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N. ventricosa

There's something that's been bothering me lately regarding my Nepenthes ventricosa:  it's getting smaller.  Or at least, it doesn't seem to be getting any bigger.   The descriptions i read suggest that it gets much larger than my plant is, but in the year i've had the plant, it hasn't really increased in size.

Here's a photo journal of it.

June 2002 - right after i bought it.  Pitchers are obviously immature.
20020614-CP-N.Ventricosa1.jpg


November 2002 -  Pitchers look more ventricosa-like, but aren't really any bigger.
20021117-CP-N.Ventricosa.jpg


January 2003 - Ditto, but with more leaves.
20030131-CP-%20N.%20ventricosa.jpg


April 2003 - Pitchers look a bit more mature, but are still the same size.  If anything, the leaves seem a bit shorter!
20030412-CP-N.ventricosa%20'red'-%20maturing%20pitchers.jpg


Edit: June 2003 - And now today it looks even smaller and less lush to me.
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20030626-CP-N.ventricosa.jpg


So, what do ya'll think?  Am i not giving it the right conditions, or is it just as big as it's going to get?
 
Actually I think its doing wonderfully. It seems to be matching mine in growth over time.

It is my understanding that they spend a year or so on ground leaves and getting the lower pitchers well established and mature and then suddenly one day it will just take off.

Edit: I was posting while you were updating.

I would tend to agree on that last picture, it looks rather yellow. I am not sure what would cause that, but I am sure someone will have a suggestion.
 
The plant does look a little yellow in the last photo. Is it getting a little too much light?
Your plant otherwise looks good. In nature, most Nepenthes tend to have leaves shorter and pitchers bigger than grown in cultivation. Some have pitchers the same length as the leaves.

Regards,

Joe
 
Thanks Maehem.  I think it looks more yellow than it really is in that last photo because there is direct sunlight on it through the window.  It has always been more yellow than (i think) it should be, though.  Creamy colored as opposed to a nice dark green.  I thought maybe that's just how ventricosa was, though.

Mr Griffin: is direct sunlight for a couple hours too much light? I had it under lower light conditions (ie no direct sun) about six months ago and it sounded like it needed more light than that. I thought maybe it would get more green if it had some sun.
 
The full sun might explain it, esspecially if it is more creamy coloured than yellow.

I don't know if the direct sun would actually hurt it, just make it a different colour.

As for how much sun, I have mine in bright shade for most of the day with only about an hour of direct sun through 40% shade cloth and they are a wonderful bright green.
 
Looks fine to me... one of my neps is a creamy color, but it seems to be growing just fine...
I think of it natural that the leaves are smaller... On my ventricosa, the leaves are almost half the size they used to be, but the pitchers over twice as big!
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I don't think that is too much light. Must be the sunlight making it look like that, lol.

Joe
 
Nice picture chronology. As you noted it can take a long time for a Nepenthes to make adjustments to a change in growing conditions. And what your seeing here is typical response to a large increase in light levels. Could it be bigger? yes it can get bigger. Will it? I dunno.. It appears it has hit a maximum size for the amount of nutrients it is receiving. Do you feed it? If so with what and how often?

Tony
 
I feed it a few flakes of fish food every week or two. I think that works well, but as you've pointed out, it's really hard to say because i've only been growing neps for a year now, and only feeding them fish food for about four months. The alata seems to like the fish food - at least, it has grown like crazy, but that's not really unusual for an alota. It seems to me that something that provides complete nutrition to fish accustomed to eating bugs should be a nice well-rounded diet for a plant.

One of these days i'm going to have to go find some bugs for the VFTs, and the neps while i'm at it. Seems somehow perverse to have to hunt down bugs to feed these things, though.

I thought i saw it putting out an upper pitcher (it looked like it was trying to loop) just before i repotted, which is why it has that little mini-trellis in the pot, now. I was mistaken, though. Does it take a long time before ventricosa starts to climb?

It seems the available information on epecific nepenthes i vary limited when it comes to things like size and time to maturity. The descriptions of the lighting requirements are more than a little confusing, too. Is there a book that actually describes these things in that kind of detail (preferrably with accuracy)?
 
  • #10
I think the yellow in the leaves are do to age. As my N. ventricosa would turn yellow then black. BTW that is a nice n. ventricosa, that is how mine looked then took off. Purty big now and out of the 10-gallon tank. Just not pitchering anymore due to the dry air in my house.

Travis
 
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