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Succumbing to French Roast Pressure . . .

Well, I too have succumbed to the lure of java for my Nepenthes -- this after talking to a number of people whom I respect, both on this forum, and some others who have also sworn by it. Like those before me, I have simply poured cool coffee (made with RO water) through the media, as I would a conventional watering. I did, however, dilute the coffee a bit, simply because my tastes run toward the pitch black with roughly the texture of gelatin.

In recent years, I have had the "fortunate" though time-consuming opportunity of germinating Nepenthes from seed, and have also fed half of those most recent plants with the coffee; the balance will remain untreated, save for a standard biweekly application of 30:10:10 orchid fertilizer (which they've been given since sprouting), which the coffee-fed will also receive.

A few of my older plants were also "dosed" on 13 March, along with the others, which I'll update six to eight weeks from now:

Nepenthes villosa -- March 2010
NVILLOSA-4.jpg


Nepenthes macrophylla
NMACROPHYLLA-1.jpg
 
WOW those are some amazing looking plants you've got there!!! :hail:
 
may i ask, where did you find the pot for your villosa? when i started off my collection, i was scouring online trying to find something along the lines of what you have, but either they were too big, or in a different color, or not completely glazed.

and of course, as always, you have some ridiculously beautiful plants.
 
Thanks for the kind words . . .

The N. villosa is in a glazed ceramic orchid pot and saucer, which I found on-the-cheap at a Smith and Hawken, a now-defunct national garden shop chain. I would like to find more of those myself but haven't found anything . . .
 
Ive got a better question, were do you get those dang plastic pots! I cant find them anywere! lol
 
Ive got a better question, were do you get those dang plastic pots! I cant find them anywere! lol

I once got them at a hydroponics place in SF but they no longer carry them. I recently found them online at rePotme.com, but they're a bit on the steep side . . .
 
Those are some spectacular plants BigB. wow!! Definitely the effort from an expert grower. Just spectacular!!
 
  • #10
This will be a cool couple of plants to test that out on :)
 
  • #11
Can't wait for the results! Finally a "scientific" experiment with coffee watering! How many test\control subjects are there?
 
  • #12
That's funny. Beautiful plant you have there, and I am thinking the same thing as two others..
"Where did you ge those plastic pots??"
I asked Peter at California Carnivores, and he said he can't even get those any more.
Looking forward to your reports, also on how that live sphagnum likes it.

Cheers,

Joe
 
  • #13
Can't wait for the results! Finally a "scientific" experiment with coffee watering! How many test\control subjects are there?

I have a total of eighteen (hardly a statistically-significant number, but the seeds were hard to come by -- and what I had on hand) Nepenthes seedlings (of two highland species), half of which received the 13 March coffee treatment and one-quarter-strength 30:10:10 orchid fertilizer (the latter, on a biweekly basis). I have also included those older plants, just along for the ride.

The "control" group (and I say that advisedly) will simply continue to receive the biweekly orchid fertilizer (since those plants have already been receiving it since germinating. Ideally -- had I planned this earlier -- I would not have subjected this group to any fertilizer whatsoever; but, seeing as I have already muddied the water, I don't wish this group to be unduly affected by a "sudden" change of conditions.

Otherwise, both groups are subject to identical lighting, watering, and temperature conditions . . .
 
  • #14
Hmm yeah.... Using orchid fertilizer already.... That could definite skew the results! It could lead to over fertilizing in the long run, maybe? Who knows. Still can't wait to see what its going to end up looking like!
 
  • #15
Hmm yeah.... Using orchid fertilizer already.... That could definite skew the results! It could lead to over fertilizing in the long run, maybe? Who knows. Still can't wait to see what its going to end up looking like!

Well, there was little choice really, since I came to the "coffee treatment" late in the game and didn't have any untreated seedlings; but I am not too concerned with over-fertilizing of the plants, since the 30:10:10 is very dilute and only applied biweekly. I have only treated the plants with coffee on a single occasion; and, so far as the seedlings are concerned, they possess only juvenile pitchers for the time being, and don't strike me as too successful in feeding themselves . . .
 
  • #16
While it is still a bit early to see coffee's potential effects on the batch of Nepenthes plants that were doused on 13 March, I can already confirm -- in all of my pots -- what many growers have posted: that java also gives the live sphagnum moss a serious kick in the pants . . .

Nepenthes villosa -- 13-31 March 2010
VILLOSA--31MARCH.jpg
 
  • #17
Here is a shot of that very same pot this afternoon. In all of the time that I have had that plant -- some three years or more -- I have yet to trim the sphagnum moss to prevent it from overtaking the Nepenthes -- that is, until after that first "coffee treatment" on 13 March . . .

Nepenthes villosa -- 22 April 2010
NVILLOSA-1-1.jpg
 
  • #18
Well, now the people who grow sphagnum know what to water it with!
 
  • #19
wow...u actually had the sphagnum grow...my media all became ridden with algae when I tried coffee.
 
  • #20
I for one find your using orchid fertilizer as part of you common standard of great value. Pouring coffee over unfertilized plants only tells us that coffee carries fertilizer values, something plant growers have known for years.
Whether it has some other qualities that affects Neps (or other CP's) growth "other than" it's fertilizer value is still yet unknown (Like the acids in the coffee, or some other component.)
So while some people feel the experiment is less than ideal under the circumstances, I feel it is actually more appropriate. (Comparing a plant receiving coffee treatments to one totally starving, would only illustrate what to me would be expected already. But at this point your experiment addresses the next obvious question, which hasn't been looked into yet.)

Concerning the sphagnum, are you applying coffee to the sphagnum itself or pouring the coffee thru it... and more importantly, are you applying it the same way as you do when applying the fertilizer? (I am curious if the coffee/fertilizer is having affects when applied to the "growing parts"/"leaf zone" of the sphagnum as compared to the "lower portions"/"root zone".) This could have bearing to when people experience "burn", algae, etc. when they do it.

While some people have had fertilizer burn to sphagnum, I have lately had rather good growth from it, unexpectedly.
Well, keep up the experiments. I am interested to see the results long term.
Oh yea... Are you photographing the 18 subjects for posting later? Also, I looked but couldn't find... aside from the initial coffee treatment, do you plan on doing the coffee treatment on a regular basis? If so, how far apart? (If you already mentioned, I am sorry I didn't see it... mind ain't working well lately.)

Well, good luck. It is nice to see you can afford to experiment on such valued plants. Makes seeing the results that much more interesting!
 
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