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Seriously... ventricosa

Dexenthes

Aristoloingulamata
I've had this small ventricosa from Andy for like five or six months now. It's struggled to put out leaves from day one. It hasn't pitchered once, in fact it hasn't even gotten close, the tendrils don't develop at all. It's managed to put out for leaves, one of which died, and the other three are just barely an inch long. In short: This ventricosa is just not growing well at all.

My conditions are:

60ish at night, up to 77 degrees in the day.

64% humidity at night, and 99% during the day.

I just recently put a 100 watt bulb above the ventricosa and it seems to enjoy it though no remarkable change in growth has been witnessed....

I really haven't had this much difficulty growing a nep before, even ventricosas in the past.

Any suggestions? What would an extremely prime growing condition for this plant be?
 
i got a ventricosa in early december and after i potted it, it went into shock. everything was dying back and the pitchers would start but die a few days after. i started fertilizing it with shultz orchid food (19-31-17) biweekly and the growth is amazing. its finally producing pitchers that last, but they still are juvenille and they are even getting that red color on them.
 
What type of light has it been under? Why does the humidity jump up that high during the day? Sounds too swampy unless you have great air circulation.
 
It jumps up because I mist it during the day. I have considered that maybe I was keeping the substrate too moist. So I've refrained from watering it. We'll see if that helps. Now that you mention it, air circulation could be an issuse. First I had the plant under a single 50 watt (I think) compact florescent bulb, now I have it under that and a 100 watt compact florescent.

Maybe I'll try fertilizer, or the coffee method or something.
 
quit misting it. Mine do great at room conditions with no extra help from me. The extra light that you added will certainly help. orchid fertilizer or superthrive sprayed on only about once a month would be great. Otherwise, leave it alone! Don't let the humidity be so high
 
Are you sure about the compact fluorescent wattages? 100W is very high for that type of light, or do you mean it's equivalent to 100W - which means that it's actually somewhere around 20W?
 
My Ventricosa flourishes on my window sill during the summer, but stops pitcher production in October. I have new leaves forming all winter still, but no pitchers. In fact not a one of my 3 Neps has a pitcher on it now. They receive only the sunlight through my window. I mist them at least twice a day, morning and night and no fertilizer. My father has pitchers on both of his Neps, but his window gets more sunlight now, than in the summer time. His Ventricosa went into shock for a good while before it started pitchering, I saved it from a death cube at Lowe's and repotted it. The heater is right below my windowsill, so my plants are staying toasty but relatively dry except for the misting. It must not be that bad though, I pulled my plants inside after a 3 month dormancy outside and I now have a 24 inch pitcher on my Sarr. oreo 'Sand Mountain' x flava 'Virginia' and a few others are popping up immature looking pitchers.

I'd say just give it time and let it adjust more to what you have. By constantly changing the conditions, you may just be prolonging it's shock. Plants can take quite a while to come out of shock and Ventricosa is one of the hardiest Neps, tolerating a wide variety of humidity and temp ranges.

---------- Post added at 03:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:57 AM ----------

One other thought, when you potted it, make sure you don't compress the soil to much. Neps like to breath. This can stunt a plants growth.
 
That's for the advice guys. Yeah I'm not sure about the bulb wattages all I know is it is a much larger bulb that I am used to seeing. Hmmm... Soo Should I take it out of the terrarium then? I mist the terrarium quite regularly and without doing so my bical suffers greatly. Perhaps the conditions aren't very prime. I am hesitant to move it again seeing as It has gone through a number of moves and I know it's shock is just being prolonged. It's alaska and still winter, there isn't too much as far as natural light goes, if I were to bring it out of the terrarium. Oh well, I'll try and dry the plant out a bit and get some circulation going.
 
What's it potted in? Your potting mix has a lot of influence over what other environmental conditions (light, temperature, air circulation) your plants will tolerate/appreciate.
~Joe
 
  • #10
It's potted in what looks like vermiculite, sphagnum, and maybe peat. Whatever mix it was shipped in from Andy. It seems pretty airy, loose and decent. But Maybe I have kept it a bit too water logged at times.
 
  • #11
an equivalent to 100 watts CFL bulb is pretty weak, especially filtered through a terrarium. Plus a terrarium is not the place for a ventricosa. Your bical, yes. If it is flourishing there, your ventricosa isn't going to. Wrong conditions. Can you buy a clamp lamp and angle it onto the plant, and put the plant in another location like on a shelf or something?
 
  • #12
i originally had my ventricosa in a terrarium but thats where i was having problems. when i moved it things got much better.
 
  • #13
Well I wouldn't say the Bical is flourishing, simply because it is winter at the moment. But alright, Point taken. Terrarium for a ventricosa = no good.

So Should even though It has been moved two or three times in the last couple months, Move it once more to an open location with it's own light?
 
  • #14
i think so. Any time the plant is not happy to begin with, more added stress of yet another change might be hard on it. You may not see much improvement for a while, but ventricosas are hardy. They can usually handle it. If you lose it let me know, I've got plenty and can send you another one to try out.
 
  • #15
My venrticosa cuttings don't do well at all.
They aren't from andy but ventricosa seems hard for me???
 
  • #16
Alright I guess I'll start giving him a new set up!
 
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