October gallery

[swords]

Might as well watch the new episode of south park while this downloads... I decided to classify this months gallery.

Highlanders:

highland chamber foggy

highland chamber "sunny break" (when humidifier shuts off) about every 15 minutes or so, depending upon outside RH as the tank draws air from outside the house.

N. aristolochioides x thorelii new pitcher 9 cm high this plant looks very cool when the pitchers are forming, like tiny egyptian sarcophaguses! When they open they are very similar to N. klossii only much darker and not having the hooded top but otyherwise very similar and satifies me til the real N. klossii comes out! Also, it is a very fast grower going from 12-15 cm in diameter with 6 cm pitchers to 30 cm in diameter with 9 cm pitcehrs in only a few months! I wish i knew how large these pitchers will get when matured... anyone... anyone

Newest N. inermis pitcher 9 cm still juvenile but definiately latterally compressed! come on uppers!

N. lowii (Gunung Mulu form) 4 cm high on 9 cm plant.

Lowlanders:

Lowland aquarium 75 gallon overview

Seems many people are getting N. bicalcaratas lately-who can blame them? Here's a photo of one of my young ones (20-30 cm in diameter) making the charachteristic fanged pitchers but is still sort of "bean shaped". When the plant matures the pitchers are almost completely round (at least on "red trap" form).

N. Isamo Kusakobe hybrid pitcher 12 cm high on 10 cm leaf

N. maxima x ? #2 Yellow. 20 cm No idea what this plant is. Every pitcher is slightly different in shape pattern or color (or lack of color) even when left in the exact same conditoions for a year with no varying variables... a mystery.

N. northiana pitcher from Sept/October

N. sanguinea (Orange form) 15 cm pitcher. Not too orange but this is the very first pitcher the plant has made in my conditions (opened only two days ago)

How irritating, the first 30 cm N. truncata pitcher formed behind the leaf so I can photograph it nicely....

N. truncata x veitchii hybrid this one has a lamina (leaf surface) of 10 cm and a pitcher of 20 cm! Add the petioles and the leaf is 15 cm - still an ugly plant though!

N. truncata x veitchii's hairy petioles

N. truncata x veitchii's lid which has large fringe element nubs on it.

I hope you had fun looking - it sure is fun growing em!

 

[lithopsman]

Great pics, I always love to see your plants! Like I said to Nep G once upon a time:
Beautiful healthy pitchers, beautiful healthy pictures!

(does that make sense?) No. Anyways, keep up the great work!!

 

[SnowyFalcon]

WOW! That's a lot of neps! You are very lucky to be able to grow them all, and you obviously have the greenest of thumbs!

I can only dream of a 30 cm pitcher!

SF

 

[The Griffin]

The orange sanguinea is interesting. If someone would have asked me what that was, I would have guessed a Judith Finn.
Great pics, Josh!

Joe

 

[Stefano1]

Nice pictures !

 

[NickHubbell]

Great photos and plants! Everyone is just beautiful.

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Hey Josh, super job as always!

The Isama Kusuawabe hybrid cross likes you too! Mine are going beserk in the greenhouse....I don't know what it is! Seems it's another weed Nepenthes. The one hybrid tho (I only got 1 cutting of) is a pretty lowlander I suspect...it made it's first pitcher a month or so ago and it was misshaped...there's another on the way so maybe this one will be better looking. Color is fabulous on it! Hope it makes a better pitcher so I can snap a pic of it!

 

[swords]

Dustin, how big will the Isamo Kusakobe pitchers get? That other complex hybrid I got from you (that has N. rokko in it) is real slow going so nothing good to post yet, just about 3 small leaves since arrival.

I don't have green thumbs. I kill everything that is not inside my grow chambers. If I put it in the house, it's dead. if I put it outside (asside from Sarracenia) it's dead. It's just that I make the climates inside the terrariums as good as possible with a lotta light high humidity and right temps.

The highlanders do not do as well when the fog is not thick enough to block out the light as it does in fall winter and spring. Summer is a rough time on the highlanders. The hamata didn't pitcher at all from the August and September formed leaves & tendrils due to the heat, but it did start to climb! Now the tendrils are dropping in the correct manner and I should be able to post a photo of an intermediate N. hamata pitcher pretty soon! Who would have thought a 10 cm baby N. hamata would be a climbing vine in under 18 months!

 

[dfalkanger]

Great pics. swords

Thanks for sharing them, your N. bical is awesome!

Someday I am going to a have to purchase one of those.

