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Neps grown in standing water.

Hoping this thread doesn't start drama. Just thought I'd show my success with growing neps in constant, "deep", standing water.
I have however noticed a few downfalls. Such as the plants developing HUGE root systems along with accelerated basal production. :rolleyes: As far as perks, once I adopted this growing method I had a HUGE increase in humidity and healthy pitcher development. Prior to this I had a hell of a time getting any respectable sized pitchers. I chalked it up to a lack of "real" humidity. In any case, this works..
Media: 5:4:3:1 Orchid bark, charcoal, large chunk perlite, LFS.. with a live LFS top dressing on everything but some veitchii stuff. They seem to do better without it.


Starting with just the small neps today. I'll get some pics added later on of the larger ones.

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Looks great to me. I like the ferns too.
 
Interesting! I actually just started putting my ventricosa in standing water because I ran out of space and out of laziness put them in my dew/ping tray. I haven't seen it quite this good in a long time. I figure it would be better to over-water than to accidentally under-water.
 
I think your mix has a lot to do with your sucess with this method. The mix I typically use of lfs and perlite in equal amounts holds a lot of water and would break down quickly in those conditions. I even had to switch my veitchii to a 2 to 1 perlite to lfs mix cause they were staying overly wet between waterings and I'm always sure to dump the trays when the water is more than maybe 1/8''.
 
I think your mix has a lot to do with your sucess with this method.

I strongly agree. Which is why I felt the need to include the mix recipe.

Looks great to me. I like the ferns too.

Thanks! I love them.. but couldn't be rid of them if I tried. They come from the LFS.
 
I generally grow my Nepenthes in shallow standing water; or, commonly, on a mat of saturated sphagnum moss (and let capillary action do its thing); though I have mostly moved on to net orchid pots in recent years, which also allows for greater air circulation than the previous method. Since I can away for days at a time, it seemed, not only a natural choice, but the only one; and I have yet to lose a plant to the method . . .
 
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As long as your mix mix is airy enough and the water and air circulation in your setup is great then you certainly can have great success with growing Nepenthes in standing water, as you show here.

Though, for any terrarium growers, or people that use pure LFS as a substrate as well as not having water evaporating at a steady rate, this certainly can spell doom for the root systems of many Nepenthes. And there are certainly enough examples in my own life as well as in the hobby at large that could demonstrate that.

Nice Neps!
 
When my N. bicals got to 4-6 feet in diameter I had a hell of a time keeping them moist. They would suck up all the water in the media in a day or so. I started keeping them on a tray of water it was easier to keep them wet enough but also got a thick mat of roots in the water tray.
 
Looking good! :) How deep is your water?

Me, I only keep about 1 - 1 1/4 inch.
 
  • #10
Looking good! :) How deep is your water?

Me, I only keep about 1 - 1 1/4 inch.

About the same depending on the day of the week. I usually top it off at 2.5" deep once a week. But the pots shown are MUCH smaller than your colossal ones.. for now. ;)
 
  • #11
Thanks for sharing your heretical method for growing nepenthes. I think you are justified to fear that your heinous departure from official nepenthes doctrine will land you in the middle of a weenie roast (literally), but I think I will hold onto my own firewood in this case because it has been my experience that, if given the opportunity to send their roots into water, (at least some) nepenthes will choose to do so, and this presents tantalizing possibilities for alternate methods of culture.

I began to notice this tendency in the plants some years ago. In my lowland setup, the plants have always been suspended over water, with the bottoms of the pots about 4 or 5 inches above the water's surface. One day I noticed roots coming out of the bottoms of the pots. I wanted to see what would happen, and so I allowed them to develop until they reached the water. There they spread out quickly into dense mats with hundreds of small black roots reaching up over the water's surface like tiny cypress knees in a swamp, and the main roots coming down out of the pots developed into thick woody ropes. The plants themselves seemed to be very healthy, and because of that I saw no reason to try to "fix" the situation just because it was unconventional. I did eventually have to deal with it when I got some more plants and had to do some rearranging.

Later the same thing began to happen with other plants in my smaller tanks. The roots would get into the water underneath, and it presented a challenge when I needed to take them out for repotting or for a trade. I have a N. muluensis x lowii that has been growing like that for years now (I'm afraid to look), and I just leave it because it seems to be happy. It's a small-growing hybrid, so there is no reason ever to consider taking it out of there. I just trim it up sometimes if a stem gets lanky.

Whatever works . . .


swords: I find that my N. rafflesianas drink a lot, too. Thinking of sending them to AA.
 
  • #12
mass you pretty well discovered what i do.....so long as the mix is airy enough you can get away with growing neps wet.....i grow nearly everything together in trays and just vary soil mixes and pot heights to dial in what specific plants need.....
 
  • #13
Hmm, I think I'm going to give this a try. I found a bag of orchid mix that contains: Orchid Bark, Charcoal, and Coarse Perlite. Sound familiar? Some of my neps might like a slight boost in humidity.
 
  • #14
Hmm, I think I'm going to give this a try. I found a bag of orchid mix that contains: Orchid Bark, Charcoal, and Coarse Perlite. Sound familiar? Some of my neps might like a slight boost in humidity.

Add a smidge of LFS and a top dressing, and it's quite familiar. ;)
 
  • #15
This leads me to believe nepenmthes would do well int he semi-hydro method of cultivation used with orchids. Orchids can even adapt to having roots in water and as everyone knows leaving them in water rots the roots, but if grown in semi-hydro they will adapt. This will lead me to trying the method of growing I wanted to try in the begining once I am able to obtain the inorganic medium for semi-hydro used with orchids. Awesome... way to go with your growing.
 
  • #16
About the same depending on the day of the week. I usually top it off at 2.5" deep once a week. But the pots shown are MUCH smaller than your colossal ones.. for now. ;)

Watch out though! I don't give them as much water as you and also I keep them in terracotta pots. I'll be interesting to see how yours adapt.
 
  • #17
I am ordering some semi-hudro orchid pots and medium and giving it a try with a cutting of something. and see how it does. It is a fecinating concept and one I have been asking about for a lil while now. Just too cheep to try it if it has been tried before. Way to go.
 
  • #18
Do you ever top water or do you always just fill the tray? Plants look great by the way.
 
  • #19
Do you ever top water or do you always just fill the tray? Plants look great by the way.

I just fill the trays. Top watering isn't necessary when using the tray method. Come to think of it, I don't top water any of my CP's.. ever.

I am ordering some semi-hudro orchid pots and medium and giving it a try with a cutting of something. and see how it does.

Glad you mentioned this. I actually use 50:50 peat/perlite for cuttings. Seems the extra moisture levels helps the cutting produce root systems faster. Once it's rooted and growing, I switch it over to the appropriate media.
 
  • #20
I have used Mass' method since I started in feb of this year. ( he's a great tipper Ya know)
I have gotten at least 20 Nep's in that time, all put into the tray . The results are immediate growth, no acclimation needed as they are surrounded by humidity and plenty of water for uptake to recover from shipping.
I have most recently taken to top watering with maxsea once a month, allowing the runoff to go down the drain.
 
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