Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 08:11:24 +1000 (EST) From: rilyle@internetnorth.com.au (Ross & Ingrid Lyle) To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2780$foo@default> Subject: The Big Pitcher
Greetings to all
I am presently embarking on a quest to produce the largest Nepenthes
pitchers possible from my range of plants both high & low altitude. I would
appreciate any comments from list members on their experience in this area.
I live in the tropics (North Queensland, Australia) at an elevation of about
3,000 ft. This is not high enough to give me the night-time temprature drop
mentioned by Rob Cantley on his home page as being an advantage for high
altitude species. In the next few month I will be setting up a small area to
be artificially cooled at night & will keep the list posted on the results
of this experiment. Has anyone else tried this? I would appreciate hearing
about any results. I have noticed that My N. ventricosa & N. x Ventrata in
particular produce large, well coloured pitchers in our early spring when
we do get a temprature difference of about 15 degrees C.
Also has anyone got any comments on the use of water storing
granules I dare say that the product goes under different names. It consists
of small crystaline granules that absorbs water & swells to many times the
original size giving a jelly like consistancy. I have recently potted up
about a dozen plants in coconut fibre topped with live sphagnum, with a
little of this product in the pot to combat the quick drying nature of the
fibre. I will report also on this experiment.
Ross Lyle
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:31:35 PST