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Question on Fertilizing Neps

I read that Osmocote can be used for Nepenthes plants. I'm just wondering if it's a good idea to fertilize establishing plants or plant cuttings?
 
While I don't use Osmocote for my Neps,
I know many people have for other plants.
I would say as general advice, that if a plant has no roots developed yet,
that is isn't a good idea to give it much / if any fertilizer at all.
For most plants, it will lead to rotting death otherwise.
For most my plants, I wait until a decent root system is developed before fertilizing
and I would recommend you do the same.

Be sure to use a mix that is 1/2-1/4 or less of the normal concentration.
(Often I only recommend a trace amount, as the plant can only absorb that much anyway,
and is safer to do until the plant tells you how it feels about it. Only then should you consider applying a more concentrated amount.)
Keep in mind that the goal isn't to see how much you can apply before the plant is killed...
so this tends to be a case of less-is-more, especially for those experimenting for the first time.

Good Luck!
:water:
 
That sounds like a good plan. I'll put half the normal concentration and see how my plants will do with it. Thanks for your advice!
 
Osmocote has been tried and proven to be useful for fertilizing nepenthes, but I personally prefer foliage sprayed fertilizers. Nepenthes absorb it faster and frankly, it's hard to 'overdose' this fertilizer. Works like a charm on my Nepenthes. I'm using Yates all purpose plant food, diluted at 1/4 of dosage recommended and applied once every 3 weeks on my neps.
 
Is there a marked difference in their size and growth pattern after you've started spraying? When I go to a garden store, what exactly should I ask for?
 
i feed them.....while i use RO water for my CP's our local water is very high in mineral salts, as such i dont like using synthetic ferts that just put more salts into my ground.....so i use things like fish based fertilizers like this:

alaska-fish-fertilizer-lrg.jpg


dilute it some and feed the pitchers with it......and i see some marked improvement with it....also believe but i cant prove, that because it also holds all kinds of macro and micro nutrients that help improve growth instead of the more pure NPK ferts.....
 
Since people are going beyond the borders of Osmocote asked about originally I might as well add my preffered fertilizer to the list.

I use Grow More Urea Free Orchid Fertilizer (green formula 20-10-20). It also has a full compliment of all the micro-nutrients. Being Urea Free the fertilizer is gentle and immediately useable to plants VS classic fertilizers which need microbial activity to turn the fertilizer into a useable form for plants, microbes which LFS, bark and similar Nepenthes soils are deficient.

I use it at the roots, as a foliar feed and in the pitchers. I do one of these 3 types of treatments every 2 weeks or so. I try to rotate each treatment. I started using the fertilizer squirted into the pitchers on plants too small to feed insects to but I noticed a decrease in pitcher longevity when I started using insects insects VS using the ferts. I like pitchers staying a long time so I just use the fertilizer on them now. Note that you must fertilize pitchers if only using ferts or they may decide to stop pitchering, so make sure to put some ferts in the pitchers to keep them forming. If you fertilize and feed insects then you don't need to worry about it. So long as the plant is getting nutrients from the pitchers they should continue to form, provided all other aspects of cultivation are in line.

I buy Grow More at the local orchid shop but you can mail order it from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/GROW-Orchid-F...7GDE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1321441963&sr=8-4
 
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Is there a marked difference in their size and growth pattern after you've started spraying? When I go to a garden store, what exactly should I ask for?

New leaves get bigger after fertilizing. I try to avoid drenching the media and instead, fill up half of the pitchers with the fertilizer. It seems to work like a charm :) the vigorous species/hybrids like my N xDyeriana makes noticably bigger pitchers every time while the harder species/hybrids seem to have a growth boost. Pitcher size kinda gets a brief upsize for the next pitcher, but overall, the plant does benefit from the fertilizer a lot. Usually, I flush the media with water about 1-2 days after fertilizing to avoid mineral buildup.

I'd rather browse through what liquid fertilizer the garden store has and do a little research and checking before considering what to buy. There are many other brands that work too. Good luck.
 
