Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 05:46:21 +1300 From: Andrew Broome <broome@manawatu.gen.nz> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3262$foo@default> Subject: Re: Nepenthes Care
Michael said...
> How do most people without special growing environments keep
> theirs alive? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Not that I'm an expert or anything but I do have a number of
Nepenthes, highland and lowland, species and hybrids. The
vast majority of my plants are grown in terraria (converted
fish tanks as other people have suggested) however, recently
I've been experimenting with converting some (spare) plants over
to life outside the controlled environment of a tank and have
had some success...
It might be worth you experimenting along these lines.
When I've tried to convert a plant over from life in a tank to
being a suitable houseplant I've first put the plant in a
plastic bag (in my case I've been able to use ZIPLOCK style
bags because the plants have been relatively small, usually
being cuttings that have rooted while living in the tank). Anyway,
after a couple of weeks of living on a windowsill or where-ever
inside the plastic bag I've opened the top of the bag a bit,
left it like that for a couple of weeks and then opened it more
until after several stages I've got a plant that is sitting in
a plastic bag with an totally open top, then over the next
few weeks I just slowly pull the bag down until the plant is
fully exposed to the 'real world'. I've had 100% success with
this and have never seen any sign of wilting so perhaps I've
been overly cautious and the whole process could be sped up
somewhat using bigger steps or less time at each stage...
Note, this has been done only with relatively hardy highland
species such as N. maxima and hybrids such as N. veitchii x hirsuita
and some other scummy hybrid involving N. ventricosa, N. talangensis
and N. inermis. I've also converted a tank grown Ceph this way.
I'm planning on trying it on a N. ventricosa and a N. khasiana that
I've got to spare now that it's late spring down here in NZ.
Obviously, in my situation I wouldn't try to grow lowland species
this way (too cool and dry) and I'd not be suprised if some highland
species didn't pitcher well in my house conditions. Hybrids with highland
parentage (esp, IMHO, N. ventricosa, N. khasiana or N. maxima)
would be a good place to start I reckon.
Just a thought.
Andrew@home.
*NZKA 137, NAKA 5, AKA 07212, PNAS, NZCPS ...
* Degeneracy can be fun, but it's hard to keep up
* as a serious lifetime occupation.
* Robert M. Pirsig (ZatAoMM)
*Killies: Ducatis: Reptiles & Amphibians: Carnivorous Plants:
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