Let's make small hybrids!

[sykosarah]

Let's make small nepenthes hybrids! Small as in the plant is small and compact, not necessarily the pitchers. Most people want big giganto plants when it comes to nepenthes, so there aren't really any "small" plants that are good for terrariums. 

anyone who has a cross of two small, compact species or knows someone who sells them message me!

i want nepenthes so bad, but a college dorm is just too small for most, particularly ones that vine. I am sure that as long as the pitchers are big or pretty there will be a market for them, so any nepenthes breeders out there? 

[adelea]

I can't send you any as i'm in Aust, but I have a campanulata X ventricosa that stays small and is very vigorous and tolerant of an array of conditions, so maybe chase campanulata hybrids.
Maxima mini would be another that comes to mind, or belli

[sykosarah]

I have tried, but every provider I have found crosses the small species with big ones

[adelea]

I think thorellie, clipeata, insignis and argentii stay pretty small to (by small I mean under a meter), otherwise you could just get a slow growing species, my veilardii is super slow growing making a leaf every month or two, as is my veitchii Bau, but veitchii Mt mulu and pink are faster growing varieities, in my experience.

You can also stunt nepenthes, I don't know how but I have a stunted mirabilis, it was seed grown, 2years on and its still only 8cm diameter, yet its siblings are all over 80cm long and 40-50cm wide, it did grow normally but after I repoted it at 5cm it stunted and the rest took off.

[adelea]

well its 2014 now so the mirabilis are looking more at the 2-3year area

[sykosarah]

Maybe there was some root trauma when you repotted it.

[tanukimo]

Nepenthes truncate is one of the slowest growing Nepenthes out there. It takes several months for it to form one pitcher, so you may want to look into it. It has compact leaves and huge pitchers (large enough to catch rats).

[adelea]

In my experiance truncata go's from 6inch to about a foot in diameter faily fast, then slows right down, but once truncata hit certain sizes they are like many other neps that throw huge leaves all of a sudden, like Truncata X maxima, one of my plants hit 1 foot diameter then within the next 5 leaves was at 1M (3foot) diameter, ths was about 4-5months, so no good if you want something that will stay small for longer.
Most highlanders are slow growing and many stay compact for years before hitting the foot mark, I have had no experience with true highlanders but I am under the impression that rajah, a certain lowii and macrophylla are super slow, although they are giants when they get going.

[tanukimo]

I'm actually thinking about getting into Nepenthes again, and maybe starting with truncata. For me, though, the problem isn't the size (although I would get it pretty small) but humidity, especially when it gets too big to put in a terrarium. I have an alata which I've had for over 10 years but because I can't provide it with enough humidity it doesn't really pitcher.

[hcarlton]

N. ventricosa, Miranda, graciliflora, and truncata can do fairly well with low humidity, but for a person who's looking for a terrarium plant or other, none are a good choice. As adelae mentioned, when young truncata can seem slow, and do produce big pitchers, but after they hit about 6-10 inches across leafspan, they'll size jump very quickly, and will reach well over 4 feet across, with huge pitchers.

[sykosarah]

That is why I was thinking of getting maxims lake polo dwarf, but I haven't encountered anyone who has actually grown it to say how big it gets.

[hcarlton]

Pictures I've seen generally give average sizes of vines only a few feet long, plants only around 1-1 1/2 feet wide... they flower at really small sizes too...

[sykosarah]

Good to know, I will see if the one place I saw that sells them still has them in stock. Their pitchers aren't spectacular really, but they make a good number of them.

[paulbarden]

I've described the hybrid talangensis X glabrata to you before, and told you who sells it. But it appears you have not pursued it. Why ? It's the perfect miniature hybrid.

bit.ly/1bsmItC

[paulbarden]

I would also suggest the hybrid of N. bellii X aristolochioides is another excellent "miniature", given that both parents are quite small. It should be tolerant of indoor temps as well, since one parent is a warm grower, and the other prefers cool temps. See: