Fertilizer in Nep pitchers

From: Perry Malouf (pmalouf@access.digex.net)
Date: Thu Nov 06 1997 - 09:18:38 PST 

Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 12:18:38 -0500 (EST)
From: Perry Malouf <pmalouf@access.digex.net>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg4248$foo@default>
Subject: Fertilizer in Nep pitchers

Hello all,

Quite a bit has already been posted about the benefits
of dropping insects into Nepenthes pitchers. It promotes
plant growth and health.

We've also heard about foliar-feeding these plants with dilute
Miracid.

Has anyone tried putting a few drops of dilute fertilizer solution
directly into the pitchers, instead of putting insects there?
A high-nitrogen fertilizer like fish emulsion comes to my mind.
Is the nitrogen in fish emulsion chemically available for rapid
absorption by the pitchers? Is bacterial action helpful, as it is
for digesting insect prey?

Using a few drops of dilute fertilizer solution in the pitchers would
be a lot easier for me than harvesting/buying insects and keeping them
around the house. (I don't have the advantage of living near Cliff
Dodd's 'insect heaven'). :-)

So how about some reports from you Nep. growers out there. I'd prefer
to hear about other experiences before doing an experiment on my
collection. :-)

Regards,

Perry Malouf

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