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Getting lower pitchers...............

............from a tip cutting that is producing only uppers. is there anyway? sorry for the questions but i just got done watering my plants so i had some new ?'s pop into my mind. the reason i ask is i have a mixta x khasiana that i recieved as an unrooted cutting this summer and it just produced its first pitcher for me, an upper, not very showy although its narrow 5.5 inch tall plainish pitcher is a nice contrast to the golf ball of a speckled amp sitting beside it and the bright burgandy wrigleyana behind it. also i thought this cutting would like more highland temps but it did nothing untill i changed my intermediate setup to a lowland one and it has kicked it into high gear about 1 month ago or so. shows what i get for thinking. oh also who ever said it would take quite awhile for my sibuyanensis to settle in hasnt seen this one, its been growing like a champ since day one. my macfarlanei however is taking its time.
 
The only time you'll get lower pitchers is from a rosette, or from a basal shoot. However, basal shoots will often produce lowers only for a limited number of leaves before going to uppers. Cuttings from stem producing uppers will only produce uppers, and you won't see any lowers until it produces a basal shoot. Side branches from stem producing uppers will also produce only uppers.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (SydneyNeps @ Jan. 21 2005,9:18)]Side branches from stem producing uppers will also produce only uppers.
Not always true. Although they will usually quickly revert back to upper pitchers if they start out with lower type first.
 
My N. sanguinea did that, it was an upperish portion that had uppers, I cut it and it made a little basal with 2 lowers, then went right to uppers. Odd.
 
hmm I was wondering this same thing. I have a N. rafflensiana that is only making uppers and Iwant it to make some lowers.. the lowers iswhats its all about with the raff
 
Tony, that's interesting, I've never had that happen with climbing vine - do you notice it in specific species, or across the board?
 
Hamish,
We've noticed that too, across the board (including hybrids).
 
I never really took much notice of it until I kept reading similar posts that you only get upper pitchers from vine with uppers. I only fiddled around with a few plants that had long vines of upper pitchers. N. maxima was one. I removed the top to see what would happen. So it wasn't even an unrooted cutting. Sure enough the lateral bud came out and made some lower pitchers. Kinda funny looking with this small lateral growth with lower pitchers and big leaves below it with upper pitchers. It quickly started to vine again and make uppers though. Perhaps because it grew pretty vigorously as it was supported by the rest of the established plant. Maybe if it was a cutting it would stay in lower rosette form a bit longer.

Tony
 
Actually, there is one instance I can remember where this happen. Years ago, one of my ventricosa had a nasty accident. There wasn't much left of the vine, so one of the cuttings was a tiny, tiny piece of stem. It took ages to root, and then the newly opened top bud died as the cut was too close to it. The second bud started to swell, and it is now the growing point. It grew really slowly, and the new growth was seedling lowers and it has since grown just like a seedling. It is still producing lowers after a couple of years. I assumed it was the huge shock it had, the fact it was such a small piece of stem, plus the fact it took nearly a year to produce its first pitcher, than made it revert.

Hamish
 
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