The plant won't object to being trimmed. I've never had to do anything to the ones that I've trimmed. I have a nep that I grew from a cutting and then took two cuttings from that. The cuttings did fine and the plant sent out a basal shoot that is now a nice sized plant but the original stem dried out and appears dead. The plant lives on thanks to the basal shoot. I probably took too much off though. I think that if you're leaving some nice leaves on for photosynthesis, then it should not be a problem.

HOWEVER...I'm sure I won't be the one to add this next part to the conversation.

A CP is a terrible thing to waste. 2/3 of a nepenthes could really go far in furthering multiple collections. If you are at all interested in sending some cuttings to anybody else, I would love to get my name on that list as I do not have an alata. I'm guessing that there are a few others out there that could benefit from a cutting too. You may be able to trade a cutting for something else if you are interested.

Well after having another look at my nepenthes you are right, ilbasso_74, it would be a waste just to throw them away.
So how do I go about the task now? How do I have to cut and treat the cuttings so that they can be planted in soil themselves and start to grow? Is any special fertilizer needed or other specific treatement?
Thanks for any help!

I've only done it a few times and some did wonderfully, other died. I think the alata is forgiving, but I'm not totally sure. There seem to be a lot of different methods.

Here are a few sites that offer ideas:

http://www.world-of-carnivores.com/nepenthes_propagation.html
http://www.necps.org/documents/200404-NECPS-Program-Propagating%20Nepenthes%20by%20cuttings.pdf
http://www.nepenthesaroundthehouse.com/takingcuttings.htm
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Carnivorous-Plants-711/Nepenthes-Cuttings.htm

There was a really good site with nice photos that I can't find at the moment.

I have a ventrata that I clipped and tossed into a pot of soil and others that I think are a miranda that I put in LFS with rooting hormone. I'm still experimenting I guess. With all of them though, I made sure to slice the base of the stem before it went in the media. Those roots need to grow out of somewhere.

Good luck! The rooting hormone really did help speed things up when I started using it as did planting in LFS rather than a denser soil. Others will probably swear by the reverse. You are in a good position to try different methods with different cuttings from the same vine.

Yeah, as ilbasso_74 indicated, you just clip the vine into 1 foot sections and make sure some leaves are on each one for photosynthesis. Notch the end your going to plant several times with a knife to make several gashes, like you would do when your going to cut down a tree. Those gashes will help to produce roots. Rooting hormone in those gashes will speed things up. You can just plant several inches of the cuttings in Nepenthes mix or place them in a darkened vase of distilled water and check for root growth every few weeks. Nepenthes take a long time to take from cuttings, but as long as the cutting is green, you still have something to work with. Just leave it alone for a long time and keep it watered... clean the vase every week or two to cut down on bacteria if you go that route.

The parent Nepenthes will grow new vines from its root base and also might grow an offshoot from its main vine and will bush out more after cutting.

Hi
If you find a way to keep the plant neat please share lol. I grow it in a shadehouse with many other tropical plants and it sprouts everywhere but always grows in a straight line no matter how I prune it. I used to keep it with some parrots who would snip off pieces and at least 90 percent of the pieces would strike ,no matter where they fell. Have no birds in the shadehouse now and I let it wander among the orchids but it is bent on growing through the roof. Don't think you'll have any problem with getting offsets no matter what you do. gary

Ok, well I'll most probably get to work and do the cuttings tomorrow once I have all the necessary equipment.

Thanks for all the help!

Edward