Thanks for the reminder about South Park, I almost forgot about the new one that's on tonight

 

[PlantAKiss]

Those are beautiful plants and great photos. I wish I had more room for neps. One day I'm going to have to figure out a place for a nep chamber.

Thanks for sharing the pics...most enjoyable.

 

[D muscipula]

That N. aristolochioides x thorelii is incredible! I've been a bit of a species snob, but i might have to change my ways!

Swords, do you not do any cooling on your highland tank? What are your night temps during the summer?

My hamata has recovered and is also growing amazingly fast (compared the the other highlands). I have high hopes for it! What's the diameter on your vining plant? I'm thinking of building a custom display terrarium just for the hamata, and don't want to make it too small in diameter.

Nice!

 

[Capslock]

I've got to agree with D. muscipula. That N. aristochloides x thorelii just went onto my urgent "want" list. Very, very cool pics!

Capslock

 

[colinliew]

Oh my gosh swords, those are incredible photos! I love your tank's "foggy" look!

Do you find that the sanguinea seems reluctant to colour up? I have one from Malesiana whose pitchers are still stubbornly green despite about six hours of intense sun.



Colin

 

[swords]

True, I'm not a huge fan of hybrids either. So many hybrids look "samey" ya know? I do like natural hybrids however. But upon seeing  shot of a small aristo x thorelii pitcher I knew it must be owned!  This one doesn't look like a normal hybrid and has a unique shape and color. I will photograph a developing pitcher next time one inflates they're so creepy! Like black hanging coffins. Totally a halloween Nepenthes!

Yes, I do use a 24 hour cooling system (or rather fresh air inflow) on the highland chamber by having a 4" fan blow air from outside the window into the highland chamber via a 4" diameter flexible dryer vent hose. The incoming air is first humidified by an ultrasonic humidifier who's outlet intersects within the air inlet duct before it reaches the terrarium so the incoming air is totally saturated and fog vapor filled before it reaches the plants. But my plants do not like daytime temps above 80*F since outside July, Aug & early Sept their daytime temps usually 70 with a max of 75*F. Their nights are always down to 55-45*F by simply relying on Minnesotas already cool night temps. Since I work nights when I come home from work at 4:30 am I always take a peek at the temps and see what the thermostat says on all the tanks (after I feed the screaming cat of course). It's quite nice not having to use an AC year round. Outside Zone 4a this kinda outside airflow cooling setup might not work for as much of the year as it does for me. It depends upon the local weather temps as well as the speed of your fan (faster movement will cool slightly but only to a point because too fast of fan speed will simply evaporate the fog vapor too quickly, then your humdiity will not be high enough and you will have a dual problem.

Only July through Sept is the roughest months because I am not able to run all the acs and lighting during summer's daytime to drop the temps 10 or so degrees. I just blow the circuts when the ACs kick on while the lights are on. My condo only has two circuts and I'm maxing them both!
I run the AC after "lights out" in the summer July, Aug, Sept and bring the highland chamber down to 50*F but cool temps are important during the daytime too for the delicate pitchered species like N. hamata and the true N. aristolochioides. They both cried uncle and didn't pitcher on two leaves each made during those months but are doing just fien healthwise and are back to their old habits of making pitcher buds. N. rajah and the rest of the highlanders were unphased by the few sporadic weeks of 80-85*F days. More problems may have occured but in MN high temps is not a usual concern. A week of sunny weather and 85*F is considered a heat wave and a drought to us Vikings...

 

[D muscipula]

Thanks for the detailed information.  

I'd like to rig up something similar for the time being.  Come next summer, i have a deactivated lab equipment chiller from school that should be awesome, if it still works (crosses fingers).  Kinda expensive on the power side, but then, so are highland neps.

 Still trying to figure out how to best use it.
Back home in our Zone 3/4 deep freeze desert it wouldn't have been a problem, but then, i wouldn't be able to regularly collect rainwater there.

Thanks for sharing those pics.  Beautiful.

 

[schloaty]

I love the aristichioides hybrid! I'm a huge fan of aristichioides. That inermis is cool, too. I have to get me one of those....

 

[seedling]

Real nice photos, I would be curious to find out more on the construction of your highland chamber.

 

[sarracenialuver]

Hey,
    I've seen alot of cool stuff in my life, but those... are... awesome!
               Kevin

 

[carcinos]

I love your photos, but I don't see how any nepenthes can be ugly unless its rotting away and dying.

 

[swords]

I just mean the truncata x veitchii isn't "pretty". It's still a nice growing plant and might get nicer looking as I've seen one photo where the pitchers were almost entirely orange but as with seed grown hybrids each on has a slight variation and this might be a "pale" one.