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What is the big deal?

T

Travis

I am just curious why so many people are gogga over Raja? All this Raja talk is making me interested...Is this like the prize plant of CP's collectors? Are they easy to grow or something that requires allot of care. Allot people have these plants and seem to really enjoy them. They are different I will say that. Would they fit in a 10-gallon tank (after 5 years)? Are they big plants? How big do the pitchers get on an adult plant?

Thanks,
Travis
 
Hehehe
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, I would say just because the size of the pitchers and color of them on a mature plant. Pitchers can be huge, up to 45cm tall if I remember correctly, and the plant size is also huge, about the size of a small shrub. Care is not hard. Just requires cool night temps and high humidity with bright light. Benifits from feeding. And after 5 years in a 10 gal tank? Hmm.....I don't think so, My Rajah is about 3/4's of a year old and is already 6 and 1/2 inches across (15cms) so take 6.5 and multiply it by 5 that gives you 32.5 inches across. That's quite a large plant in only 5 years! So no, I don't think it would fit i a 10 gallon tank unless you cut all the leaves off of it!
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But mostly because fo the size and color of the pitcher is why most people grow it. And it doesn't take long to get the large colorful pitchers only 2-3 years old it starts to deploy the larger pitchers. Any other input from other Rajah addicts?
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Jeff? Tony? Martin,Joachim?
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I can only speak for myself but in my collection, I don't strive to have every Nepenthes species from every location like some might. I just want to have all the most individual and exciting of the Neps. Rajah is definately one of the more stand alone Neps whereas some look very similar and generic in appearance. Their growth habits surprise me as well by a small plant 4" across already making side shoots/basal shoots. Very weird for such a young but happily this gives me 3 rajahs instead of one!  
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The main fascination I think is that it's probably difficult to get these plants to a large size due to their demanding cooling requirements. If your house gets warmer than about 50*-60*F at night you must have a plan for cooling your plants with cold wet air year round. Some people use small fridges but this will not be feasable when the plants start to attain mature sizes. My own solution is to cool the enclosure with a  humidifier and airconditioner set on timer, humidistat and thermostat. Basically like an automated indoor greenhouse, all this equiptment was not cheap, compared to the price of the actual plant... which was only like $30.
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Heres brief info from Nepenthes of Borneo:

N. Rajah
Stem: 6 meters in length
Leaves: 80 cm long x 15 cm wide
Pitchers: 35 cm high x 18cm wide
 
well from my view it is the challange of growing this type of plant in the type of climate that i am in. to meet or even exceed its requirement for this plant to grow is even a challange. having the right set up for temp and humidity is a must. yes like others have said the set up cost more than the plant does. and the running cost of the set up still adds up.
 
I think there are a number of factors..

The history of the plant and it's ability to get large enough to drown rats. The reputed difficulty to grow it, especially to a large size. And as far as Nepenthes go it is one of the more beautiful pitchers.. huge reddish burgandy pitchers with wide blackish purple peristomes. I can just picture what it would look like to have one the size of a gallon milk jug.................

T
 
That is a huge plant! The stem can get as big as 18 feet (####!!&#33
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. This would such a dream plant to have. One day or one year when I have the right setup. To bad my house is so dry and I do not have good lighting...I suppose I could cut down all my trees so it would be possible to have enough lighting in my house k/d. Just imagine how many ants a full grown Rajah could eat, WOW! It actually could be a pet since they live for years. That must be an awsome plant to own. I wonder if that would be a good hanging plant? What are the lighting requirements for a Rajah and humidity requires to have a healthy Rajah? I also noticed I misspelled Rajah - I am so bad when it comes to spelling plants. I suppose I could look up the right spelling.

travis
 
You didn't mispell Rajah.
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Anyhow, A hanging plant it could grow as but if you want big pitchers they should rest on a soft flat surface like spahngum moss or peat. Light should be very bright light and humidity should be above 60% at all times. At night it should be significantly higher than daytime.
 
It could be a pet... Then again, most neps could, hehehe... but yes... It would probably be like a small Pug... U know... if you don't give it enough humidity, its nose will break... Or sutmhing likethat... I hear they are really fussy when it comes to conditions... Its like a plantdog...
 
Adding to the arguments posted above, N. rajah is interesting because it does grow so slow, you have to be in this hobby for many years to grow a decent sized plant - and well most of us here are just not long enough into Nepenthes.

Joachim

P.S.: You did spell it wrong. The right name is N. rajah - N. Rajah is wrong!
 
  • #10
So far I spelled Rajah as: Rajah, Raja, now I will spell it as N. rajah
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, I suppose I could also spell it as rajah too. I personally think all neps are like pets. At least they can not run away or argue with you. They may show so signs of unhappiness by not producing pitchers but we always listen to our neps (don’t we
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). Wow, just imagine waiting years for your N. rajah produce pitcher the size of milk jug. Then I would love to see grouse take a nice bath in the pitcher...yummmmm!, grouse...

I think I would need a special room to grow that kind of a plant. If that were the case it would be my roommate… Do you have a N. rajah, Nep G.?

travis
 
  • #11
I don't think we should stress over the issue of capitalizing the first letter of a name, I have always thought it should/was capitalized as rajah means king and king is important so rajah may as well look important with a capital letter.

Anyhow yeah I have a rajah (spelled right
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) Travis. You think I wouldn't?
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I am sure you have seen my endless picture posts of it! um...now I cannot post anymore pcis of it casue I don't have a free website to upload my pics too......
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  • #13
Aha! I thought they banned free membership....
 
  • #14
No, they still have the free membership, but, as of last week, people with free memberships could not link their pics to other websites.
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  • #15
Hi,

just as a sidenote, the home.petflytrap.com server is up and running again. You have to create a new account. Although the automatic linking to the index.html file in the personal root file system doesn't work right now, the rest seems to be OK
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Well, I'm not sure if we are allowed to use it right now?!

Joachim
 
  • #16
I just found that out when I got back thier e-mail Steve.

Joachim, I never thought of PFT, but I will wait till it is back up.
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  • #17
They still have the free Photo club in which you can download pictures. I as signed up about 10 days ago and works just fine.

travis
 
  • #18
Yes, but you cannot host your images from thiwer site to a site like this. That is what angers me.
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  • #20
virus
what is the picture supposed to be
 
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