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Watering nepenthes

hello again
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the mystery home depot nep is doing just fine as far as i can tell, its leaves look like they've perked up a bit and there are a bunch of new pitchers forming (they are fun to watch!). the concensus of the last post on the ID was a draw between an N. ventricosa or N. ventrata, too young to tell still. the one large pitcher did blush up a bit more though, if that helps anybody (original pics here)

i would like to know if i've been watering it properly though... i just kind of pick it up every other day to see how heavy it is, and if it's feeling a little light i water it a bit (distilled, of course). it's hard to tell exactly how dry it is or even what it's growing in since the top is pure sphagnum. in a related question, how good are nep's about repotting...? ;)

also, one more random inquiry, how long do the new pitchers take to form? the newest one is just under a centimeter long right now and still kinda flat... i can't wait to see how big it'll be
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I have my ventricosa's (or ventrata. No pitchers yet to tell by...) pot sitting in a small tray, and I pour distilled water overhead and let the water go through the soil, and into the tray. I then wait until all the water in the tray evaporates before I overhead water again.
 
Most my neps are in 14" coconut lines pots. I water them twice a week.
 
As you accumulate responses, you will notice the usual array of confusing differences. Could be worse, you could have asked about Nep. mix!

Anyways, a friend of mine taught me to use two deli containers, ashallow one and a tall one. The shallow fits atop the tall one and has a mix of peat & perlite, topdressed with live LFS. The shallow one has holes at the bottom for drainage. The tall deli container acts as a resevoir for water, which is poured from the top of the shallow container, allowing excess water to go through. I water a little bit once a day and mist with a spray bottle twice a day.

They don't seem too upset with re-potting, especially the one I recently rescued from Lowe's cube thingys. One firend suggested heating their pot from the bottom and another friend suggested wrapping black material around the container.

Pitcher formation: I'll let you known since mine are taking at least one week to develop.

I hope that wasn't too confusing.
 
Holy lots of work, Batman! Jimscott, that's a lot more trouble than I go to. I just TRY to rememeber to top water them before they dry out. They're all in trays. Not because I use the tray method, but because I'm such a nitwit that I forget to water them so long that they do need to sit in the tray for a while to rehydrate. When I do remember to water them on a timely basis, I don't let the tray fill up any.

The rest are outside. So when it rains, they get watered. I do sometimes have to supplement them if we go several days with no rain, but for the most part Mother Nature does it for me.
 
I water when the top looks dry. I use a fast draining mix primarily composed of coconut chunks and sphagnum moss.
 
i keep them in a couple of mm's of water. i rewater everything when it dries up. usually about once a week.
 
I let mine go weeks without a thorough watering. I just mist them a lot, and when the sphagnum starts to look dry I spray them down heavily until it's wet again. I've been doing this for about two months since my class load has increased, and if anything, my plants are doing better. I think I've taken them out of the terrarium once and watered them thoroughly in that period of time. I would water more if it didn't entail emptying out the bottom of the terrarium or removing the plants, but they seem to like remaining undisturbed more than being frequently watered. All the pots are on top of overturned tupperware containers so I suppose those act as very shallow trays.
~Joe
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (schloaty @ May 23 2005,9:58)]Holy lots of work, Batman!  Jimscott, that's a lot more trouble than I go to
LOL! It's working. I'm getting new leaves and pitchers. I'm happy with it. I'm still very much a newbies, especially with pitcher plants, in general.
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (nepenthes gracilis @ May 23 2005,8:10)]I water when the top looks dry. I use a fast draining mix primarily composed of coconut chunks and sphagnum moss.
^^^
 
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