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Nepenthes coffee treatments

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ElectrCarnvrs

ElectrCarnvrs

Hello everyone,

Does anyone here us coffee treatments on there nepenthes? I've never done this before for my plants... But I hear from a lot of people that this works great... What do you think? And what's the best way to start?

Much love,


Drew McClain
 
I give my plants coffee its the best way to fertilise neps. Use only filter coffee and give it biweekly. You will see results by the third month
 
ahh must be an ultra highlander thing.........my initial thought has always been "doesn't fertilizing nepenthes defeat the purpose of a carnivorous plant?" but I guess if you are dealing with a plant that takes 10 years to grow less than a foot then a little jolt may be what the doctor ordered :) . My lowland plants grow fast enough without additional fert....just addressed my x coccinae yesterday.....growth was beginning to stall and newest leaf was looking a little deformed. After only 4 months the rootball went from 1.5 inch circumference to root locking the 6 inch pot. oui.
 
i think watering neps with only pure water does not replicate what happens in the wild,so coffee treatment is a good idea,when you see wild nep populations(only in pictures for me)they are surrounded by other (non carnivorous) plants ,so there must be nutrients around,even if the plant is a strict epiphyte i would of thought nutrients will be washed into the nook its growing in
 
A lot of us give plants coffee here, every few weeks. I use it on both lowland and highland plants, and it definitely helps move things along.
 
corky said:
i think watering neps with only pure water does not replicate what happens in the wild,so coffee treatment is a good idea,when you see wild nep populations(only in pictures for me)they are surrounded by other (non carnivorous) plants ,so there must be nutrients around,even if the plant is a strict epiphyte i would of thought nutrients will be washed into the nook its growing in
Click to expand...

ahhhh I use only rain water :cool:

ill re-consider after i put up a gh. :-D
 
Yes, coffee at full strength works very well for some species (namely the ones growing in ultramafic soils) and not so well on others. And although it does contain nutrients, you're basically re-acidifying the media, which is much more important than most growers seem to understand. For the species that don't seem to appreciate it, you can see an obvious difference in where they grow, such as limestone, sand, etc., which supports the real benefit of coffee.

As an aside, a few "natives" I've spoken to say that all the Nepenthes they've in the wild are full of ants, so much so that the liquid in the pitchers looks like an "ant porridge." Could be something to consider..
 
I hope Im not asking a question thats already been answered, If I am then please forgive me but.. how do you water them with coffee? meaning how is this done specifically.. Not really sure on what kind and how to mix it.. :)
 
use your normal plant water ie not tap water and make coffee as you normally would(not instant ,proper coffee)no milk or sugar added and let cool down and water your plants with it and wait for a huge leaf to be formed
 
I use regular coffee made with tap water. i dilute it 1/2 to 1/4 strength and top water the entire pot until it begins to pour out the bottom of the pot. some have suggested flushing the pot with RO water the next day, i don't do this. i just follow my regular watering schedule substituting the water with coffee about once a month.
 
by regular do you mean instant?i heard neps are not too fussy about water ,but tap water can vary massively ,i too never bother to flush pots,i also use full strength with no bad effects(more than one way to skin a cat)
 
mato said:
Yes, coffee at full strength works very well for some species (namely the ones growing in ultramafic soils) and not so well on others.
Click to expand...

Has anyone had any bad experiences with coffee and a particular species? I flush all my plants once a month with 1/3 strength Folgers coffee, and then mist the leaves w clean water to remove any coffee residue, and then back to normal watering schedule. So far the results have been exceptional. One straggler, but I doubt that was from coffee.
 
If you aren't a coffee drinker and don't have leftover coffee sitting around all the time, you can get a bag full of used coffee grounds at Starbucks. Ask them to set some aside and they're usually happy to; it's a request they get a lot from gardeners. Since it's already been used for a brew, your brew will be somewhat dilute. I have no idea what this means for the micro-nutrients -- I assume they'd all still be present in the second brew.

I still have a bag in my freezer I haven't used yet. It turns out my girlfriend's coffee production over the month is just enough for my collection.
 
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