Problems with a Highland Nepenthes
Laurent Ide (lide@dvddd.com)
Thu, 10 Oct 1996 10:57:46 GMT
Let's talk about my N. ventricosa.
It is placed in a common pot in something like soil. This first pot is put
over a second one, inverted. Al this in a large plate, filled with these
little red brown balls that you can see everywhere in the plants shops to
use for hydroponic growing.
So, when I give water (rain water, but that's not an obligation) the
excedent falls in the plate, goes trough the balls and evaporate. With this
installation I obtain 70 per cent of humidity.
I already said that it lives in my own room, near the window -my mother
LOVES that, you imagine (8 - where it receives day light and a temp about
15-20 C (don't forget that Nepenthes is an highland one).
The plant is approximately 6-7 inches high, with 15 leaves 7-8 inches long.
It produces regularly pitchers, and at the moment there are two beautiful
pitchers 2 inches long, with a yellow-red coloration. In fact pitchers
become more and more red (a new one is still more red than the precedent).
Then, everything seems OK in this little story but I tell you what happens.
The old leaves at the base turn to yellow. The old pitchers dry, turning
to black from their top until the liquid level. It seems too that the
leaves are far enough from the dark green that I observed on other Nep, I
would say that they're green like an apple (but not a Golden one !)
Well, is that a normal evolution ? I remember that Nepenthes I saw were
keeping a lot of pitchers in good state, actually I got only these two big
pitchers in good health, the others are 'attacked'. Meanwhile four pitchers
are growing. Where am I wrong ? Any advice will be appreciated.
Good growing and... Go ahead, Bioman ED !
Laurent