Question
I have a very large (and I do mean 'very') Nepenthes x velvet which, long story short, fell. I didn't think it was harmed at first, but now I see that the longest of it's two main 'stems' is cracked somewhat (this is about a week or two after the fall). My basic question is: should I put a 'splint' on the stem to get it to grow back properly? The angle is important to give its leaves light (it sits in a window), but I don't want to harm the plant.

Also, generally speaking, the plant isn't doing too well. It's not that dry really, but a lot of its pitchers are blackening (not just on the stem that broke recently either). Is it just because of the winter?

One last question: given that it's not doing too well at the moment, and it fell recently, should I clip off it's flower? I don't mind the smell, and I like that the plant flowers (its second time, and I get the impression this is rare for them to flower in captivity). But, if it saves the plant...

Oh, and how would I sex the plant from it's flower? Nepenthes have a single sex to their flower, don't they?

Answer
Hello Sean,

You could always try to make cuttings out of the broken vine. Just cut it into several 8-12 inch sections with several good green leaves each. Cobraplant.com has some great advice to increase the strike rate of those cuttings. You can notch the base of each cutting a few times to increase root growth sites, brush on some rooting hormone, and either place the cuttings in vases or in a couple inches of perlite for a month or so. After that, plant them in Nepenthes soil.

With a broken vine, you could brace it and splint it, but you might want to wrap some moist peat or Nepenthes mix in a plastic wrap around the broken section and notch it some, adding hormone to the notches and break. That is another method of rooting the broken section without immediately removing it. Just cut the entire section off after it begins showing signs of forming roots in a month or two. The broken section might also simply die off if it is unable to acquire water properly, however; Nepenthes have been known to allow their roots to die off and become completely epiphytic at times (so long as they have plenty of water acquired from rain and humidity).

In any case, The blackening pitchers are bound to occur after heavy stress to the plant and during low light periods in winter. So long as the leaves remain green for long periods after the pitchers die off the plant is fine.

Nepenthes flowers are single sex, most of the cultivated plants are male, but you can check yours to see if they are male or female by visual inspection. The male flowers have an anther that looks like a small ball or globe on the end of a thin rod sticking out of the center of the flower. The female has an ovary that looks like an oval with a four pointed star shaped end in the center of the flower and no thin supporting rod.

Removing the flower scape will allow the plant to use its energy recovering from the fall and the winter. It might also be slowing down in pitcher growth and allowing some to die back as it uses more energy flowering.

Christopher