Just ordered my first Nepenthes!!

[Pk93]

I Just ordered my first Nepenthes today! Its a N. ventricosa, hopefully I can care for it well since it is supposed to be fairly easy for a Nepenthes. Well it is kind of my first Nepenthes, I have tried them twice like 6 years ago when I was in middle school (before I knew how to even care for them... I fertilized them and watered them with hard tap water >_<), but I think I can actually keep this one alive lol.. oh, I also plan on keeping this one outside (at least until the temps start climbing towards/above 90º fahrenheit), Im just kind of worried about the fairly low humidity that I get here in SoCal.. about how quickly can/do these adjust to less than ideal levels of humidity ?

Also, I plan on putting together a terrarium so I can grow some of the more demanding Nepenthes and other CPs sometime this year (probably over the summer)

Thank you!

 

[mato]

Good luck, PK. You chose right by going with ventricosa, as the common red variety is quite easy. If you decide to put the plant outside, just be sure to keep an eye out for any pests or desiccation that might occur. It will probably lose some older leaves (pitchers), but this is normal.

I hope it does well for you!

 

[East_to_west]

I just put a ventrata outside and I'm about to put a little ventricosa out as well so I'll let you know how it goes.. I live in Santa Barbara so it's in Socal although if your talking about 90 degree temps it sounds like your down south farther, which is a pretty different climate. As long as you acclimate it/them slowly they should be fine. Just be careful if it's in a bag outside because, as it will keep the humidity extra high, it will also bake your plant to death inside of the bag so be careful. Also, it's probably been grown inside or in a shade house, so transitioning it to full sun will burn the leaves pretty bad. I did that to my ventrata and a bunch of the leaves now look more like bacon than plant matter lol. Good luck though, you definitely made the right choice. If your able, you should come to the LACPS meeting at cal state fullerton on the 20th of this month. It should be awesome and have tons of cool plants to buy or just drool over. As well as other growers from your area that can give you tips. Hope to see you there. If you happen to need a ride I could scoop you on the way if you have no other means of transportation. Good luck!

 

[Pk93]

Thank you both! Yeah im in Lakewood, very close to inland Long Beach so it gets pretty hot down here come late summer, even early fall (we hit 100º+ in October a couple years ago >_<). I have a grow rack outside that gets various levels of filtered sunlight so I may put it on like the second level of it and eventually move it up to the top to acclimate it to more direct sunlight; humidity is probably a bit higher on the grow rack too since there are a bunch of other plants growing on it.
East_to_west: I would probably freak out if that happened to the Nepenthes I am getting lol, I hear some people eat the pitchers of nepenthes where they grow wild, so maybe nepenthes bacon wouldn't be so bad XD.. I have been meaning to check out the LACPS meetings when they are at CSUF, hopefully I can make it this time