N. rafflesiana gigantea:

[emilias_garden]

Hello guys!

I have been looking for a Nepenthes rafflesiana "Gigantea" for the last 2 years, since i startes to cultivate CP's. Well finally in last April i found one and bought it without a second thought. Anyways... Bellow is a picture of it, and I would like to have your opinion, guys. I do not know if my plant is doing fine or if something is going wrong. [img]http://www.**********.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/new/confused.gif[/img]

Here is the pic:


As most of you know i am in Puerto Rico, and here the conditions to cultivate Nepenthes outdoors are excellent. Most of my Nepenthes adapt very fast and they get happy very soon after arrival. But this little guy is making me worry, becuase of the coloration of the leaves and the lack of new pitchers. I think that the leaves are not that green as my other refflesiana plants.

Do you ahve any idea or advice? Or... Do you think i am exagerating? [img]http://www.**********.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/new/confused.gif[/img]

Thank you a lot...

[divaskid]

First I have to say I'm jealous! I'd love to have this plant [img]http://www.**********.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/new/smile_n_32.gif[/img]

As for your plant, to me it looks okay but the lack of pitchers isn't a good sign. Maybe too much sun?

If it was me though, I'd just leave it how you have it (unless it starts to really look like its starting to die). Sometimes it just takes longer to aclimate. It doesn't look like its dieing to me or anything. It just seems as though its taking a while to get used to its new home.

Good luck!

[sharp229]

It looks fine to me. If the leaves are a bit red, it means it is adjusting to the sun. It should only be a problem if they start to turn brown. All my neps have red leaves while they are adjusting to my lighting.

Also, like divaskid mentioned, the pitchers may just take time. I imagine if you can grow other plants so well, your conditions must be fine.

-Ben

[RainforestGuy]

The weather in PR should be similar to Hawaii's clime. First of all, N. rafflesiana takes a while to get established. It may take up to a year before they show any pitchering. But usually within six months, some pitchering will develop. I had a bunch of plants I imported and waited between six and nine months before anything exciting happened.
N. rafflesiana needs a lot of root room and very damp conditions for it to thrive. But the media should be fast draining and have some moisture retention. I use a diluted fertilizer called Growmore, Liquid Seaweed Fertilizer and a few drops of Superthrive.
The coloring of your leaves are common for N. rafflesiana. In direct sunlight leaves have turned solid purple and red. The giant form is a notorious slow growing form. But when they do get large, expect to keep them happy in a five gallon deep pot. You'll get some nice upper pitchers when they reach about six feet tall.
Once the plants do start to pitcher, they do so at a rapid rate (for a nepenthes) and soon each forthcoming pitcher becomes larger than the last until you have calico jugs sitting on the ground attached by a twine.
Don't despair, if I felt like you when I first got my N. rafflesiana, I might have gotten rid of all of them and missed out on one of the most intriguing species there is!

Aloha,

Michael

[emilias_garden]

Hello! Thank you to all of you guys that have given my a little of calm in my deperation. It is just that i have waited so much to have this plants that i just want to be sure it is fine.

Divaskido not get jealous, it has taken me almost 2 years to find it;0)

Michael: Yes, the weather of PR is very simmilar to Hawaii's. They are so simmilar that the only place in the world that our national frog "The Coqui frog" (Eleuterodactylo portorricensis) has naturalized outside PR it has been in Hawaii. I guess you are already aware about the infestation of Coqui that you all have in Hawaii. So yes, we have simmilar weather.

So, all of you say that my plant seem to be fine, and that this coloration in the leaves is normal. I also have somes N. x Judith Finn and a N. x Dominii that also have leaves that are turning redish, the Dominii even has deep burgundy leaves. So this is becuase the plants are adjusting to the sun light?

So, is this going to happen every spring, after the lack of sun-light of winter? I mean, this coloration will happen every spring when the sun light starts to be stronger? Is this correct?

Well guys, once again, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

[divaskid]

Quote[/b] ]They are so simmilar that the only place in the world that our national frog "The Coqui frog" (Eleuterodactylo portorricensis) has naturalized outside PR it has been in Hawaii. I guess you are already aware about the infestation of Coqui that you all have in Hawaii.

Hmmmm I didn't know it was the only place outside of PR. Very interesting fact. *I think they're cute, but its a BIG nuissance here though. Not to mention noisy!

[emilias_garden]

Hello Michelle! Yes, Hawaii it is the only place outside PR that they have been able to reproduce and naturalized. The Coqui frog have been tried to be propagated by scientists in other places without any success.

You may say that they are a nuissance there, but here, on their endemic land, they are in the borderline of extinction, there are even some species of Coqui that have deseappeared. So the efforts of the scientists and the goverment is to rescue them from extinction.

But look how ironic life is that they have invaded Hawaii by a mistake, becoming a pest there. Here we are trying to save them and there the efforts are made to desappear them. Isn't it ironic?

I think that federal goverment should work in a project to take the most Coqui frogs they can in Hawaii and bring them back to PR. This way Coqui will not become extinct, but it will not be a pest.;0) What do you think?

By the way. There are several Coqui frogs in my terrace and in the greenhouse, they love to make nests and spend some time on my Nepenthes hangers.

[leucophylla]

I don't have the 'giant' type, but I have a bunch of rafflesianas 'squat red' here in the Philippines and it took them a year to make pitchers after I ex-vitro'ed them, but after that pitchers on every leaf except during the peak month of the dry season.
As the name suggests the whole plant is red, but it is a very healthy and shiny red. I've recently tripled the shade clothing of that growing section, which they seemed to have appreciated a lot (surely, they are still red). Durability of the pitchers can be low if the humidity is low, too.

Greetings, Volker

[emilias_garden]

Hello Volker! Do yo uhave pict that can share with us here of your red rafflessiana. I know it exist, but i have not seen pics and i would love to see those red rafflesiana pitchers, they must be amazing.

So, your plants were happier once you gave them more shade.. hmmm... may be i should try this.

I have another question. During your dry season, do you take more cares of your Nepenthes? When we have here in PR our dry season (from February to April) i become a slave of my plants i give them water everyday, almost twice. What do you do?

Thanks, Jorge Joel...

[leucophylla]

Hi Joel,

Just click on the pitcher-plants button below my postings to have a look at my plants. I found some images, where you can see the foliage. Some of the older leafs are partially green on top, underneath always purplish. The plants are not adult yet, since I've moved to the Philippines in 2002 and had to start a new plant collection. And being a temperate, former terrarium / greenhouse hero [img]http://www.**********.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/new/smile_m_32.gif[/img] it is not as easy as it seems [img]http://www.**********.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/new/smile_l_32.gif[/img]

Yes, I experimented with one, two and three layers of shade cloth (grade/% sadly unknown) and three layers won. The old pitchers just last longer.

To prevent becoming a slave (been there done that... [img]http://www.**********.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/new/smile.gif[/img] ) - I am even leaving the country for a few weeks every dry season - I've put them in water filled 9 meter long aluminum trays. You can see them on my website under Nepenthes-About us. The trays are filled by a perforated hose, that is connected to a Gardena 1060 irrigation computer ($100). Trays seem to be fine in the tropical dry heat, since they also increase the humidity nicely, but sure they should be allowed to become empty regularly. But I am not recommending these yet since I just installed them end of March. Now I've removed them because of the frequent rain.
Try also to protect them from that dry wind - if you have.

Good luck, Volker