good challenge. We all learn from failure just as we learn from success so I knew I would come out ahead whether it lived or died. After about 6 weeks the plant started going downhill fast, and not ready to accept defeat, I removed the growth tip and placed it in live sphagnum moss after dipping it in rooting hormone. A plastic cup was put over it and it was left to do whatever in a bright area of my enclosure. The original plant never recovered and was lost.

This pic was taken last December. It was growing in a 1" container with a small amount of peat and finely chopped cedar bark with a layer of sphagnum on top. The largest pitcher was about 3/8" tall.

Today it lives in a 4" pot and I believe it's safe to say that the plant is going to make it. The largest pitcher is about 2-1/4" tall. I'll never cease to be amazed at how carnivorous plants have such a strong will to survive.

Alan

 

[agustinfranco]

Hi allandallas:

i would like to congratulate you. You deserve to have more Nepenthes now!!. You have shown that if you really care about it, you can overcome many obstacles!!!. I hope your plant grows to be a nice addition to your cp collection.

Gus

 

[NickHubbell]

Excellent photos and an exellent job of nursing your Nepenthes back to health. From your photos, it looks to be a form of N. sanguinea. I have found N. sanguinea an easy grower. At the moment, my N. sanguinea is my best pitchering Nepenthes.

Something tells me you will be expanding your Nepenthes collection.

You truely have a green thumb.

 

[schloaty]

Congrats! That's a job well done! Good idea, too, to chop off the growth point and root it...
Kinda cool to have a photo record like that. I may have to do that now that I have a digi-cam....

 

[alandallas]

Thanks Gus, it seems that the plant did all of the work. All I do is to provide what I think is the best possible conditions with what I have to work with and the plants do the rest. My vfts and sundews would probably beg to differ with you about deserving more Nepenthes because they consider them to be invasives as they are quickly being squeezed into one end of the growth chamber by the N. rafflesianas and ventricosas that I bought from PFT a year ago last spring.

Nick, I also think that the plant is a N. sanguinea from photos I looked at on the web and from comparing it to the mature one that Houstonherp showed me last time I was in Houston.

And Schloaty, digi-cam is the only way to go nowdays. I have had mine for a little less than a year and I think it has already payed for itself in savings from having to buy film and photoprocessing. I like to take several pictures of a subject with different exposures and camera angles until I get the pic just like I want it and with film cameras, it gets expensive to do that and then toss all of the extras.