Here is another play by play for doing Nepenthes cuttings. This is with Nepenthes Khasiana, a moderately hard one to get to root in. I generally setup a TV tray to work on so I can watch TV while I work with the plants.
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It was growing in a 4" pot with three active growth points.
I wanted to remove the large sideways growth and leave the rest.
Cut free
To look like this.
OK, That was the easy part. I simply chopped off the growth point I wanted to remove. Since the stem had vined (dried/browned) a fair amount accuracy was not needed. I can trim it later, both the cutting and on the mother plant. I sat the 4" pot off to the side for now, later it will be re-potted.
Even though Khasiana is a little harder to do there is still plenty of green growth to produce two plants. It's harder to talk the plant into producing roots from a dried stem. So the first thing to do is cut the vine off so only green growth remains. Then I cut the green growth in half. Exactly like shown on the first cuttings page, at 45°. The pitchers and first leaf have been removed and the next two leaves cut in half. The others will be trimmed later.
Blown up view of the rooting end. It's cut at approxamatly 45° and the first leaf is removed very close to the stem to encourage node rooting. The sharper your tools and the cleaner the cut the better. The 45° cut simply adds surface area to the stem to produce roots from. If you split the point of the cut with a razor blade (as described in the first section) it will aid with this. I am skipping that with this one because the node should root just fine.
I soak them in SuperThriveTM for 10 - 15 minutes after above steps but before trimming all the leaves back. It really doesn't matter but I like trimming the rest of the leaves after its sitting in the pot so I know how much I need to take off. The cutting will absorb the SuperThriveTM so long as the cut end is in contact with it.
Making an indentation for a LFSM pocket, about 1/2" deep.
Pocket in place.
While the Nepenthes cuttings are soaking in the SuperThriveTM I finish getting the pots ready and make sure I have everything else I will be needing. If you are using 100% LFSM or a peat/perlite mix this LFSM pocket is not needed. Since I want to start it in a permanent pot and I use chunky soils the LFSM pocket is required to keep good contact with the cutting. After the lfsm is placed I like to cut it up into fine pieces. They root well in lfsm so its worth doing in most any circumstances.
I also get the rooting agent ready. Sometimes I skip this stage on the easy ones. But for Khasiana I feel it is for the best. Personally, I like to use RooToneTM but most powders from your local suppliers should do. I have also used the Green Light rooting products. These help by providing a rooting hormone along with fungicides. To prevent the powder inside the bottle from getting damp or wet I dump some into a smaller container. This time I'm using a gallon jug lid.
You want to cover the cut end (only the rooting end) up an 1/8" or so. But if your wanting a node to root make sure its covered too. If your not using SuperThriveTM then dip the cut end in water. Gently shake some of the water/SuperThrive off before dipping in the rooting powder. You don't want a water drop to form on the end but you want it wet enough for the powder to stick. Gently tap some of the excess powder off if needed.
Insert into media making sure powder stays in good contact with the stem.
Add media as needed and pack into place. Always make sure the stem is in good contact with the media.
If your using a peat/perlite or other similar mix make a small hole to insert the stem into. Then just pack the media around it good as described on the previous page.
Since I am using finely chopped lfsm I simply pushed the stem into it. Then squeezed/pinched/fluffed the "milled" sphagnum around it to make sure contact was excellent. Then I covered the lfsm with my media to help hold it in place.
Then I like to insert a plant stake to help hold it in place.
I use a wire tie to secure the nepenthes to the stake.
Then I water it in well, adjust as necessary and give it a good misting.
Treat them with anything your going to now. Sometimes I use Physon for fungi/mold control.
Then just provide them with humidity in the 55 - 70% range. I am using plastic wrap for these.
Notice the leaves can stick past the pot. I try to leave as much of the nepenthes leaves in tact as I can without causing too much inconvenience. You should always try to leave at least half of each leaf. The reason we cut them off is because the more surface area of leaf the faster they dry out. But they need plenty of energy to produce the new growth so they need photosynthesis from the leaves. Personally, I have little trouble from dehydration before rooting occurs with most Nepenthes. This is probably because I keep them nice and humid, but not so much as to cause rot or fungus. Since its not a problem I leave as many leaves in tact as I can so it looks better when it starts growing again.
It will take several weeks for them to start rooting in. Keep the humidity up and the media moist until they do. After 8 or 10 weeks gently push on a leaf to see if the plant has resistance. If it does its started rooting and you can work on acclimating it. I generally give mine at least 4 months before trying to re-pot though.
And I got the mother plant into a 6" pot, should look awesome in six or seven months.
For a very simple rundown:
1: Take cutting from plant, always have at least 3 or 4 leaves, cut at 45°.
2: Soak cut end in SuperThrive
3: Dip in Rooting Powder
4: Place in media making sure stem is in good contact with media.
5: Increase humidity to 55 - 70% or so.
The rest is just tactics and preferences. When you top a plant off it encourages new growth. You will almost always get two growth points from the mother plant. One up high near the cut, or within a leaf or two. The other depends on the plant and the conditions around it. Most often they will put up a new shoot from the base of the plant but it can emerge anywhere along the stem.
