|
The easiest way to propagate Mexican Pinguicula is by leaf
pullings. Mexican Pings have two leaf forms. The summer leaves
are carnivorous and sticky. Many species have drool edges on their
leaves so the juice from the digested bugs doesn't run off the
leaf. If the leaves are sticky or have drool edges, it is very
unlikely they will work for leaf pullings.
|
Pinguicula 'Titan' leaf pullings.
Notice the leaves are succulent and don't have drool ridges
along the edge.
|
The leaves used to make leaf pullings must be the non-carnivorous,
winter leaves. These leaves are usually small, succulent, and
not sticky. The
timing in taking the pullings is very critical to success. The
best time of year to take Mexican Pinguicula leaf pullings
is in the spring just before or as the very first summer carnivorous
leaves start emerge. In northern California this is late
March and early April for greenhouse grown plants or from plants
otherwise on a natural light cycle. If the leaves are taken too
early they may act as if they think they should be dormant and
not grow.
It taken too late they don't do much either before they rot.
Terrarium grown plants may not go sufficiently dormant for the
leaves to work for leaf pullings. Decreasing the number of hours
of light or leaving the plants on a window sill will help. The
pings I am familiar with go dormant when the number of hours of
light increases so you need to slowly decrease then slowly increase
the number of hours of light over a number of months.
Pings tend to not have much in the way of roots when they are dormant.
For pings like Pinguicula ehlersiae the best way to get leaf
pullings is to carefully tease the leaves with your fingers and
they will either fall off or come off very easily. If you are too
rough the whole plant can fall apart. For P. moranensis type
pings it is best to pull up the whole plant and peel off the outer
leaves. You can take up to half the leaves without hurting the
plant. This is also the best time of year to repot or refresh the
potting medium for your plants.
Generally, if you do nothing to
the leaf pullings except keep them from drying out, they will
sprout. Of course everyone has their own favorite way of doing
this. My favorite is to fill a tall pot 1 to 2 cm from the top
with a mix of 1 part vermiculite to 2 parts perlite. This is generally
a sterile mix so you don't have to worry about mold and other nasties.
For P. moranensis type pings, I sort of tuck the leaf into
the medium as in the picture above. For P. ehlersiae type
pings, I find it is best to just lay the leaves on the surface.
I then put a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the pot with
a rubber band and put the pots in a tray with a few mm of water
under my fluorescent lights. If you want to keep the pots in
a greenhouse, you might tuck the leaves deeper and not cover the
pots since the plastic could "solarize" the leaves. The idea is
to keep the leaves just moist but not wet.
|
