Nep healing

[CP30]

Any ideas on how to help a nep recouparate from drying out?
I had a trunc x maxima pot tip over spilling its contents on to the ground while I was out of town. The plant an roots were exposed to direct sun several hours a day with no wet medium. the leaves have browned and shriveled, the pitchers are husks, and the roots.....

I am soaking the plants in superthrive right now, and I plan to replant it in crushed LFS and put in a large terrarium instead of outside. Should I use a rooting hormone on the roots, make cuttings, or anything else that might help the plant survive and pitcher again someday?

 

[Tony Paroubek]

ugh. There isn't much you can do except just what your planning.. a soak and replant and keep in sheltered conditions. Nepenthes don't tolerate dessication though and are usually deceased even before they hit the brown crispy stage.

IF it was a large plant with a long vine AND there was a section that still looked green, you might get a cutting off it.

Tony

 

[CP30]

It was a mature plant and the green(ish) part of the stem is surrounded by 3 leaves that still have a minimal amount of green near the stem. I will try for the cutting approach after it gets a good soaking while I am at work today.
Should I cut below the 3 surviving nodes, or will that brown part of the stem not support root growth?
Wish me luck!

 

[Tony Paroubek]

Well it's really hard to say. If the stem looks dried and brittle above and below the little green section then I would cut just at the bottom of the green part. You want the stem to be able to absorb some moisture through the cut end. That won't happen if the lower part that was exposed is dried. You can cut a little further down first, and see how the stem looks inside though. My question however is the stem brown lower down from the green part because of the plant drying out? Or is it brown because of the way Nepenthes vines naturally age?? If it appears that some of the roots lived and lower portion of stem along with it. Then I would probably not try cutting it. A stem cutting with little leaf material already has poor odds of rooting and sprouting a new shoot.

Tony

 

[CP30]

Thanks for the help, Tony. The stem below the green is natural, it is not too woody, after soaking, I will reexamine the roots for good ones. I agree, I would hate to unnecessarily shock the plant any more than it has already been.