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Nepenthes coffee people - how often?

Hey all - I'm back from Christmas vacation/new-year-work-craziness.

I have a question -

Just as the subject asks - for those of you who feed your nepenthes coffee, how often do you do this?
 
I've heard only do it twice a year, so mine are getting a coffee watering this weekend.
 
I've only done it once and that seems to be MORE than enough.If you do not flush there seems to be a bit of algae that builds up on the surface. I would recommend twice a year also at most but I do fertilize the pitchers.
It's just a case where more =/= better results.
 
Oh snap! I placed coffe beans on the pot.... and its been almost a month since the coffe bean is there. the N.truncata seems to like it so far...
 
Coffee beans, eh? I was thinking it was a dunking in cold coffee that did the trick. ;)


I may try that out. I'll ask my sister, the coffee drinker in the family, for some cold stuff.

I just mixed a bunch of coffee grounds into the soil out back, in preparation for this year's veggie crop.
 
I am very scientific about feeding coffee to my plants. I do it whenever it seems like I haven't done it for a while, which works out to be every few months or so. My method is to just take the left over coffee (high-test) in the pot, cut it to half-strength with water, and water the plants liberally with that.

Nepenthes plants seem to really, really like coffee. I used to be skeptical about this practice, but not anymore. My plants never fail to respond to it with crackling, robust growth, super-green leaves, and larger pitchers. Even the moss seems to like it.
 
cooool, now I definetly want to try this, heehee. so can I just give 50% "black" coffee to my nep seedlings, or will this be too strong for the little guys?
 
cooool, now I definetly want to try this, heehee. so can I just give 50% "black" coffee to my nep seedlings, or will this be too strong for the little guys?

I have not used coffee on seedlings, so I cannot speak to that. Mature plants definitely benefit from the practice, but I don't know how seedlings would respond. If you want to try it, I would suggest that you try it with just a few that you could afford to lose, and compare their growth against a control group that receives no coffee at all. If the results are good, then you can be more confident using coffee on the rest of them. Neps seem to respond quickly to coffee, so it shouldn't take very long to make a determination. Be patient and do nothing in haste.

By the way, I haven't had any trouble with the development of pathogens in the soil of the plants I have treated with coffee, and even the moss seems to positively affected.
 
Though I havent done 'proper' experiments using control and subject groups, in my experience seedlings respond with the same results as larger plants with the exception of pitcher size increase due to the already minute pitcher size on seedlings. This has been my observation at least in comparison to growing prior seedlings without coffee additive.
But, as nepguy mentioned, a more conclusive experiment can be and should be made using control and subject groups under the same conditions.
 
  • #10
I asked a coffee drinking co-worker to bring me some. She did.

Then she drank it. :S


Should I flush the pot after adding the coffee, or just let it sit until I water again?






I have already seen great results with the Max Sea I started using. I'm not very regular with it, but I try to apply it weekly. The leaves on all plants have nearly doubled, and they are taking off like little green rockets. The only one i don't fertilize is a N. miranda I got from someone here that has been over-fertilized at the nursery. It's all leaves, and no pitchers. It is growing longer tendrils, so I might get some pitchers soon. :D
 
  • #11
I dont flush as much as rinse the top layer just to help prevent algae from taking over.
 
  • #12
alright, thanks for the tips guys! since I don't have two different pots of nep seedlings, I will just mist a small group of seedlings in the pot, would that be ok?
Thanks.. and sorry for asking so many questions on your thread, Veronis. :rolleyes: heehee
 
  • #14
Devon... I think you should drench the pot or pour the coffee through rather than mist it. I would assume that the nutrient benefits arise from replenishing the trace nutrients in the media. It might be...but it isn't a topical fertilizer. So misting wouldn't do u any good. Thats just my understanding though. You should ask the more knowledgable ones about this. :)
 
  • #15
I really need to get a coffee maker, I so want to try this!
 
  • #16
My neps are high class so they get french press coffee :jester:
 
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