Re: Nepenthes cuttings

Barry Meyers-Rice (barry@as.arizona.edu)
Mon, 25 Oct 93 13:52:43 MST

Tom:

As Rob pointed out, dry refrigeration is for seed storage only.
Moist refrigeration is the pre-germination treatment called stratification
and should be practiced on all seed from plants which are from a place
with real winters.

I used to mix the seeds with a few spoonfuls of sand/peat or _Sphagnum,
then store that in little glass jars in an egg carton. The lids are kept
off, so you must top them off with purified water every week or so to keep
them moist. Otherwise they will dessicate and die. I'd keep them in there
for 4--6 weeks. Now I just sow them in the fall and stick them in the
greenhouse. Since we get down to 0--5 C (just above a frost) for
several weeks in Tucson at night, this is sufficient. Do not freeze the
seeds.

As someone just asked me, let me point out that while they are less than
a few years old, it appears that _Sarracenia_ does not require a winter
dormancy and will grow happily year round, and in fact result in a
bigger plant sooner. But once they are a few years old, I suggest obeying
winter dormancy. I don't know about how the northern plant _S.purpurea
ssp. purpurea_ would take to this treatment.

B