Hybridizing (?)

[divaskid]

I'm not sure if thats the correct name for it, but anyway, I will try my question in a lame attempt to understand the process.

To get a hybrid Nep, is the process of cross pollinating two different species of Nep the same as how they do it for  hybrid orchids?

So for instance would you take the pollen of the male N. (lets say bicalcarata) and pollinate the female N. (lets say veitchii) and then if all goes well, get hybrid seeds?

Is this how it works? Or am I totally off on this one?

 

[Steve L]

you got it! Nepenthes are dioecious, meaning they have imperfect flowers, only male or female parts. your example above, if succesful would produce a hybrid. The new plants from this cross would be labeled as Nepenthes veitchii x bicalcarata. You always list the seed parent first.

Steve LaWarre
Grand Rapids, MI

 

[divaskid]

Cool

Has anyone in here tried to do this? If so I'd like to see pics if anyone has and maybe hear of your experiences doing this.

 

[colinliew]

Take a look at the post entitled "New Additions: Hybrids" or something like that. It should be a little further down the list. You'll see some amazing pictures of hybrids from Exotica Plants.

 

[Trent]

We've made several Nepenthes hybrids. Over the weekend Michelle took the pollen from (N. ventricosa x spectabilis), and placed it onto the stigmas of a female N. alata. We'll see what happens.

Trent

 

[HellzDungeon]

hmmm... so if u put seed parent first, then lets say u cross a guy lowii and a girl hamata, and then a boy seedling pollinated a girl Bical, would it be like :
[(Hamata x Lowii) Bicalcurata]
i would want to see such a hybrid, it would be so cool to see these all put together...

 

[Tony Paroubek]

close..

N. bicalcarata x (hamata x lowii)

 

[Trent]

If it's a girl bicalcarata, it would read like this:

N. bicalcarata x (hamata x lowii)



Trent

 

[Tony Paroubek]

woohooo I beat Trent by 2 minutes

 

[Trent]

Drat! Fouled again!

 

[divaskid]

Thats too cool. I can't wait till I can do that someday. Right now I only have one Nepenthes so I can't do it yet. But once I get my greenhouse built and get more there won't be any stopping me.

I would imagine that the chance of having a female and a male flowering at the same time and being a different type of Nep. would be pretty hard if you only had a few plants though.

In general, do they flower at the same time or is it all over the board?

 

[Trent]

Sort of all over the board. Species tend to bloom all at the same time, say you have five different mature plants of bicalcarata. They will tend to all flower about the same time-if they flower. Some individual plants can be reluctant bloomers, others bloom several times a year. Some Neps may bloom very consistently at a certain time of the year, every year. Others may bloom almost randomly.
However, there do seem to be a set of conditions that favors making them flower.

Trent

 

[divaskid]

Hmmmm interesting

You'll have to post how your hybrid comes out. It sounds like itll be cool looking.

 

[Nflytrap]

Anyone tried crossing one of the more delicate species to a hardier one...like say...

gracilis x hamata

ventrata x rafflesiana

I think these 2 would be interesting...or you could switch them around.

 

[Capslock]

They do that all the time! One of my favorites is my N. ventricosa x aristolochioides. It looks cool and grows like a weed.

Capslock

 

[Capslock]

Here's the current pitcher:

Capslock

 

[divaskid]

Ooo I like that one. I love the coloring

 

[AaronJ]

Very nice hybrid Caps.

Not quite N. ventrata x rafflesiana, but I have N. ventricosa x rafflesiana that I recently found at a nursery.  This shot was from the day I got it:

This plant seems up there with the easiest I have and IMO is much like what you want from a hybrid.  It's growing at the rate of a ventricosa, but with pitchers very much like a raff (i.e. steep peristome, large wings, teardrop shaped pitchers, etc).  

Admittedly I have no real problems growing pure vents or raffs in my setup, so i'd have expexcted nothing less from this hybrid.

The plant is still recovering from it's previous kept in poor conditions (AKA non-cp nursery) and I am very much looking forward to seeing how it turns out once it really gets going and I get some better size/colour out of the leaves and pitchers.

Aaron.

 

[divaskid]

Thats a nice one too.

*sighs* I want a hybrid hehe but I guess I should have more experience with the one I have now before I buy another one.

I also can relate to bad previous owners. Mine wasn't getting enough water and humidity and one of the pitchers was cut in half!

But it is doing much better and recovering now. whew!

 

[Nflytrap]

Wow! That is awesome! Stuff like that is probably out of my price range though...