FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Here are a few images of multiplying plantlets in a cytokinin-rich experimental media. The challenge with this species, as well as many other highlanders and ultra-highlanders, are the development of roots; or rhizogenesis.

More often than not, I allow the plants to root ex vitro, as though they were cuttings; it's far cheaper, in terms of labor and materials, and often quicker in the long run . . .

Nepenthes villosa "Gamma Clone" (Tambuyukon) 18 April





Nepenthes attenboroughii (Mt. Victoria)

How many years have you been TCing?

Dionae wrote:How many years have you been TCing?

If I include some assignments in microbiology and botany while at university, twenty-plus years; but far more intensely, in the last five years or so . . .

Youre really good at it so that explains it. Lots of practice.

I am currently enrolled in the botany, horticulture program at Southern Illinois University...I am intrigued by your methods...I shall watch for more of your postsI still have much to learn...........z

Here is a recent update of some 2014 Nepenthes cultures -- all of which have been subdivided any number of times; and which have been on multiple media, with and without plant growth regulators, since last year. The vial on the right gave rise to three separate clone lines, since then . . .


Nepenthes villosa (Tambuyukon) 18 June 2014


28 Aptil

any good prices for tissue culture kits that don't cost like 150 bucks....

rayneger wrote:any good prices for tissue culture kits that don't cost like 150 bucks....

I assume that that is a question; and I would suggest reading up in the subject -- Plants From Test Tubes is a good start -- and determining what could be done on your own: making your own media, as I had, when I first began; finding inexpensive containers; learning good laboratory technique; and how to ensure a sterile transfer environment, with or without a laminar flow hood.

Some of the PGRs can be found in coconut water or corn, for example, among other things; and not everything needs to come from a biological supply house. Dilute fertilizers can be used in lieu of some media; and agars are readily available from most Asian markets.

Crack a book; there's no free lunch . . .

Haha I think BE,AW and MT will feel sad to watch this! I got my BE 3307 villosa from a local distributor at 150USD……

Aoli wang wrote:Haha I think BE,AW and MT will feel sad to watch this! I got my BE 3307 villosa from a local distributor at 150USD……

An issue that I have with the horticultural industry, as it currently exists, and even those specific businesses that you had mentioned, are the real scarcity of available clones. Most of them are dealing with single genetic lines, in the case of Nepenthes villosa, so far as I have been told. They're almost exclusively male plants; or, else, there are three or four lines, for example, of N. hamata; and some clones have had bad reputations for either being glacially slow-growing or even prone to rot.

I know, from having grown some of these species from seed, that that is not necessarily the case; and that some of the reputation for cultural difficulty, may lie in the given clonal lines and not in the species themselves . . .

Oh I didn't notice the bubble in the right direction is PM button,I took it as "reply with quotation"...my reply became a PM to Mr BB...I will repost it here.

Ah yes,My BE villosa is actually more tough than its AW fellow,same results are also reported from some other CP forums,may attribute to their genetic diffrences.But culture difficulties among members with genetic Variaties of a spiece wouldn't change much,eg 30C without tempdrop will lead AW villosa to death but result in stagnant growth and deformity in BE one.I suppose generally they all need tempdrop if we want them to grow and pitcher properly other than just survive,there won't be a villosa grow well in lowland conditions.
I have red posts from taiwan growers,their AW katoposa hamata clones first burst into tens of lateral buds and then rot,this may due to gene,environment or even PGR's leftover (Img from tbg.org.tw)


I can't see any sign of nepenthes conservation as these CP factories claimed.Yes, they have only a few lines of different clones that are not enough to maintain the genetic diversity.

I do agree with what you have said; but all things being equal, even many skilled growers have had issues with N. villosa, discreet temperature drop and all, which wasn't easily attributable to cultivation. There are also differences in the tolerances of the Kinabalu versus Tambuyukon populations; so too the quality of the clones.

That photo strikes me as the result of too much cytokinin, expressing itself in the plant tissue; and I have only experienced that phenomenon with the overuse of thidiazuron -- TDZ -- though not the eventual collapse and death that you had described . . .

Haha yes TDZ and 2,4-D are the strongest PGRs I have ever used,they will produce bad callus if dosage is inproper...I will prudently apply them to my culture,especially those spiecies I have only one single plantlet in vitro.I have lost my D.falconeri due to TDZ misuse...it truns into semi-transparent callus that is hard to redifferenciate.

How much of Thidiazuron is enough for nepenthes? I got 1g of 98% in a bottle.