Growth and feeding poll

[LLeopardGGecko]

I've recently been spraying all my Neps with a liquid orchid fertilizer and I've been really impressed with the results. Most of my Neps put out leaves and pitchers at least twice as big as their previous ones, so I'm going to continue fertilizing.

 

[RainforestGuy]

Well



Growing plants in bright light, like this N. ventricosa x rafflesiana plus regular feedings makes for nice BIG colorful pitchers!

And N. macfarlanei x sib

M

 

[phissionkorps]

I feed my Pasian Highland truncata small lizards (anoles) very sparingly. It takes them a while to digest them, but...

nature's slow release fertilizer?

 

[DerbyCityNeps]

haha so cruel Ron. Mr_Aga fed his truncata a fish once.
Alex

 

[phissionkorps]

yeah I've heard minnows and fish emulsion are good...but they stink so bad most people shy away from it. I grow my truncata outside, so I guess it wouldn't be too much of a problem

 

[syx]

My nepenthes catches very much ants and bugs. I give 3-4 sustained release fertilizer tablets to the media. If the upper side of the picther dried sometimes I give them amino acid solution.

 

[xvart]

edit: wrong thread!

xvart.

 

[richjam1986]

I've just started putting osmocote tablets into the pitchers (one or two per pitcher, depending on it's size). I Also have liquid orchid firtilizer but I havent tried it yet. Does anyone have any experience/insight about putting osmocote into the pitcher verses using liquid firtilizer. I know you can put osmocote onto the soil, I guess I just have an aversion to doing that/ irrational fear of over firtilizing maybe.
Which one might be better? I've worried about the osmocote possibly not being able to break down propperly without exposure to air in the pitcher fluid, but I don't know if that fear has any basis. I guess I will just have to see if the pelets break down after a longer period of time.

Thoughts?
Thanks,
Richard

 

[mato]

I've just started putting osmocote tablets into the pitchers (one or two per pitcher, depending on it's size). I Also have liquid orchid firtilizer but I havent tried it yet. Does anyone have any experience/insight about putting osmocote into the pitcher verses using liquid firtilizer. I know you can put osmocote onto the soil, I guess I just have an aversion to doing that/ irrational fear of over firtilizing maybe.
Which one might be better? I've worried about the osmocote possibly not being able to break down propperly without exposure to air in the pitcher fluid, but I don't know if that fear has any basis. I guess I will just have to see if the pelets break down after a longer period of time.

Thoughts?
Thanks,
Richard

I've heard of people doing that, Richard, but I certainly don't hear it often. I tried putting osmocote pellets in five or six different pitchers and at least three of them developed mold (although this could have been unrelated). Also, I don't really like the idea of the pellet sitting against the plant for that long, despite the guarantee that the pellets will not burn the plant. Instead, I have taken to just spraying a little bit of orchid fertilizer into the pitchers when I foliar feed the plants.

That being said, I do add three or four osmocote pellets to the soil of my neps, cephs, and heli. I've only done this once, and will probably do it again in 6 months or so. On top of that, I fertilize the soil with orchid ferts, which I strongly believe is the best way to see dramatic growth. Foliar and pitcher feeding alone doesn't seem to cut it, IMHO.



Oh wow, didn't realize how old the post I responded to actually is.

 

[richjam1986]

I've heard of people doing that, Richard, but I certainly don't hear it often. I tried putting osmocote pellets in five or six different pitchers and at least three of them developed mold (although this could have been unrelated). Also, I don't really like the idea of the pellet sitting against the plant for that long, despite the guarantee that the pellets will not burn the plant. Instead, I have taken to just spraying a little bit of orchid fertilizer into the pitchers when I foliar feed the plants.

That being said, I do add three or four osmocote pellets to the soil of my neps, cephs, and heli. I've only done this once, and will probably do it again in 6 months or so. On top of that, I fertilize the soil with orchid ferts, which I strongly believe is the best way to see dramatic growth. Foliar and pitcher feeding alone doesn't seem to cut it, IMHO.



Oh wow, didn't realize how old the post I responded to actually is.

Well, I got back to reading it, so no post is too old to respond to! Thanks for sharing your experience. I'll keep experimenting with that in mind.
Richard

 

[Dexenthes]

I currently just starting dripping very diluted organic fertilizer into the pitchers and around the base of some of my Nepenthes. So far I've witness no bad effects, but I will keep you guys posted, hopefully I can conjur up some before and after pics.

 

[dueoka]

I mix up about 4 gallons of orchid fertilizer and water at 1/4 strength and drench each plant in the water. It goes everywhere, on the leaves, in the pot and some in the pitchers. After two days, everything is flushed out with tons of water. So far it has really helped some plants but some the results aren't as noticeable. The plants are outside so they catch bugs and even lizards.

Only started about four months ago but the results are obvious. Here's a picture of a N truncata x maxima after being fertilized for about a month. Those are two consecutive pitchers. And the previous one was only slightly bigger than my thumb!

 

[CreatureTom]

Wow good results! How often do you fertilise them?

 

[truncataloven]

Hi, I have fertilized my neps and cephalotus for two years using Grow more 20-10-20. Once a month in the winter and once every two weeks in the summer. To be honest I have never seen any real improvement in growth or size. I think every improvement in my plants has come from a positive change in conditions. In fact I have had several plants take badly to it. I now just feed crickets or wax worms. My collection is fairly large, so this is quite a pain. Im thinking of trieing Max sea brand. I hear of many people swear by it.

 

[Nepenthesis]

They catch their own food and I supplement with bigger stuff too. Most of the pitchers have hundreds upon hundreds of tiny little ants in them. I also catch larger spiders, crane flies and other bugs and feed them to the plants, sometimes chopping them up (while living, mwahahahaha) to fit them in the smaller pitchers. I also foliarly spray plants with Maxsea at a very low concentration and I got a 2-3 times larger leaf jump on my N. singalana 'Belirang' as well as leaf jumps on many of my other plants. Just started coffee and I flush two days after, haven't noticed a difference yet.

 

[dueoka]

Wow good results! How often do you fertilise them?

Everything gets fertilized every other week. I think the good growth is from a combination between the fertilizer and the large amount of bugs they catch.

Just wondering, can coffee be used together with fertilizer?

 

[maxima]

Though all my plants are outside catching their food, I've recently started fertilizing a few specimens to experiment.

This is a Rafflesiana that had received a severe cold damage, it had lost growth points and eventually everything. The bigger leaves you see are the only remaining leaves from the original plant. I have used coffee and seaweed extract (maxicrop soluble powder) and it has made a glorious comeback! I fertilized at the roots and didn't really flush out anything.

 

[Maiden]

dueoka: WOW amazing pitchers !

 

[Maiden]

MAXIMA: nice recovery, well done.

 

[PiranhaPlant]

I have a quick question about feeding neps. I have some dried bloodworms. Is it necessary to crush them into a powder to feed them like how it is done with drosera or can I feed them whole? I know crushing them will increase their surface area which means it gets digested faster but I am just wondering if I can just drop one or two in per pitcher.