My opinion on milk

[PlantAKiss]

Ok...this is just my humble opinion on the milk issue. I tried it...on my little heliamphora that has just FINALLY started growing and developing some heli-looking pitchers instead of those stick-like baby pitchers. I thought maybe the milk would give it a boost in growth. Well instead of a boost I now have a brown and dying pitcher.

I used a tiny drop of whole milk diluted a bit with distilled water. At first it looked OK, but then the top started browning...and now its browning ondown the pitcher. Oddly, the adjacent pitcher so far looks OK, but I'm watching to see if it follows suit.

I'm so upset at losing the very first heli-pitcher I've waited so long to get. Maybe I did something wrong but I think milk is off my list for a while.

Out of curiosity...anyone else tried milk with success?

I KNEW there was a reason I never drank milk after my mother took me off the bottle as a baby...it tastes like crap AND kills plants.

Suzanne

 

[Martin]

Hi Suzanne !

Did you drop the milk into the liquid of the pitcher or did it "touch" the leaf ? In this case funghi / mold could be the reason for your dieing pitcher.
Another reason could be overfeeding.
Milk is liquid and will break down extremly fast, much faster than an insect with the same size.
I use low-fat milk (1,5%) and dilute it about 1:5 with water !
From this I only use two or three drops for pitchers the size of about 5" !
So maybe it was to much milk for a to small pitcher.

Watch your plant daily. If the "heart" will rot your plant is lost !

In my experience diluted milk is one of the best ways to feed Heliamphora.

Martin

PS : About "adult" pitchers. I'm growing a Heliamphora hispida for more than one year (a spezies which should build mature pitchers very fast) and it has about 20 juvenile but no single mature pitcher yet. A friend got a tiny Heliamphora from the Ilu tepui six(!) years ago and it devided several times but never produced an adult pitchers.

 

[Tony Paroubek]

I have not tried milk personally. I have also heard that the lowfat or skim milk is preferable as the fat in whole milk can cause problems. My Heliamphora get fertilized along with the rest of the plants with liquid feed. (VERY very dilute). I have also used freeze dried bloodworms but I have found that even a very little will cause the water in the pitcher to go moldy. So I don't do that anymore.

Martin.. my hispida I find are not increasing in size much and reluctant to form adult shaped pitchers as well. I need to fiddle around and see what is up with them as I have had good results with a number of other species.
Tony

 

[PlantAKiss]

Hi Martin

The milk was diluted with water but not a 1:5 ratio. And it was whole milk because I thought I read somewhere that whole milk was preferred (it might have been on that article you gave a link to in another post). Also it was a very small pitcher so maybe I shouldn't have tried it at all. The pitcher isnt entirely dead...oddly its browned above the liquid line...and yet the pitcher right next to it is, so far, fine.

If I try it again, I will follow those guidelines. As long as it can be beneficial to the plant, I would try it again.

Thanks Tony and Martin.

suzanne

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

Whooops,  your supposed to dilute it!!??!

I tried to give my s. leucophylla a drip from the carton and gave it a full squirt instead.   That was a 2 weeks ago and so far so good.  It must have been real hungry!
  I have noticed 3 new phyllodia/pitchers(?) coming up in the past week.  Probably coincidence. At this rate I'll kill the poor thing before Winter

 

 

[Joachim]

It is critical that milk added to a pitcher is only few percent (<5% I would say) of the total fluid in the pitcher. Diluting it or not does not make a difference when the percentage is the same. I do always spray the plants with water after feeding, so droplets out of the pitcher fluid are washed away. This works for me and I do it about once a month with my heliamphora. Be careful with fertilizers as I have spoken to people loosing their plants due to very small amounts of fertilizer.

Martin wrote:

Watch your plant daily. If the "heart" will rot your plant is lost !

Well, does it really matter when you do see that your plant is dying??

Joachim

 

[Martin]

Hi Joachim !

"...Diluting it or not does not make a difference when the percentage is the same..."

Yes, but it is easier to add one drop of diluted milk than a fifths drop of undiluted milk.
Especially for small pitchers one drop of pure milk is to much !

It also depends on the spezies. In my experience N. inermis is very sensitive to milk.

Martin

 

[BigBaldBob]

what is 1 drop, this is reeeeally, very innacurate with my thumb i can make drosp this big \__/ and with a toothpick i can make , so..... uh .... yeah how much is too much here.....

 

[RamPuppy]

BigBalBob,

what about trying a eyedropper? That is what most people use.

Everyone else, Martin, Tony,

I know milk is pasteurized to kill the bacteria in it, have you ever thought of, or do you see any benefits to zapping it in a microwave for about 3o seconds before feedint?

this may infact, damage the milk and reduce the effectiveness of it's protiens...

 

[schloaty]

Hey guys,
I used some milk with my Flava and my Purpurea, didn't dilute or anything.....They both shot up new, substancially bigger pitchers. Not sure if it was the milk, or something else, but they both did it at the same time so I think it was the milk.

 

[Pyro]

Has anyone thought about just using a grain or two of powdered milk?

Just curious

Pyro

 

[RamPuppy]

I can just see the new Milk Commercials now.

"Milk, it does a sarracenia good..."

And a talking Sarracenia Leucophylla with milk on the lip.

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

I don't think zapping milk in the microwave will do any good once it is put in the pitcher it will feed the bacteria in the pitcher.

 

[Tristan]

I'm trying out powdered cheese. The kind you put on your noodles. I'll see if it rots the pitcher.

 

[RamPuppy]

we are a bunch of freaks!

Sar Flava "Can I have some more protein powder please?"

Sar Purpera "I would like some Cheese Please..."

ahh aint science grand!?

 

[Travis]

Why would you want to give your plants milk...milk is good for your bones...this is not the "Little Shop of Horrors"

.

mn

 

[RamPuppy]

Travis,

Milk is full of simple proteins that break down into Amino Acids (building blocks of life) very simply...

from my experimentation... my plants are loving it.