Question
Hello Jeff or whoever can help,

Have you or anyone you know tried striking Sarracenia leaf pullings in pure water and if so, how does the strike rates compare to using a growing medium like peat moss?  If they could grow in water it would save a lot of room and time preparing the growing medium and planting the cuttings in the propagating trays. I heard that the strike rate of Sarracenia leaf pullings can be a bit low so a lot of time and space would be wasted if they are planted in a growing medium. Water would be simpler to just get the initial roots starting to grow and then those that produced the roots could be planted in a growing medium like peat moss and perlite.

I read Nepenthes can strike in pure water so I thought Sarracenia might as well. If anyone has reported success with Sarracenia, did they have the cuttings in a sealed bag or container or did they find distilled water was an advantage. This may save changing the water as often as this would take time.

If they are best potted in a potting mix or peat or sphagnum, what is best and how close can the plants be planted? Closer would be best to save space and potting media. I read sphagnum moss has an advantage in that it resists mold so it may allow leaf pullings to be planted closer than peat. Is that likely to be correct?

Regards Richard.

Answer
Leaf pullings work best on psittacina and purpurea.  We haven't seen it to be effective on other species, though some growers reported to have some success.  In general, we don't rely on pullings for propagation, except for rare psittacina specimens and hybrids.  We use live sphagnum moss when we do pullings, so I can't give any advice regarding peat moss or water.  It's something we haven't experimented with yet.

Strike rate differs from pulling to pulling, even on the same plant.  Sometimes you might get a couple plantlets on a pulling.  Sometimes you get none.  It also takes about 2-3 months before anything shows up.  For this reason, we just don't do it very often.  The last time we propagated anything by pullings was a couple years ago on our S. purpurea ssp. purpurea x (psittacina x pururea).  

If you're willing to experiment using peat moss, live sphagnum moss and water, please do so.  We would love to hear about your results.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin