N. rafflesiana pitcher

[nepguy]

Another nice N. rafflesiana pitcher developed in my lowland tank, and I wanted to share a picture of it. I'm also including a pic of a fresh N. x miranda pitcher. I know this hybrid is fairly common these days, but they are reliable and I like them.

 

[Taliesin-DS]

amazing

 

[kentosaurs]

Wow....really nice big chunky pitchers That huge raff and that miranda!! Great growing

 

[ellisonk001]

Big Boys! They looks great Glen; thanks for sharing!

 

[TheFury]

That N. rafflesiana pitcher is absolutely massive. I didn't realize the plants got so hefty. How old is that plant there?

I'm stacking up my Nep collection at the moment but am quickly realizing that many of these plants will outgrow my grow rack in a matter of a few short years...

Great pics, thanks for sharing

 

[nepguy]

TheFury: N. rafflesianas plants get pretty big, but this particular raff is one of the "giant" varieties. The plant is a cutting from an older plant, which I've had it for a number of years, I'm not sure how many. The cutting might be 3 years from striking. Although they seem very adaptable, they do better if you keep them pretty warm and humid. They exult in 95º highs during the day if the air is humid, but highs in the 80s are adequate to achieve the best growth. I do notice that I have to watch the medium for dryness because they drink a lot. The big leaves seem to transpire quite a bit of moisture.

 

[swords]

Awesome! I have a N. rafflesiana BE99 "Giant" clone but it's young and only has 4" pitchers at the moment.

Have you ever gotten uppers from it? I'm curious to see what they look like on the giants.

 

[mass]

Miranda is really common.. but I absolutely love it. Can't get enough of the red stripeys!

 

[nepguy]

Awesome! I have a N. rafflesiana BE99 "Giant" clone but it's young and only has 4" pitchers at the moment.

Have you ever gotten uppers from it? I'm curious to see what they look like on the giants.

It took a little while for mine to get the big pitchers, maybe a few years, but the wait was worth it.

Mine has only produced lower pitchers so far, even on the mother plant, which is about 3 feet tall with 2-foot leaves. I've seen pictures of uppers on a similar plant, but I can't remember where. As I remember, they were typically corucopia-shaped and had a rather meaty-looking peristome.

Mass: I tend to think that N. x miranda is a glorified N. x mixta. I have a mixta, and it is almost identical to my miranda, except that the pitchers are just a little smaller.

 

[swords]

Thanks Guy did the N. rafflesiana "giant" uppers have any color or mostly cream/off white?

I love the huge lowland plants, N. Miranda was a great one in that regard, by the time I sold my old Nep collection it was many feet in diameter and producing hefty 14" pitchers.

 

[rbjong]

wow nepguy, a very good effort providing the lowland temp in your part of the world. The raff pitcher must be around 24cm?

 

[nepguy]

swords, I think the uppers I saw still had plenty of color, but the peristomes were mostly creamy with some striping.

Thank you, rbjong. The pitcher is about 25.5 centimeters (10") tall.

 

[Lucanidae]

Oh man, I can't wait until my raff gets THAT large. Its most recent pitcher is about 5.5~6 inches tall including the lid. Supposed to be a giant variety, I'm excited.

 

[thez_yo]

WOW!

And to think that mine looks like it wants to give up the ghost...

 

[nepguy]

I'm sorry to hear that, Thez. How bad is it? Did you check to see what's going on at the roots? Sometimes simply repotting can work wonders.