One of my favorite 'non orchid' plants in my collection is my carniverous Nepenthes Alata which is also known as a Pitcher Plant. It grows little digestive vessels (pitchers) at the tip of it's leaves. The pitchers are designed to trap unsuspecting insects which the plant utilizes as food.
My pitcher plant was purchased about a year ago and rapidly developed into a large sprawling specimen. Finally it just became too large.
Before trimming back the excess growth I did some research on starting plantlets from Nepenthes cuttings.
I took 9 cuttings in all. Each cutting had a minimum of 3 leaves/nodes and each leaf was cut in half. The cut end of the stem was then coated with a small amount of rooting hormone and placed in a small flower pot of damp sphagnum moss.
According to the instructions the potted cuttings are then to be placed in a sealed plastic bags and kept in their humid enviroment for 4 to 6 weeks. This is where I made some changes. I didn't like the plastic bag idea...too many bags...too little room, so I made a mini greenhouse out of an ordinary plastic storage crate, a clear plastic zippered comforter bag, and a up side down shallow lid from a cardboard box. The box lid was used to line the large holes in the base of the crate so the flower pots wouldn't fall through. The potted cuttings were then placed on top of the box lid and then the whole crate was slid into the square shaped zippered bag.
All the components fit like a glove and I was amazed that everything went
together so effortlessly. This is what it looked like.
After 4 weeks...new growth. I decided to give them a few more weeks to develop a healthy root system.
After 6 weeks...removed from greenhouse and potted in coir. I potted 2 of them in a small coco husk lined basket for my daughter.[ATTACH]34048
2 weeks after removal from the greenhouse...small pitchers developing.[ATTACH]34049
Success at Pitcher Plant Propagation
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