N. madgascariensis cultivation

From: MARK POGANY (MARKP@CRSCMS.COM)
Date: Wed Jan 14 1998 - 20:04:18 PST


Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 23:04:18 -0500
From: MARK POGANY <MARKP@CRSCMS.COM>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg184$foo@default>
Subject: N. madgascariensis cultivation

In CP digest 1327 Perry Malouf wrote:

... ?Has anyone been able to grow N. madagascariensis to a decent
size, say beyond the "baby plant" stage? And, has anyone
been able to do this with the TC clone that's being sold
far-and-wide in garden shops (in the US)? Is this clone
slow, or is N. madagascariensis a particularly slow grower
in general?

All the madagascariensis plants that I have were were from tissue
culture. In the first few months of cultivation I noticed very little
growth. These were from plants no more than 6" across and 6" high. I
began watering them using a very dilute (3 drops a gallon) solution of
rain water and the snake oil SuperThrive. Still no immediate results.
This species seems to be a slow grower both from my experience and talk
with other growers.

I keep the pots inside a 50 gallon aquarium tank under high intensity
flourescents for 14 hours a day. The medium consists of pink bark chips,
chopped osmunda fiber, long-fibered sphagnum, hort. charcoal, peat,
large grained silica sand, and orchid bark. The humidity hovers around
80-90% and the temperatures vary from 65-74f.

In the last three months all the plants have produced larger 1 to almost
2 inch cherry red pitchers. The tendrils connecting the pitchers to the
leaves are also starting to elongate.

This species has always been a sticky wicket with me, behaving
differently than my other neps. I guess you should try to establish
conditions that are intermediate between high and lowlanders and just
wait!

D. adelae taking over,

Mark Pogany
Cleveland, Ohio (15f and cloudy)
markp@crscms.com



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