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N. Spectabilis Help

T

TylerK

Hello everybody!

I just received a "large" Nepenthes Spectabilis from an online shop and was wondering if you could take a look at 2 pictures of it for me. I see that it has a nice looking small basal coming up from the soil but i'm not a complete expert and wanted to know your opinion on how the plant, in general, looks. Does it look healthy to you? I notice some leaves look like they may be on the way out and there is some red spots under the leaves in the one picture. Whats your thoughts on my specimen?
It doesn't look in tip-top shape to me, but I want to know if you think I ought to go bother complaining.
Also, whats your experience been with this species? I'm going to be windowsill growing for this one and have seen several people doing it.

Thank you!!


http://s17.postimage.org/4wg1h4rhr/photo.jpg

http://s14.postimage.org/ugg2mbke9/photo_copy.jpg
 
Looks okay. I think I know where you may have gotten it, the place I got my first Nepenthes from had presumably bad conditions because it took a few months to get the plant to pitcher... Looks like yours doesn't have many pitchers. Give it high humidity and good temps for a while and it should pitcher.

The basal looks very healthy. The main vine looks okay also.

When I got my N. ventricosa x talangensis, it had to pitchers and it looked pretty sucky... Now I love it since its pitchering! It was my first Nepenthes and I thought it would come with traps, blah blah, so I was pretty bummed about getting one with no traps. Now it looks amazing and is producing upper pitchers... So my advice to you is give it high humidity and optimal HL conditions and it will pitcher in no time. :)
 
I agree. Looks ok to me. I have a spectabilis 'pangulobao'. I tried growing it on my windowsill like I do most of my larger neps. and it just didn't like it. It occasionally pitchered, but never grew any size andjust wasn't as happy as it could be. As soon as I moved it into my terrarium, it improved drastically. Just my experience as everyones conditions vary. Like P-apple said, higher humidity and HL conditions will always help. This was the one Nep. that just didn't do well on my windowsill. My Nep. spectabilis x truncata loves my windowsill however. The one on the right:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
Pineapple said:
Looks okay. I think I know where you may have gotten it, the place I got my first Nepenthes from had presumably bad conditions because it took a few months to get the plant to pitcher... Looks like yours doesn't have many pitchers. Give it high humidity and good temps for a while and it should pitcher.

The basal looks very healthy. The main vine looks okay also.

When I got my N. ventricosa x talangensis, it had to pitchers and it looked pretty sucky... Now I love it since its pitchering! It was my first Nepenthes and I thought it would come with traps, blah blah, so I was pretty bummed about getting one with no traps. Now it looks amazing and is producing upper pitchers... So my advice to you is give it high humidity and optimal HL conditions and it will pitcher in no time. :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, the little basal does look promising. Thanks for the advice :)
 
dsrtfox1942 said:
I agree. Looks ok to me. I have a spectabilis 'pangulobao'. I tried growing it on my windowsill like I do most of my larger neps. and it just didn't like it. It occasionally pitchered, but never grew any size andjust wasn't as happy as it could be. As soon as I moved it into my terrarium, it improved drastically. Just my experience as everyones conditions vary. Like P-apple said, higher humidity and HL conditions will always help. This was the one Nep. that just didn't do well on my windowsill. My Nep. spectabilis x truncata loves my windowsill however. The one on the right:
Click to expand...

Yep, I got the pangulobao variety as well. Thanks for the tips! And great job, your plants look great ;)
 
Looks a little dry to me! But it'l be fine with some tlc! And there's a lot of promise with those basals.
 
dueoka said:
Looks a little dry to me! But it'l be fine with some tlc! And there's a lot of promise with those basals.
Click to expand...

Shockingly, it was still moist when it arrived, however, I still watered it. Yeah, I'm confident it will do fine and the basals will turn up gorgeous. Only one concern, I've read several things on nepenthes pruning without full understanding. So, eventually, once I get one or two basals to a decent size with pitchers, can I decapitate that cruddy-looking main vine if it doesn't give me any good pitchers or anything(I don't care about flowering)? Is it safe to get rid of a main vine altogether once you have established basals?

Thanks!
 
Yup you can cut the vine and try to root it! Then you can have more than one! Another option would be to cut the vine two or three inches above the soil. That way you might get some shoots along the vine.
some shoots along the vine.
 
If they are very established basals, it shoudln't hurt to make cuttings of the main vine, as that could always get you somewhere. Hoever, i'm not sure completely takingoff the main vine will be all that great and idea. Besides, give it the right conditions and the main vine shoudl pop back fairly quickly. It just needs some good light, high humidity for a while, and proper highland conditions.
 
  • #10
Awesome! Thank you both! :)
 
  • #11
The main vine looks a little leggy and looks as if it's been growing in low-humidity conditions but the basals seem healthier. Both should recover once you find a way to keep them in higher humidity.
 
  • #12
I'd be surprised if the distributor was growing in low humidity as they carry a LOT of neps. But anything is possible. Thanks for the post!
 
  • #13
You'd be suprised: Sometimes the smaller growers - the ones who only have a handful of plants can attain better looking results than those who grow in bulk for sales: One can give personalized care to each plant as opposed to treating it like a business. All the same you seem to have a pretty healthy looking plant that will soon recover if given the right conditions.
 
  • #14
Brokken said:
You'd be suprised: Sometimes the smaller growers - the ones who only have a handful of plants can attain better looking results than those who grow in bulk for sales: One can give personalized care to each plant as opposed to treating it like a business. All the same you seem to have a pretty healthy looking plant that will soon recover if given the right conditions.
Click to expand...

I'd believe it ,makes sense.
Thanks for the encouragement. If I can remember, i'll post updates here if it begins to perk up.
 
  • #15
My $.02, N. spectabilis was the second plant I got many many years ago, and it can be quite finicky. Mine has always been very prolific when it comes to creating basal shoots, and pitchers readily even in a lower-humidity environment. Some plants do great in lower humidity, others do okay, and some struggle. I'd put this plant into the does okay category. It grows and pitchers for me quite regularly, but it is a slow grower and hasn't attained any real size yet, it just keeps creating basals which I separate off. I like when the plants stay smaller anyways, they take up less space then. Bonsai neps haha
 
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