Nepenthes quiz

[lithopsman]

Hello all!!
I though it would be fun to have a Nepenthes quiz, not to test your wisdom of this wonderful genus, but to see how different people take care of their plants!! So to help me compile the research, if a question asks you to specify, Please do so alongside the answer under the number on all questions to indicate exact answer, not just generalized idea. Additional comments/questions please post at the bottom of your post.  Thanks!!

1). How many Nepenthes do you have?

a) 1-5

b) 6-10

c) 11-15

d) 16+


2) Do you feed your plants?

a) No, they catch their own food

b) a + supplementing

c) Only hand feed bugs, live/dried

d) Osmocote or fertilize (specify)


3) How do you water?

a) With a tray

b) Overhead pouring

c) Overhead misting

d) b and c or other


4) Where do you grow your Neps?

a) Windowsill

b) Greenhouse

c) Grow Chamber/Terrarium

d) Outdoors


5) How do you supply lighting?

a) They're outdoors

b) Artificial (specify)

c) Windowsill

d) other (specify)


6) What do you use for media? (highland)

a) I don't know, I use what the plant was in when I bought it

b) I made my own mix (specify)

c) Live sphagum

d) LFS


7) What do you use for media (lowland)

a) I don't know, I use what the plant was in when I bought it

b) LFS

c) I made my own mix (specify)

d) Peat


8 ) What temperature/ Humidity (highland)?

a) Specify


9) What temperature/humidity (lowland)?

a) Specify


10) Any tricks that help them grow better/faster?

a) Yes, specify

b) Nope

Thanks!!  

 

 

 

[lithopsman]

1)  C. I have 12.

2) B

3) D

4) C

5) B (florescent)

6) A and B, for B I use LFS and orchid bark, and other little things

7) A and B

8 ) A Always about 80-90% RH, day 73*F/night 55* F.

9) A, Constant 85-90% RH, 75-85*F

10) I just give them love and talk to them, they seem to enjoy it!!

 

 

 

[Dave S.]

1 )b
2 )b
3 )d
4 )c & a
5 )b (florescent)
6 )b & d (LFS, Sphagnum Peat Moss, Perlite, Orchid bark)
7 )c (see above)
8 ) 60 - 85, 80%+ RH  (only grow intermedites)
9 ) 60 - 85, 80%+ RH  (only grow intermediates)
10) For faster growth, make sure they are well fed & fish food is my trick when bugs are scarce

 

[Slizarus]

1.a

2,b

3,d

4,a+c+d, my Hybrid is too big for terrarium or windowsill,my highland is in a terrarium during day and outside at night,my bical stays in the terrarium.

5,a+b

6,a&b-I kept it in the same mix then added my own mix around it mainly for drainage and added root room

7,a&c-I never moved it,my mix was made and sold by the nursery I bought the bical from. Bark,Lava rock,Lfs,Vermiculite.

8,60-85,60-100
9,75-90,60-100
10.b

 

[mindmaze128]

1) 16+

2) They catch thier own food and I fertilize with osmocote pellets.

3) I overhead water, but I'm trying to make a misting system.

4) Outdoors in a shadehouse.

5) They get filtered light through shadecloth.

6 & 7) I use a mix of coconut husk chips, charcoal, sand, and  peat with a top layer of LF sphagnum

8 & 9) The temperature range is usually from 79 to 89 F, but almost never lower than 65 or higher than 93. Humidity ranges from 50 to 100% but usually around 70%.

10) Never leave a hungry turtle with your neps!

Jœl

 

[Capslock]

1-D I have about 22 neps.
2-B They catch some, and I feed koi pellets and dried crickets.
3-B I water by overhead pouring. I mist occasionally.
4-A,C I have a terrarium for my lowlands, and windowsills for my intermediates and highlands.
5-B,C The terrarium gets fluorescents, and the rest get window light plus either fluorescent or metal halide.
6B,7C- For all my neps I use half lfs, and the rest a mix of orchid bark, pumice, perlite, charcoal, maybe vermiculite, and maybe sand.
8-Highlands/intermediates are 60-85 degrees and 60+%humidity.
9-Lowlands are 65-85 and 70+%humidity.
10- Not really. I'm still kinda new, but I make sure they're watered and get proper light and temp.

Capslock

 

[lithopsman]

Thanks for all of the answers!! I like Capslock's format the best, letter than more specific, that way if there are any questions about an answer, everyone will know the answer to the question about the answer!! (How's that for messing with your mind?) Anyways, I will edit the directions accordingly. Thanks everyone!!  

 

 

P.S. The only reason I didn't change some of my answers is becasue they are spot on, and didn't have any additional information.

 

[hamata]

1). How many Nepenthes do you have?

d) 16+... I have 34


2) Do you feed your plants?

a) No, they catch their own food


3) How do you water?

d) b and c or other (mist and overhead0


4) Where do you grow your Neps?

d) Outdoors


5) How do you supply lighting?

a) They're outdoors


6) What do you use for media? (highland)

d) LFS


7) What do you use for media (lowland)

c) I made my own mix (specify)... Roughly:
2 pt. LFS and >1 pt. peat, vermiculite, pumice, charcoal, tree fern root, and perlite. Toping of LFS.


