2 more optical gifts :)

[nepenthes gracilis]

Man I get wonderful Christmas presents early! hehe

N. veitchii Bareo Highland newest pitcher.

N. aristolochioides newest pitcher

I personally think the N. veitchii photo is very cool, if you look close enough you can see the first polymorphic juvenile pitcher of the basal rosette. That mature pitcher could probably swallow 100's of pitchers that size!

The N. aristolochioides pitcher should be more colored up but I have found out that my fertilizer I use for all my Nepenthes (even when used in 2 or 3 pellets which is VERY low) almost albanizes the plant for months, but the good thing is that you get a much larger and more mature plant faster but the sacrifice of no pitchers for about 4 months. Or if you do get any (i got 2) They were very pale and ghostly. Now it is recovering very nicely and getting up to size in it's pitchers. No more osmocote for it!

Just bugs.

Thanks

 

[eplants02]

Very nice Dustin.  

I always love your plants.

 

[agustinfranco]

Hi Dustin:

I am curious about the denomination of pellets...When you say pellets you mean those round pearl-shaped thingies that characterizes osmocote??. if you use only three pellets, how big is your pot??.

I look forward to your reply.
thanks
Gus

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Hi Gus, The pellets are osmocote, bout the size of a BB. It says on the bottle to use so many pellets per pot size and outdoor surface area, but I just got by if the pot soil looks "well dispursed". I experiment with very small amounts at first and increase a little if the plant like it. The N. aristolochioides did NOT like even an extremely small presence of trace fertilizer. There were approx. 3 pellets in a 2.5 inch pot.

 

[The Griffin]

I had thought about trying it , using a tiny formula of 1 pellet/inch of pot, but there are always going to be exceptions, as with Dustin's experience with N. aristolochiodes.
Slightly off topic, on the Drosera forum, Joe Clemens has been having success misting D. schizandra with dilute fertilizer. As most of you might know, that is supposed to be a huge "no-no", but it's working for him. Maybe there is another thing that would work with N. aristolochiodes.
Doesn't it grow in sphagnum or epiphytically? If so, wouldn't nutrient intake via the root system not be as prevalent in the wild? Maybe a mist of dilute fertilizer on the foliage would work better...

Regards,

Joe

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Hi Joe, it loves living sphagnum. best medium for it as I've found. The tannic acids made by the sphagnum seem to play a big role in it's wonderful sucess in it. Once the fertilizer wears off the plant resumed pitchering a few weeks later.

 

[Darcie]

Could I ask what kind of camera you use? Thanks

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Hi Darcie,

Sure, here's the goods:

Olympus D-380 Digital Cam.
2.0 Megapixel
5x digital zoom
Slight macro feature, not very effective for my close up shooting preferences so I also place a magnifying glass in front of the lens to get a very nice clear shot which is why some of the photos turn out really nice and others are "ok". Sometimes you can see the reflection of the camera lens if you look close enough at the picture, especially if I use the flash.