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OSMOCOTE Testing on Nepenthes SUCCESSFULLY!

OK TIME TO GIVE RESULTS!!!!
When I received  this Nepenthes reinwardtiana from a dear friend it was given to me as a "mission impossible" quest,but after several months of keeping open eyes on this dwarf plant of more than one year old I came to some results....
Since the plant didn't react to terrarium result with very good light and high humidity I decided to make my first experiment with osmocote, a fertilizer that releases its contenents slowly while wetting the plant from the top.
After about one month the plants begun to react by simply increasing the size of the newest leaft!
Check this pic :

osmocote_nepenthes.jpg


Now give a look to this photo to what happened after 50 days!!!
Reinwardtiana has totally changed!
It is a miracle! I am very proud if it!
Tell me what you think!

reinwardtiana06.jpg


Now this is the plant YET! :

final_reinwardtiana.jpg


It is also interesting to put attentions to the soil around the plant : suddently it begun to grow also lots of vegetation!
For the moment the PH of the soil continue to sty acid...I will pay attention to those values....
Bye!
Mr_Aga
Milan - ITALY
 
Very impressive! Congrats!
smile_n_32.gif


Chris
 
Certainly draws a parallel to other fertilizing experiments I have seen, well done for confirming that!

It would be interesting to find out what happens to the pH. Also, do you notice a change in the leaf:pitcher ratio Mr Aga?

Jason
 
What is the ratio for the osmocote, Mr Aga? And how many pellets did you use for such a small pot size?

Recently I bought some 1:1:1 with MgO. Just fed ONE pellet to every plant either directly into the pitcher or into the soil. I am hoping some of my sleeping nepenthes will wake up.  
biggrin.gif
 ONE is probably not going to be very effective right?  
smile_n_32.gif
 
Dear Cindy,
poor girl,ehehhe! ;)
You can pray to check if the sleeping nepenthes will wake up,ehehe! ;)
Fertilizing nepenthes when they are not under good growing condition (ex: not enough light or poor humidity) will not bring to any result.
It is like feeding plants with insect when they are not kept well as they should with their conditions.
The Osmocote taht I use is for soil only and releases substances slowly and one perl last about 9 months.
The N P K values are : 9 - 13 - 18 .
Thanks for the others for apreciating my discovers and experiments.

Mr_Aga
Milan - ITALY
 
Ok i have seen several different types of osmocote like houseplant and garden varieties which one do most people use?
 
Hey Mr. Aga.
Nice plant you got there. Are you sure the osmocote did the trick? where is your control plant ?
A control plant in your case would be another reinwardtiana without osmocote so you can measure the difference in leaf to pitcher ration and growth in general. Without it, it'd be very difficult to attribute the growth of your plant to osmocote

John
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (nepizumiae @ Jan. 04 2006,3:16)]Hey Mr. Aga.
Nice plant you got there. Are you sure the osmocote did the trick? where is your control plant ?
A control plant in your case would be another reinwardtiana without osmocote so you can measure the difference in leaf to pitcher ration and growth in general. Without it, it'd be very difficult to attribute the growth of your plant to osmocote

John
That always comes up, u know, otherwise it wouldn't be a scientific fair empirical experiment blah blah blah...

I can confirm that if done right fertilizing can indeed promote growth. My brother fertilized some of his plants and on most of them the next leaf tripled in size. Now isn't that concludable enough?!? OR maybe the Neps just decided to go into a growing orgy all at once! Unlikely...another person (arie) also had the same results from osmocote when he did an experiment a while back.

Be warned though, that if you fertilize wrongly it will have extremely adverse effects on the plants...

Although I'm still waiting to see if anything happens to the pitcher:leaf ratio. Huge leaves are one thing, but size of pitchers is the real deal.

Mr Aga have u noticed anything about leaf:pitcher ratio ever since u started fertilizing?

Jason
 
  • #10
Jason, i am not denying the fact that fertilizers help the plant grow. I am sure many commercial growers usually use this to promote growth in nepenthes. But one thing is to have a healthy plant with nice pitchers and another claiming that because of this product the plant tripled in size in 50 days or so because of it!

John
 
  • #11
John, I wasn't taking a shot at you, but at the community in general. So many ppl believe that fertilizing is doom for cps -UNTRUE.

Yes, of course if the conditions are good enough fertilizing probably won't have as big an impact if the conditions are crap. And of course Nepenthes can have growth spurts when they are healthy - may/may not be due to fertilizers. Its just that all the conditions remained the same, the plants grew as per normal, then came the fertilizers and the plants boomed. Some of my other plants that weren't fertilized just grew on normally (yeah ok they were of different spp.), but tell me that is not concludable enough.....I think arie did one on three plants (ventrata I think) and the ones fertilized all had larger pitchers, longer stems and leaves.

Now, to see if I can locate that post...

Jason
 
  • #12
Found it! Here

Oh yeah, and Mr Aga did you notice any difference in the leaf:pitcher ratio when you started fertilizing?
 
  • #13
Jason Wong,
I noticed that leaf size is also bigger and traps also!
But in the ratio wins more the leaf for the moment.
Traps are bigger,I can garantee this,but not so big as the leafes.
I am sure that the osmocote did this effect. The plants was a dwarf stalled from 1 year!
She was in my terrarium from lots of months without beeing changed or anything.
Anyway...from monday I will also put osmocote to a little Nep. rajah. I will tell you what it will happen!
See yah

Mr_Aga
Milan - ITALY
 
  • #14
I understand where John (nizumiae) is coming from, however, you can justly say that the plant no doubt benefitted from the fertilizers in regards to the extreme moss growth and of course, the astronomical growth rate of the Nepenthes plant. These are the general effects of osmocote on Nepenthes, for anyone that has experience in using Osmocote extensively.
 
  • #15
Has osmocote been applied to other pitcher plant genera (e.g., cephs, helis, sarrs, darlingtonia)? What about on brocchina and catopsis? Just wondering because I currently spray dilute orchid fertilizer on these plants and they seem to respond well. Of course, applying fertilizer to leaves and roots are two totally different prospects.

Also, I'd like to use osmocote on some of my neps. I've read that one osmocote pellet per inch (pot size) is sufficient and safe. Does anyone care to comment on this?

Thanks!
 
  • #16
I stilll believe that we should have at least two plants to make the comparison..

a plant without osmocote of the same size as the one with osmocote before and after treatment
smile_o_32.gif


Otherwise, we may be just fantasizing too much

John
 
  • #17
See my above post for controlled experiment on ventrata (of course that is just one species and may not apply to other species in same conditions).

I think 1 osmocote pellet/inch is overdoing it (for starters), I would try half that. Then slowly move it up if you see results.

Jason
 
  • #18
I would also like to test osmocote with other plants and i am planning to do it with a dionea that in 2 years has never grow well and big.I will let you know.For the moment i will start on monday with a little nep. Rajah.See yah
 
  • #19
i think you should try your osmocote on a couple of macrophyllas and BTW, the effect of the osmocote on the sphagnum has nothing to do with the effect of the osmocote on the plant since sphagnum and nepenthes are two different types of plants. I do think the osmocote is affecting the sphagnum because in general sphagnum grows faster than any nep and the osmocote is really helping it maximize the growth. Whether the osmocote is speeding up the growth on the reinwardtiana in way that it's visible to the eye in just 50 days is the real issue.

John
 
  • #20
Just for a little first hand experience, sphagnum is killed by the heavy salts that osmocote makes on the soil surface, thats where you get the "broom" or greenhouse moss explosion on the pots.
 
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