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Succumbing to French Roast Pressure . . .

  • #81
lol! BigB...that is certainly not from my generation. But its funny in the second clip, how that endless need for strong black coffee leads to a cup with the consistency of gel. lol!

But coming back to plants, ;) For sure! I definitely want to try this and see if I can get comparable results to what you guys are seeing. I am just a bit scared to try it on the few plants that are doing well etc. Unfortunately, the paradox is that probably these are the ones that might be the only ones which can benefit from the coffee. Others meanwhile still have to recover from their stress.

But, I will for sure try this on a couple of dispensable plants and see how it goes. But first, I need to grab hold of somone who can make some coffee with distilled water. lol!

@thez_yo: Thats a very good point man. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the water on Mt. Kinabalu is very conductive. The mountain itself is granite. THere is a lot of mineral leeching into the water. Although, what plants love is the constant draining of the root zone.
 
  • #82
But, I will for sure try this on a couple of dispensable plants and see how it goes. But first, I need to grab hold of somone who can make some coffee with distilled water. lol!

When I make coffee for my neps, I use a french press with a massive pile of coffee grounds almost as deep as the water I put in. I use RO water in the french press, that I then dilute into a gallon jug or two so that I'm not brewing 2 gallons of coffee cuz that's just a pain. Then I don't have to wait for 2 gallons of hot coffee to cool either, and if there's extra left over, I get delicious, wonderful coffee for myself too :D
 
  • #83
thanks man. I will definitely follow those instructions. :)
 
  • #84
Here is an update, now six months out, from the first coffee treatment; and I have found the results to be very impressive -- on all of my Nepenthes, not just those pictured. As mentioned before, the leaves became a more verdant green and the live sphagnum had to be trimmed back on several occasions -- something which had not occurred previously, at least not remotely at that rate. Aside from my usual biweekly application of one quarter strength orchid fertilizer, which long preceded the use of coffee (and, arguably, did its job), the only discernible difference in cultivation was the use of good old java.

In addition to those plants, I had treated a small Nepenthes rajah back in March, which, following its long reputation, had been growing very slowly. After the treatment, the leaf production was much faster, larger by three-fold; and there was even the production of pitchers for the first time and a basal, which can be seen below. Those basal leaves were the size of the original plant back in March . . .

Here are the plants:


Nepenthes villosa -- March 2010
NVILLOSA-4.jpg


September
VILLOSA-4.jpg


Nepenthes macrophylla
NMACROPHYLLA-1.jpg


September
MACRO.jpg


Nepenthes rajah -- September 2010
NRAJAH.jpg
 
  • #85
awesome plants David...
Is that the rajah i sent you some time ago?
love the villosa and macros as always....
 
  • #86
awesome plants David...
Is that the rajah i sent you some time ago?
love the villosa and macros as always....

Thanks . . .

Yeah, that the N. rajah you sent me back in January or thereabouts. It looks as though it likes the California weather -- and we had the first night in the high forties recently . . .
 
  • #87
whats the point of using RO water to make the coffee with? your just adding a TON of dissolved solids back into it anyways by making coffee
 
  • #88
whats the point of using RO water to make the coffee with? your just adding a TON of dissolved solids back into it anyways by making coffee

Simple: because we have chlorinated well water and the TDS number hovers around 450-500 ppm at the get-go; that, compounded with the use of coffee is far more than likely to burn the live sphagnum and unduly affect the plants.

Also, coffee is far better here with filtered water. Why do the plants deserve anything less?
 
  • #90
I have to get someone to make me some coffee with distilled water. Any instructions u can offer BigB? You certainly have got it down to an art. Just regular coffee machine, ground coffee (anything specifc ..bean type?) and pour the black coffee into pots? I don't drink coffee..so I know very little about making it. :p LOL!
 
  • #91
I have to get someone to make me some coffee with distilled water. Any instructions u can offer BigB? You certainly have got it down to an art. Just regular coffee machine, ground coffee (anything specifc ..bean type?) and pour the black coffee into pots? I don't drink coffee..so I know very little about making it. :p LOL!

I usually make a rot-gut french press of coffee in the morning; either that, or poured through any standard filter. I don't own a coffee machine, per se. I doubt that the beans or particular roast makes one whit of difference, though I drink Italian or French Roast; and there's one local place which sells something called "Heart of Darkness."

As mentioned earlier, I usually dilute the coffee by half, since it is on the strong side . . .
 
  • #92
so question; i recently repotted my neps due to a serious spider mite infestation. by recently i mean about a week and half ago. how long should i wait before cofeeing. i had done it previously (about 7 months ago), but not sure how long i should wait before applying it after repotting.
 
  • #93
so question; i recently repotted my neps due to a serious spider mite infestation. by recently i mean about a week and half ago. how long should i wait before cofeeing. i had done it previously (about 7 months ago), but not sure how long i should wait before applying it after repotting.

I would wait four to five weeks after any re-potting before I either fertilized or applied coffee; Nepenthes can be a bit touchy from time to time . . .
 
  • #94
Here are a couple of updates, about a month out from that second coffee "treatment." Once again, I have seen far greater progress with the plant growth -- most notably with the otherwise notoriously-slow Nepenthes rajah -- than with simply the use of any 30:10:10 orchid fertilizer.

So much for my ingrained skepticism . . .


Nepenthes villosa -- September
VILLOSA-4.jpg


6 October

NVILLOSA-6.jpg


NVILLOSA2-1.jpg



Nepenthes rajah -- September
NRAJAH.jpg


6 October
NRAJAH2.jpg


NRAJAH-1.jpg


Nepenthes macrophylla -- September
MACRO.jpg


6 October
NMAC2-1.jpg


NMAC-1.jpg
 
  • #95
Can't believe no one commented on this! The results are really great David! Did you continue using coffee on them?

I can't believe this was 2 years ago already! Imagine how big the little beasties are now :)
 
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  • #96
Indeed, do you have pics and/or comments to update us, Dave? Please?!
 
  • #97
I actually treated all of my plants with coffee last week. I think it may have been much too dilute, but I don't think it's safe to try a more concentrated mixture this soon. Anyway, sphagnum is growing ridiculously fast, but it's difficult to discern the speed of new growth for the neps since I also had to spray everything down with a pesticide.. that, and it was just a week ago. I'd also like to know if anyone has since used the coffee treatment more frequently than just a bi-annual application?
 
  • #98
wait i took this post as something completely different. the plants look great, but are you saying we should give coffee to our neps???
 
  • #99
Wow amazing results! It's always interesting to see which Neps respond to coffee as drastically as these ones have
 
  • #100
Looks like I'll be buying a coffee maker for my plants now. :-(
 
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