I personally use liquid fertilisers, which I apply as a root feed. I prefer these to slow release fertilisers, as I can control when the plants get them, i.e. more frequently in the active growing season. I use a urea free fertiliser, as they don't rely on soil bacteria in order to make the nitrogen useable to the plants. Many balanced general purpose fertlisers seem to have similar ingredients, in different concentrations, so I'm not very brand specific. Some contain additions, such as seaweed extract, but I simply add seaweed extract to my diluted fertliser if required.
 
  • #10
I prefer to use a 1/4 diluted liquid orchid fertilizer that I spray on the leaves. I did this to Nepenthes northiana over the summer at Meadowview and it started pitchering about a month later with several pitchers opening one after another, and nice pitchers at that.
 
  • #11
after many many years to many to remember using ferts with urea in them for neps , using low ratios so it don't burn or get to much growth stimuli into the neps and dont kill the live sphag moss making it go like green slime !!, i found a product called focus , with no urea , which i'm lead to believe is good for most orchids ?? , but i have found it not so good for neps , with focus orchid or native mix , you can use it all most full strength without any adverse affects on the nep's or the live sphag moss i use in my pots and growing among on my grow benches , i use live sphag moss as my indicators on how the plant s are doing temp, light and gereral heath wise , if you get sphag moss to grow like it dose in the wild then all is well in your green house , and i actually harvest my moss all year round , so i can only say the proof in in the use
as far as osmocoat seen some pro growers use it in the coco chips mix for extra nitogen boost , but dont use it in live sphag moss , it kills it or turns it to green slime , any thing i feel that kills sphag is not for me , and not recomended for fert on neps !! , just my opinion , its up to every ones own experiences or growing conditions and what they use as a potting medium as well
J
 
  • #12
Personally, I have been using Maxsea all purpose as a foliar feed at varying strengths (typically 1/4 to 1/2, but I have used it at full strength and no harm was done). However, I did notice, while using Grow More urea-free 20-10-20 as a root fertilizer at 1/4 strength, that the neps had a pretty substantial jump in growth. I also noticed that using Grow More in the pitchers killed them pretty quickly.. so it's up to you how you want to feed the plant. My personal opinion is that Maxsea is the safest bet if you're worried about overdoing the fertilizing, but Grow More urea-free also works very well when poured into the medium.

As for Osmocote, however: I haven't used it. I have been considering it, but there just doesn't seem to be enough out there on the subject, other than a few internet guides. Although what I have read seems to indicate that it works quite well. All in all, however, I haven't seen any of the pros really swear by it, so I'm not quite sold.
 
  • #13
I prefer to use a 1/4 diluted liquid orchid fertilizer that I spray on the leaves. I did this to Nepenthes northiana over the summer at Meadowview and it started pitchering about a month later with several pitchers opening one after another, and nice pitchers at that.

This is the most appealing account, in my opinion. I don't know about you guys, but its the little nepenthes that aren't pitchering that I worry about. I'm most tempted to use fertilizer on those guys!
 
  • #14
I too usually use 1/4 strength orchid food on mine and occasionally use the same solution at the roots. In the spring through summer.
 
  • #15
I always use full strength (typically 1.5 mS/cm EC), as a root feed, on Nepenthes and Cephalotus.
 
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  • #16
I always use full strength (typically 1.5 mS/cm EC), as a root feed, on Nepenthes and Cephalotus.

Hm... seems risky to me. If you use ferts at full strength, do you flush the pot out afterwards? And if so, how soon?
 
  • #17
I have also gone the 1/4 strength 30:10:10 orchid fertilizer route for several years, and have tried kelp-based products such as 1/3 strength MaxSea 16:16:16 -- but have seen little difference between them. Occasionally, I also use Osmocote 16:8:12 (just three or four "beads" per 15 cm pot every three to four months), especially for Nepenthes seedlings, some of whose growth rates match that of the advance of glaciers -- to good effect (greener leaves, better pitchering) . . .
 
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  • #18
Hm... seems risky to me. If you use ferts at full strength, do you flush the pot out afterwards? And if so, how soon?
I have the equipment to test the strength. I would not just trust the recommended dilution rate if you do not have the ability to test what the final conductivity is. I've not had any issues with 1.5 mS/cm but have been told by the manufacturer of a hydroponics solution that 0.75 mS/cm would be more suited for orchids, so perhaps that would be more safe. As for flushing, I regularly top water my plants, so that wuld naturally flush the nutrients through the soil.
 
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