Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 01:42:28 +0200 From: Johannes.Marabini@t-online.de (Johannes Marabini) To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2020$foo@default> Subject: Cultivating Nepenthes
Hi all,
as I received a lot of mails asking for fertilizing and cultivating
Nepenthes I will tell you a few of my experiences.
Fertilizing:
1. I do not fertilize seedlings and small plants!
2. For all larger Nepenthes I use Miracid in very low concentration.
Maily I give a few grais of the crystallin Miracid (I dip the wet top
of a scissors in the miracid) every 3 weeks to the pitchers, which I
filled with water before. So the plant can take the nutriences
(nitrogen, phosphorus ...) and the water from the pitchers. It is
necessary that fresch pitchers were filled with water too, as
otherwise the Miracid will be too strong for the pitcher and it will
rott. If that will happen, do not mind, it will lose only the
pitcher!
I also fertilize the leafs and the soil with the half of the specified
quantity. That is also necessary as Nepenthes are rather large plants
with high biomass. The roots will better develope, it there are few
nutriences in the soil. You should do this when the temperature is
optimal for the plants (lowlands 26deg C., highlands 22 deg.C) and you
should care, that no sun will burn the leafs. And then stop watering
the soil for a few days.
Soil:
I have the best experiences with not changing the soil! F.e. the soil
of my Nep.rajah, which you can see in my homepage was changed only
once within 6 years. Some of my very large plants are in very small
pots and they have the largest pitchers. If you want to do so, you
should care that there is no material in the substrate, which
decompose fast (f.e Sphagnum). I have a high portion of mineral
substances (quarzsand, dried or burned clay-pearls as for
hydroculture), a lot of 'hard' organic material (pine- and cork-bark,
charcoal) and less peat and polystyrol. And this works for many years.
I let the soil dry out every 4 weeks (dry as for cactea). This will be
no problem, if you filled the pitchers with water before. Good luck!
Bye Johannes
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