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Lowland vs Highland

As many of you already may know, most of my plants are Highlands. N. ventricosa and N. sanguinea are my oldest plants and I always thought they were easy to grow, so much so that I feared lowland plants. However, my trip to the Meijer Gardens last month prooved tempting and I picked up an N. raffsomethingorother(sorry I have not memorised the spelling yet). Aside from lower humidity, the growing conditions for it and my highlands are identical. That is, it's generally cool with colder nights, but my N. raff is growing at an insain rate, almost as fast as my N. sanguinea (which has a very small window of "happy" growing conditions). It's already making traps that are LARGER then the ones it made while it was in the humid greenhouses of the Meijer gardens. What is up with this? I thought the difference in growing highlands and lowlands was mostly temperature based, not humidity. I know highlands are more picky about the high levels at night, but shouldn't both be fond of higher humidity overall?

Well, any imput you have would be great because I want to get some more lowlands (yay fanged monkey pot), but only if you think this is normal and my N. raff. isn't a freak... When I got it, I almost regretted it because it was sort of blah to me, now I look at it and it's become my most beautifull Nep with it's new gigantic bright red to burgendy gradient spotting over it's frilly pitchers (once my others recover it may loose that title however)... did I mention the traps are huge? Lol, sorry, I just can't get over the size increase.
 
Darcie,
  This surprises me a bit, as N. Rafflesiana (which is what I think you're referring to) generally likes it really humid.  They are, however, reputed to be able to take cooler temperatures even though they're classified as lowlanders.  I have not attempted this myself, though, so I don't know that for sure.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (schloaty @ Feb. 26 2004,17:08)]Darcie,
  This surprises me a bit, as N. Rafflesiana (which is what I think you're referring to) generally likes it really humid.  They are, however, reputed to be able to take cooler temperatures even though they're classified as lowlanders.  I have not attempted this myself, though, so I don't know that for sure.
Thats the one, and yah, that is what I thought, but aside from the older traps getting a little brown on the edges prematurely, it's adapted really well to the moderit humidity I have it in. . . I don't have a recent picture, but to give you an idea of how it looks
raff021504.gif
... it's much nicer now.
 
Looks happy to me. The key to this guy is high RH and warm temperatures.
 
Hey Darcie,

What's the leafspan on that beauty?

SF
 
hmmm, well, I think the longest full grown one is about 5 inches, but I'll have to check when I get home.  It's just a baby, but it has 2 rossets already and is fairly large in conparison to the others I've seen for sale.

I've got to get more pictures of my plants, a lot of them are looking real nice right now...  I wish my N. ventricosa hadn't lost it's growth point, it has just started to recover from it's relocating and make nice big traps :p  But the baby shoots have nice immature traps.

Edit: Oh hey, I have pictures of my N. x edsomethingerother and my N. ventricosa from the same day.  Might as well show them... although don't expect a whole lot.
ed021504.gif
ventricosa1.gif
If you look closely at the N. ventricosa you can see all three branches. The oldest is the one with it's head cut off, then you can see the slightly smaller leaves with juvenile pitchers pokeing out a little to the left and then right under that, just barly visable is was looks like a little leaf laying on the soil just to the right of the juvenile branch, that is my newest baby one. The big part doesn't look too good right now, but if you take into account that the second youngest part is less then 4 months old and already around 4 inches tall the plant is growing really well
smile.gif
The N. x Edinsomething is a really young cutting from a chunk of mature vine. Seeing as I just got it and it only actually has 2 real fully extended leaves I think it is in good shape. I'll try and get a pricture of the little ugly one I forget what it is and of my N. sangiunea over spring break
smile.gif
 
N. rafflesiana is a fairly durable plant. I had a seedling growing on my East windowsill for a long while and it grew fine. I would call the conditions intermediate to cool with dry air. Pitchers were sporadic and not very long lived but the plant looked fine. N. truncata is another lowland plant that can take such conditions without too much difficulty

I would however not recommend cold temperatures and moderate humidity for most lowland plants. The majority will kick up their heals and get very unhappy very fast. So I would be very careful about translating success with N. rafflesiana in your conditions to potential success with other lowlands like N. bicalcarata.

Tony
 
I had a N. rafflesiana several years ago befor I even really knew what a pitcher plant was, and it lived next to a sliding glass door in a Nebraska winter with the heat register on the other side and like almost zero humidity and it grew there verry well with new pitchers almost bi-weekly until the following summer I put it in direct sunlight without acclimation or added humidity.
sad.gif
that was the end of that. It did very well with my abuse.

Joe
 
Hmmm, okay. I'll keep that in mind. It's not low humidty per say, just not nere 100% like my highlands. It adapted fast though so I may continue to try and harden it off. From what I have read, this is a very variatable plant so the individual clone can make a big difference. I'll wait to get any pricey lowlands till I have been able to tweek this guy into a new leaf/trap per week, that is sort of my standard min for considering a plant healthy. It might already be at that point, it's hard to tell because it doesn't have a bunch of mid stage growth like my highlands do, insted it came withh 100% fully developed leaves and traps not counting the tips new fuzzy point which I consider 0 development. Now that I have it, it's pealing off new leaves, but it seems inclined to swell them as they come as oppose to making leaves fast and then inflating the traps a few down from the top. It also takes a while for the traps to swell 'cause they are so gosh darn big in conparison to the rest of the plant.

Oh well... so what humidity is good for lowlands?
 
  • #10
Hi Darcie,
Glad to see you're having success with raffs. We've noticed they do enjoy cool nights, despite being lowlanders. We've also noted that lower humidity will shorten the life of the pitchers. Pitcher longevity seems to be the Achilles Heel of raffs, and it is definitely tied to RH.
I agree with Tony about other lowlanders. We find raffs and ampullarias are fairly tolerant, and seem to enjoy, coolish nights, but bicalcarata can be fussy, depending on the clone. Northiana tolerates coolish nights but really objects to drops in humidity.
I'm beginning to believe there is a set of temperatures that many species will thrive in: both lowland and highland, as long as humidity requirements are met.
By the way, the N. Edinensis is capable of very large, tough looking, colorful pitchers once it gets going!

Trent
 
  • #11
Darcie, i wouldn not let RH go below 65-70% for lowlanders. They like it very hot and steamy, almost like a sauna.
 
  • #12
Hey Darcie,

Rafflesiana can be a good lowlander to try as a houseplant. I grow one indoors and one outdoors. The outdoors guy is going through winter conditions now. He's taking a bit of a beating, but should make it to summer. I'm having good success with these lowlanders as windowsill plants: sumatrana, ampullaria, truncata, distillatoria, veitchii (lowland), albomarginata, gracilis just for starters. I grow some others, but these guys have proven to be "put me anywhere and I'll grow" attitude. Most of those are fairly economical to try. I agree with Tony that bicalcarata and northiana are challenging. I'm growing both now as windowsill plants and they're hanging in there. Intermediates make good windowsill specimens too!

Good growin'
Joel
 
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