Maxsea for Heliamphora?

[Exo]

I was just curious if anyone has used maxsea on Heliamphora and if so, were the results positive, or negative? I have been contemplating trying some on mine, but thought I shoud get some opinions first.

Thanks.

 

[twigs]

I've been using it in the pitchers and in the media for months with great success. I think the strength I use is 1 tablespoon per gallon

 

[Exo]

I've been using it in the pitchers and in the media for months with great success. I think the strength I use is 1 tablespoon per gallon

Wow...pretty strong solution.....how often?

 

[Frilleon]

I use it a 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. Some go to a teaspoon per gallon. A tablespoon IMHO is a little too strong.

 

[RL7836]

I fertilize the pitchers with a solution (concentration similar to Frill's) every week or three. Depending on my mood, I'll use Maxsea or another orchid fertilizer. Some use a much higher concentration (there are some other threads on this) but I'm not comfortable with the potential downsides. Regular fertilization with weak solution (weekly weakly) has given me good growth that I'm quite happy with ...

 

[thez_yo]

I don't know about maxsea, but I use a solution of about 1tsp trich + 1tsp orchid fert per gallon of water that my Heliamphora sit in and they're not dead yet.

 

[Exo]

Hmm...So I tried maxsea at 1/4 tsp per gallon on them.....so I guess I'll see what happens....

 

[twigs]

I double checked the note on my fertilizer and it is actually 1 tsp.

I generally fertilize once every 3 - 4 weeks.

 

[mmlr38]

For a while, I was testing my original H. nutans and H. minor by fertilizing them in the pitchers and in the soil with 2tsp/gallon of Maxsea every two weeks. I have both species in tissue culture and now have a few dozen of each species growing in vivo, so if they died I didn't care.

They seemed to be fine with 2tsp/gallon of Maxsea every 2 weeks. I've gotten lazy lately and I only fertilize them about once a month now with 1tsp/gallon of Maxsea. But I still occasionally drop Osmocote pellets in the pitchers.

 

[jeff 2]

suite

why use a fertilizer? a natural food is not suffisant ?

Heliamphora are protocarnivores, the insects their food, then why have they developed their pitchers?

For my part I only use insects to feed

these 2 particularly
eurydema ornatum

forficula auriculata

jeff

 

[Exo]

why use a fertilizer? a natural food is not suffisant ?

Heliamphora are protocarnivores, the insects their food, then why have they developed their pitchers?

For my part I only use insects to feed

these 2 particularly
eurydema ornatum

forficula auriculata

jeff

It's hard to get bugs of appropriate size here this time of year...especially for very small helis.

 

[RL7836]

why use a fertilizer? a natural food is not suffisant ?

Availability & size (as Exo noted) can both be issues (especially the small pubescent pitchers). In addition, I've had times when the pitchers (Heli, Ceph & Neps) became filled with mold after feeding insects. While there was no apparent downside to the pitchers, aesthetically it was less than wonderful.

 

[kulamauiman]

cut them up into smaller portions. I have dissection scissors just for that.

 

[jeff 2]

suite

at each stage of the pitcher different prey, for my part for juveniles I simply filled with rain water (in this water there animacules who feed them).

I give only insects when the plant has adults pitchers

jeff

 

[Exo]

I'm already seeing faster growth with my helis after using 1/4 tsp of maxsea per gallon poured through the pot and into the pitchers.....it seems to work very well indeed.