N. northiana - grown under different lighting conditions

[Cindy]

Both plants arrived in the same order during December last year. The one on the left is grown under T5 lights and the other with natural sunlight.

T5 lights for 12 hours.

Filtered sunlight for the entire day but very bright from 4pm tp 7pm.

 

[polywer2345]

i like the natural one, it is bigger

 

[phissionkorps]

Man i really miss my northiana. It succumbed to a horrible scissors accident :'(.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Well, it can be said that the one with smaller leaves are getting more light because the plant doesn't need to produce the big green leaves to get the energy, but I do like the one outside better. They both apear to have the same sized pitchers so even though the one with the smaller leaves is not as big I am willing to bet it is getting more light it likes vs the one outside.

But both plants are fabulous.

 

[Clint]

I prefer the smaller one. It looks like the larger one has smaller developing pitchers, and the pitcher/leaf ratio is better on the smaller one.

 

[nightsky]

I like the smaller one also. Thanks for the comparison. Very interesting to see the difference! I noticed when I put all my neps under grow lights, their next set of leaves shrank considerably, but pitcher size didn't change.

 

[D_muscipula]

No wonder plants in the wild tend to be larger than ones in cultivation, thanks for posting this.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

With flourcents you can get the light without the heat. If you notice plants grown in not enough light will have longer leaves than those grown outside in full sun. The lack of light makes them long and leggy searching for the light and getting as much surface area as they can for light collecting to grow. Plants with adiquate light do not need to spend that energy there and so their leaves are smaller. So where as both plants look great and the larger one is well larger. I do think the smaller one is more healthy and getting the lightit needs.

 

[Capensis]

That's a big difference .

 

[Knuckles]

Very interesting
Ive seen this in my rafflesianas and personally like the smaller one since the pitchers look enormous compared to the shorter leaves. Thanks for the comparison shots

 

[Cindy]

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. I kept them under different conditions so as to minimise my losses...used to kill every northiana I get...and I wanted to see which will do better. Good thing is, both plants are pitchering well.

I'll update again in time to come, if there is any difference in pitcher colour etc. So far, the one under T5 has larger slightly pitchers but the leaves are more yellow (not evident in the pics).

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Well, is orchids, The darker the leaves are the, the less light the plant is getting. Generaly speaking. Some are light green by nature, but two of the same species the one with lighter leaves is getting more light. Again it has to do with the ammount of clorophyll needed to produce the plants energy. I still think the plant grown under the lights is healthier than the outside plant. The outside plant could take more light than its getting I believe, but the light is still within acceptable range of growth because its growing nice still.

 

[Cindy]

Thanks, Josh. I like both. The one under light is more compact but the green ain't that nice...it is even beginning to look a little bleached. The other plant is at the window ledge and the light it receives is through a tinted window. But in the late afternoon, there is direct sunlight coming in and it seems not to mind the heat build-up.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

I would think woun not mind the heat buildup. Isn't northiana a lowlander? I am growing mine like that outside. Of course I have only had mine a month and it is only in a 2 inch pot right now, but it has gotten over the shipping shock and is putting out a new leaf already.

Try backing the one under lights away from the lights a little bit. If it is getting a bleaches apearance to the leaves it is getting too much light, I think. How far are you growing it under the light? Put a little more distance from the plant, since I assume you have other plants under the light, you wouldn't want to shorten the durtion of the light just for one plant if the others are doing good.

Now keep in mind, I DO NOT grow under lights yet, but have been doing reading and when you increas distance you decrease intensity. I would try to green it up a little more, but from your pictures it looks nice to me.

 

[Cindy]

Isn't northiana a lowlander?

It is, but in the wild the nights are cool and very humid...there is often a layer of mist which will cover the growing area in the early hours of the morning. As for my balcony growing in a city area, the day/night temperatures don't change very much. In fact, sometimes as little as 2 degrees.

Thanks for the tip about the colouration. I'll move the plant a little further to the side of the rack where the intensity of the T5 light is lower and see what happens.

 

[Clint]

I wonder if a night time drop really matters to ultralowland plants. Do they really prefer it to go from "It's so hot, I'm going to kill myself!" in the day to "I'm going to rob an air conditioning retailer" at night? Hehe. I wonder if it's a ratio that's more important or an actual temperature. Maybe 85-90 is as good as 80-85 or 85-80. Doesn't really matter for most lowland plants because they're so easy, but a few are tricky and we may never learn their mysteries.

You said you grew it in burnt clay, right? What is burnt clay? Is that the same as baked clay used for orchids and hydroponics?

 

[Cindy]

Burnt clay is just burnt earth. But not garden soil. It all started when someone here gave up on their northiana growing in perlite and LFS and turned to this burnt clay. He was inspired by a Malaysian who grew his northiana using clay he finds in his back garden (he lives in Sarawak). The northiana grew with ease and pitchered on every leaf.

N. northiana has been considered "difficult", "princess", "grouch" etc by growers like myself, who are living in ultralowland conditions. We all focussed on the humidity, light, water and finally decided that "what the heck!"...just use burnt earth. Voila! Even N. campanulata and N. merrilliana do very well in it!

Having said that, we could have gone very wrong with the media but we have tried all sort of peat/LFS/cocochip based media and none worked. The plants never looked good and never pitchered.

 

[Cindy]

Anyone would still prefer the compact plant?

Pitcher of compact plant under T5 lights.

Pitcher of plant getting filtered sunlight through a tinted window.

 

[rsivertsen]

Congratulations Cindy! Well done! - Rich

 

[Clint]

But what is burnt clay? Terra cotta?