Re: household Nepenthes media
Christopher Creel (ctcreel@top.cis.syr.edu)
Wed, 11 Jan 1995 11:48:23 -0500 (EST)
Brian wrote:
> With regard to the tests of Nepenthes as houseplants, Christopher Creel
> wrote that the one difficulty with N. mirabilis & N. maxima is that they
> have to be constantly wet. A way to partly alleviate this problem might be
> inclusion of polyacryalmide in the mix. This is sold by a number of
> mail-order companies as `Moisture-Mizer', etc. I've found it to be useful
> on mounts for epiphytic orchids and in other epiphytic orchid media which
> needs to remain very open to air.
I have heard strange and mysterious uses for this stuff. I have a set of
instructions I give out to Nepenthes beginners and intermediates that I
have written over several years of research and listening to this group.
One particularly interesting use was to cut a piece PVC piping
in half, cover both ends, fill it with this gel, place the whole thing in
a terrarium which has about an inch of water in the bottom and finally place
Nepenthes cuttings in the gel. Apparently, although I have not tried it, this
produces great results.
Chris