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Grafting nepenthes

Does anyone have experience of grafting Nepenthes?  We've tried a few times and they live for a few weeks only and don't take.  Perhaps there's some secret to it or maybe it just can't be done but I seem to recall having heard of it before.  It would be great to get some species with "fussy" roots grafted onto some vigorous roots stock - e.g. N. lowii or N. rajah on to N. ventricosa would be nice!

Any ideas, suggestions or data drawn from experience would be welcome.  I know this has been discussed before but was wondering if anyone new to the forum might have some ideas.

Thanks!
 
Sorry, I had a duplicate post, but I didn't know how to eliminate it, only modify it.
 
Sorry Cello,

They did all die, despite your loving care! They lived for quite some time so they were getting sustainance from the rootstock plants but just didn't take.

Anyway, in science, a null result tells a lot too.

Rob
 
Back in my volunteering days at the Frederik Meijer Gardens I tried grafting N. wrigleyana and N. mirabilis. I made vertical cuts along the vines (removed about 80% of stem) and bound them together with grafting bands and hoped for the best, or at least not the worst. Theoretically, the plants were still dependent on their original roots.
Those plants are still alive today, only separated. There was a mealybug problem (they liked the snugness between the two vines) and I had no choice but to separate them in the end. The cuts quickly healed (after a few months of being forcefully in contact with another) and the plants continued growing as though nothing ever happened. I won't give up! I'll be back there this June and will give it another shot.
 
good for you
smile.gif
 
The title escapes me, but I've seen a great grafting book from a number of years ago that shows a mindboggling number of grafts.  It's been a while since I last looked at it, but I remember being fascinated by the soft tissue grafts.  Some required some pretty intricate carving and, according to the author, all that effort was necessary for some plants.  I don't remember seeing anythin about Neps, but the moral of the story is to not give up too easily.  If only it were easier to get material to practice with.
 
I think part of the problem is that Nepenthes are lianas (vines), where the cambium isn't all in a nice ring, but is in cords throughout the stem. I think this makes linking the rights parts difficult, if not impossible.

The other thing that would make it difficult to ascertain whether a graft had been successful would be the fact that many of these species are epiphitic, so even if the graft was not successful, in the right conditions the top portion would keep growing for a long time, even indefinitely.

Hamish
 
  • #10
Excellent! David Holguin has pointed out that Cliff Dodd did succeed and wrote an article about it in CPN Volume 19, Numbers 3 & 4, September & December 1990. It's an interesting read. Cliff managed to graft N. raffflesiana on to N. maxima. We're trying the same technique as he used with a variety of species right now.

Thanks everyone!
 
  • #11
Hey Rob,

I have not read Cliff's notes (no pun intended) but Slack had a pretty detailed section on this in his second book. If you can not find it I might be able to scan or Xerox the relevant parts for you. Drop me a line if that would be of help/interest.

Cheers
 
  • #12
Ah yes thats where I read it.
 
  • #13
Yes, I don't think Adrian ever actually did the grafting himself but relied quite heavily on information given by other people for some sections of that book, the Nepenthes chapter being one of them.  He was and probably still is an exceptionally gifted horticulturalist/landscape gardener and would know a lot about grafting of other plants, techniques of which may or may not be applicable to Neps.

The grafting Cello did for us appeared to take for some time and then died months later. One thing we didn't do though is excise the lateral nodes as Cliff described in his article.  Perhaps that's important.
 
  • #14
Very interesting topic, Rob. Please keep the updates coming!

In our german forum someone tried to grow a bonsai Nepenthes, that sounded interesting, too...
smile_m_32.gif


Cheers,
Jan
 
  • #15
Ha Jan,

If you want to bonsai Nepenthes, just try using a fungicide called Daconyl if you can get it.  The results are amazing, the plants bonsai instantly.  Unfortunately for us that was not what we were trying to achieve at the time!
smile_h_32.gif
 
  • #16
Why would you wnat a bonsai Nep?
 
  • #17
what do you mean by bonsai nep?

its small? or just a bunch of offshoots?
 
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