feeding

[Coma]

is it posible to over feed my nepenthes flys etc...?

 

[Stefano1]

yes, you can tell you over feed when it dosnt produce large pitcher or none at all

 

[Statik2426]

-You know you've overfed when it stinks.

-You know you've overfed when theres so much insects in the pitcher that it's overflowing and bodies are dropping everywhere.

-You know you've overfed when you find things feeding on the dead bodies in your pitchers (ie maggots)

Just make good judgement about how much you feed.

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

The usre way to tell you've overfed is that there are not enough digestive juices to cover up all prey, thier is fungus beggining to grow and the pitcher is beggining to rot out from alot of build up. Smell, doesn't mean you've over fed a trap smell SHOULD be there, it means digestion is taking place and bacteria are present so that means your pool in the pitcher is RICH in viable Nepenthes nutrients. I only feed about 5-8 times a month, it just depnds how fast the prey are broken down by the acids.

 

[Joachim]

First of all you can't do real harm to the plant by overfeeding a pitcher - of course the pitcher will die but that's it. I would suggest only feeding insects smaller than 5-10% of the pitcher fluid at a time. The pitcher then will be able to break it down without that ugly smell. With cultured plants we don't have the ecosystem including bacteria original living in those pitchers and so it is better to let the plant break down its prey slowly by itself. The rate of feeding should depend on how long the pitcher lives. Very happy pitchers are filled by about one fourth up to one half of their pitcher fluid with insects at the end of their life-span.

Joachim

 

[Coma]

thanx i guess im not over feeding then, what about this super thrive? is it needed?

 

[Stefano1]

if it is outside, dont feed it at all Coma

i use suprethrive to my plants once a month, all other feedings are from the bugs outside

i rarely feeed them