8 ) What temperature/ Humidity (highland)?

55 F, near 100% humidity at night, hot and humid at daytime


9) What temperature/humidity (lowland)?

Hot and humid (Typical South Florida weather)


10) Any tricks that help them grow better/faster?

a) Yes, specify... Mist them a lot. Don't touch them except to move them and transplant them (and occasionaly check what they had for lunch). Catipillars are evil. Scales are evil. Don't sit on them. Don't bring them in for some reason and put them where a cat can get them- evin if it is for 2 seconds- I learned this the hard way.Don't let any punks in the hood know your packin' CPs. Don't smoke around your plants (its bad for your health, so who will take care of your plants if you get sick... the cat? ...the dog? Ha! I think not&#33

.

-hamata

 

[Cindy]

1). How many Nepenthes do you have?

c) 13 species, didn't count the pots

2) Do you feed your plants?

c) dried mealworms, dried fresh-water shrimps and the latest experiment - amphibian pellets

d) Fertilize (Superthrive, Orchid fertilizer)

3) How do you water?

b) Overhead pouring

4) Where do you grow your Neps?

a) Windowsill

c) Terrarium (for younger neps and cuttings)

5) How do you supply lighting?

b) Artificial (florescent lights)

c) Windowsill

6) What do you use for media? (highland)

d) LFS

7) What do you use for media (lowland)

b) LFS

c) Peat + perlite (50:50)

8 ) What temperature/ Humidity (highland)?

a) 80-95 deg.F

9) What temperature/humidity (lowland)?

a) 80-95 deg.F

10) Any tricks that help them grow better/faster?

b) Not really - Being at the equator is no-go for highland neps if I want fuss-free cultivation. Hot/warm days and night are good for my lowlands. Highlands then suffer from scales unless they are "showered" with water overhead every week. Cooler weather here is not good for both because it means less light for the highlands and lower temperature for the lowlands. For that time of the year, I cut down on watering to prevent root rot.

 

[swords]

Hey this looks fun!

1) D
I have about 45 Nepenthes-god help me when the bulk of my collection gets larger in another year or so! My condo is bursting with terrariums and grow chambers already!

2) B
I feed crickets every week or two into each live looking (not withering) pitcher and I also do a monthly soil flush with a 1/4 strength orchid fertilizer called Grow More. To the growmore solution I add a teaspoonful of a complete micronutrient/trace element fertilizer to supply iron, boron, manganese, magnesium, cobalt, zinc, etc. most plants respond very well to this but certain ones do not, N. ramispina HATES fertilizer and quickly reduces it's pitcher size when I gave it the same routine as all the other highlanders.

3) D
I really do all of the above. I mist daily (or almost daily) my highland and intermediate chambers, the lowland one I mist occasionally, the plants in this chamber sit over a lagoon of water 2" deep so they rarely need misting their leaves stay "tacky" with humidity and wax. Misting these plants destroys the wax coating they produce to withstand the amount of light I give them and the leaves are more prone to burn (the pitchers are unaffected). I water the soil at least once a week by simply removing the misting nozle on my garden sprayer which simply makes a low flow pump and is excellent for watering without moving plants around. Some LOWLAND plants preffer wetter soil and I keep them on the tray but I watch them carefully to see that they are allowed to sit on a waterless tray for a week or so before refilling to 1/2" to 1" deep and allowing to evaporate. Those on a tray at my house are: N. bicalcarata, N. ampullaria, N. mirabilis, N. eustachya and my three unknown N. maxima hybrids.

4) C
Part of the thrill for me to grow highland plants was figuring out how to engineer a terrarium to be chilled. I love a DIY project!

5) B
Lowland Chamber #1: 75 gallon aquarium 240 watts normal flourescent lighting

Lowland/Intermediate chamber #2:
showerstall chamber, 400 wats of metal halide lighting

Highland Chamber: showerstall sized home made chamber, aproximately 300 watts of power compact flourescent lighting

6) B
Depending upon how lazy I'm feeling when a new plant arrives I may use only LFS (which in my terrariums begins to grow after a couple months and then my plants are in living sphagnum). But my favorite mix for neps is 30% medium size orchid bark (medium chips not medium chunks), 60% LFS and 10% charcoal. In some of my highland plants I have started adding 10-20% pearlite to increase drainage. I really don't like pearlite but it helped my N. inermis who barely grew a root system in a year by being potted in pure LFS (which was too wet for this epiphytic species).

7) B
The same as above but Lowland plants generally seem to tolerate (or even relish) far damper conditions at the roots than the highlanders -who really appear to hate overly damp soil. Lowlanders are generally fine in pure LFS with no worries about fast drainage (at least none of the lowlanders that I have), I am sure there are a few lowland neps out there who will prove me wrong someday but so far so good.

