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Home depot nep "rescue"...

that's it. i'm incurable!!!

i was looking through the plant section for some new pots for my cacti (i should know better than to do this by now, that's how this nonsense got started! ;) ) and they had some baby nep's on sale... bone dry but they didn't look like they'd given up yet. so being the absolutely incurable CP freak i've become, i bought one that was a fairly dark green with few dead pitchers, doused it in distilled water (luckily i was on a water run anyway!), and snipped off the blackening pitchers when i got home. i just snipped the pitchers themselves, not the leaves. right now the setup is the same as my VFT's and Drosera pots: in stading distilled water, under bright flourescent light 15hrs/day. i know nep's like a bit more humidity so i was planning on misting it. is this OK? i'm assuming it's either an N. ventricosa or N. rafflesiana, which seem pretty common from TC. i'll post a closeup of the biggest pitcher when i get one to come out right ;)

here it is:
nepenthes5-05.jpg


the largest pitchers also have a faint red blush, if that helps. this plant looked like it had the most light of the lot.

thanx!
 
Hmmm... something tells me that's not a ventricosa. *waits for other opinions*

EDIT: Nope, it's not. It just dawned on me that ventricosa pitchers swoop up on the outside of the leaf, not inward.

EDIT #2: And the banana shape isn't very ventricosa-like.
 
here's one of the pitchers... they also have little spiky hairs on the top in case you can't see them here.

nepenthes_pitcher002.jpg
 
I got this one at Lowes, 18 months ago and I thought it was a ventricosa, but everyone tells me it's an N. sanguinea. I thought mybe we had the same thing, but yours has more curvature. S maybe we can rule out N. sanguinea?
126.jpg
 
First, get it out of standing water! Second, don't worry about misting it. Third, I think it's a ventricosa despite what people are saying here.

Finally, good job on the rescue! One of my best, biggest nepenthes was a department store N. ventricosa that has now flowered for me twice (it's the plant on the right!):

N_hirsuta_x_veitchi6.sized.jpg


Capslock
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Capslock @ May 12 2005,6:07)]First, get it out of standing water! Second, don't worry about misting it.
ok... lol that actually makes it easier to squeeze it under the light! how wet should it stay, though?

EDIT: duuuh need to start reading though entire posts... two plants in your pic, not one... i was wondering why it had two different pitchers.

i thought ventricosas had the more rounded, peanut-shaped pitchers though? unless they change as they get older? (heheh if i'm wrong just ignore me, complete nepenthes novice here)

btw, you guys all have some awesome looking plants!!!
 
The tiny spikes are characteristic of young pitchers.

Could be N. ventricosa or perhaps N. Ventrata. Time will tell.. I am leaning more towards N. Ventrata because the tip of the leaf is fairly broad in relation to the base of the leaf.

Looks to be in good health. Just keep it moist but not saturated and nice bright light.
 
I am bettign ventracosa.
Capslock I love your potting metod (actually just your N. spathulata or hubrid with it).
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Capslock @ May 12 2005,6:07)]First, get it out of standing water! Second, don't worry about misting it. Third, I think it's a ventricosa despite what people are saying here.

Finally, good job on the rescue! One of my best, biggest nepenthes was a department store N. ventricosa that has now flowered for me twice (it's the plant on the right!):

N_hirsuta_x_veitchi6.sized.jpg


Capslock
Awww!! How beautiful!! I wish my nepenthes looked like that...
hpim06524sq.jpg
 
  • #11
My ventricosa always has those big droopy lids, whereas my Ventrata never has.
 
  • #12
Big droopy lids are also another feature of juvenile pitchers if your referring to the unknown plant.

One other thing I will mention from what I can see in the photo.
N. ventricosa usually loses any wings on the pitcher at a fairly small size and young age. Appears there are some wings still on the largest pitchers. Also there is usually a distinct line between the lower bulbous portion and the upper waxy portion.

Then again.. maybe I am seeing things too and drawing too many conclusions from the young specimen in question! Hope your able to post an update in 6months or so when distinguishing features may become more evident.

Tony
 
  • #13
Whoa, Caps... how do you get that coloration?
 
  • #14
I use food coloring, FTG.
smile_n_32.gif
Just kidding. It just happens. My window apparently gets the right amount of light, and N. ventricosa "red" is just really nicely colored! In fact, it's one of my favorite neps, despite being ridiculously common, because of the coloration and ease of growing. The other nep is N. hirsuta x veitchii, and it also is one of the easiest neps on the block.

Capslock
 
  • #15
Yours is 'Red' and mine is not. Well, that explains alot.
 
  • #16
heheh this has partly turned into the "I Wish My Nepenthes Would Look Like Capslock's" post ;) i can only hope mine grows up as large and as pretty.

i'll definitely post an update when i get some bigger pitchers (assuming i don't kill the thing first). i'm hoping that the same light that turned my VFT's maroon will do the same for the pitcher coloration. 15 hours a day, six inches from the plant... works wonders!!!

and thanx a bunch for the help!! don't worry, i'm sure i'll be back with some catastrophe sooner or later ;)
 
  • #17
It does seem like it's losing the wings on the more mature pitchers, so it must be N. ventricosa or a hybrid.
 
  • #18
[b said:
Quote[/b] (moonflower @ May 12 2005,9:42)]don't worry, i'm sure i'll be back with some catastrophe sooner or later ;)
LOL! haven't we all? Fortunately, you haven't tried experiments, only to lose plants down a stream! (yet)
 
  • #19
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Fortunately, you haven't tried experiments, only to lose plants down a stream! (yet)
*snort*

BTW, I stand corrected.. the way the pitcher faces probably has less to do with the species than I thought it did. I noticed an inward-facing one on my ventricosa last night.

But I still don't think moonflower's is a ventricosa. The pitchers just aren't the right shape. They're more banana-shaped than peanut-shaped. Plus - and this may or may not be from lighting instead of strictly species type - it doesn't have that characteristic half-pink thing going on.
 
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