8 ) highland chamber yearly variance (midwinter to midsummer): Days 65-85*F /  Nights 45-65*F
Humidity is maintained by a Triton humidistat set at 80% but with the sensor set in the direct path of the grow lights and cooling inlet so that the sensor will dry faster and kick the ultrasonic humidifier on at 90+%. I aim for a near constant fog in the chamber so that I must turn off the humidifier to take pictures or to look at the plants. They really love this environment.

9) Lowland Chamber 1: yearly variance (midwinter to midsummer): Days 80 -100*F / Nights 70*F - 80*F
The plants sit on a plastic grid over a pool of water which maintains a humidity of 80+%.

Lowland Chamber 2: yearly variance (midwinter to midsummer): Days 75-85*F / Nights 65-70*F
Humidity is maintained by a GE humiditstat made for a house not a greehouse so it took some creative placement to get a higher rate of humidification out of it. However for an accidental sale price of $0.01 how can I compalin!

10) A
My only tip is common sense cultivation: emulate their environment as closely as possible. Read everything you can and copy what nature does, minus the monsoons and droughts, and you will have happy thriving Nepenthes. Unfortunately growth speed is gene induced depending upon species and sometimes even within a species certain forms from different localities may grow faster or slower than others.

I once read someone stating something like "if you get two out of the three requirements (light, humidity and water) the plant will grow good enough". Why should you just grow the plant "good enough"? Aim for super growing! As expensive as Nepenthes are give them the consideration of quality growing conditions, they will give you good growing and nice pitchers.

 

[lithopsman]

Yay, even more answers!! Has anyone ever built an evaporative cooler small enough for a growchamber? Swords, I know you use A/C, but did you ever try, because I am considering doing so and am looking for some tips... Ok, I'm off topic far enough, GOOD GROWING!!

 

[biggun110]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (lithopsman @ Sep. 06 2003,9:57)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Hi,

I only have two Neps but here goes.

1). How many Nepenthes do you have?

a) 1-5


2) Do you feed your plants?


a) No, they catch their own food


3) How do you water?

b) Overhead pouring


4) Where do you grow your Neps?


d) Outdoors


5) How do you supply lighting?

a) They're outdoors


7) What do you use for media (lowland)

a) I don't know, I use what the plant was in when I bought it


9) What temperature/humidity (lowland)?

The temp. ranges from 60F to 100F
The Humidity ranges from 50% to 100%

I guess I will either use windowsill of terrarium growing in the winter (late Nov - early March).


10) Any tricks that help them grow better/faster?

b) Nope

Bobby

 

[Kim]

1. Hundreds of them.
2. They catch their own outside
3. Most strictly from outside rain and sprinkling overhead if necessary.
4. All are grown outdoors.
5. They receive light from outside conditions
6. Different mixes..sometimes 8 parts peat to 6 parts perlite with some orchid bark or lava rocks.
7. Same conditions for lowland and highland and they both seem to do quite well at my location.
10. Common sense cultivation. I am fortunate in that growing plants outdoors here seems to make them far hardier than most greenhouse conditions which means they can acclimate to greenhouse or terrarium conditions with little setback compared to greenhouse grown plants.

 

[swords]

Lithopsman, I only use the A/C from June til September, then Minnesotas night time temps are cool enough the rest of the year that a 4" PC fan in the window blowing into the air inlet tube is enough to make the chamber have the correct cool night temps. Cuts down on operating costs and works just as good. I know an evaporative cooler is a panel with water running over it, the cooling and humidifying action is achieved by the surface area of water, temp of water and the amount of air flow. I don't know if you can make a small one that will be effective, try it out!
I had thought about it but if you see a greenhouses "swamp cooler" to be effective they are large. Orchids limited has one whole end of each of the greenhouses covered with huge swamp coolers and to be honest, they grow orchids great but it's still seems too dry for the nepenthes. The larger display neps tolerate the lower humidity better than the young ones.

 

[lithopsman]

Thanks!! I have a fan that I am thinking about rigging up with peltier cells, (see post in Terrarium forum) until now, I have used it for air circulation only, and I thought that fans only cooled things that perspirated... Thanks again!!

 

[swords]

I don't know about fans cooling things that sweat, sweatology is not my forte!

I simply use the fan to transport cool air from outside the window through a 4" diameter duct tube into the terrarium. The fan causes a breeze in the terrarium and transports the cool air. I don't know whether or not the wind from the fan will actually cool the plants.

If your blowing cool air into a warm space there will be a decrease in the air temperature.If you are blowing warm air into a warm place the air will likely not get any cooler. My system probably works because I am tranpsorting cool air from outside into a warm terrarium inside. I doubt just a fan in the terrarium would do anything spectacular for changing the air temp.

 

[lithopsman]

Ok, thanks!! I plan on doing the peltier thing though, it looks promising...