Soil mix for n. "lady luck"

[curtisconners]

Hey, all.

I have recently acquired an n. "lady luck" and it's in a bio dome with a 1/2" plug of soil in it. Naturally, I want to re-pot it. What is the optimal soil mix for this cultivar? Any other care tips for n. "lady luck" are also appreciated.

 

[Shadowtski]

I bought the same plant at a garden center discounted closeout bench. It had no pitchers and all its leaves were rotting and falling apart. I potted it up in long fiber Sphagnum moss. I top water it every day with distilled water. I feed it every 2 weeks with a light foliar misting, MaxSea 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. Mine is happy with its new environment. It developed a second basal growing point with lots of pitchers.

Here's a picture taken when its first pitcher opened.

Take this advice with a grain of salt. I'm a Drosera guy. I know absolutely nothing about Nepenthes.

Good growing,
Mike

 

[nimbulan]

I use 1:1 LFS+perlite for all my Neps and it works well. It's a good basic (and easy) mix to start with that most species will grow in just fine.

 

[curtisconners]

Thanks for the help. Another question. The plant has two skinny little stems sticking out of the plug of soil. Should that be planted above or below the soil?

 

[nimbulan]

Do you have a picture?

 

[hcarlton]

As others mentioned, something based on sphagnum is the universal Nepenthes mix; I combine it with orchid mix and pumice for aeration, differing amounts depending on plant needs. Are the "stems" brown, woody things, or green basal shoots? If the former, who knows where they need to be; if the latter, they'll eventually push past the soil line but better to have them above the surface. If you intend to fertilize the plant, best to keep solutions within the pitchers; the "leaf" portions won't absorb it as readily, and if it gets in the soil it will be used, but the soil will often grow algae and break down faster.
As for this hybrid: should be bomb-proof, and I kind of want to acquire one at some point because it should be very tolerant of temperature and humidity swings and various light levels.

 

[curtisconners]

[MENTION=9012]hcarlton[/MENTION], it's a woody stem. [MENTION=10989]nimbulan[/MENTION], I will take a photo tomorrow and post it.

 

[curtisconners]

Here's a photo of the plant stems.

 

[nimbulan]

I personally would just clip off the dead leaves there and leave the stems as-is. I think you could bury them if you want to, but I'm not completely sure about that.

 

[hcarlton]

I've become iffy on what to do in this case. While burying stems can make the plant produce basals or adventitious roots, both good things, I have also had several plants recently that decided stems under the soil mean time to rot right in the middle (though this I partially attribute to a terrible quality sphagnum I acquired some time back). I think safest bet is leave them above soil unless you see adventitious roots forming.

 

[curtisconners]

There are no adventurous roots, so I'll put it above the soil. I'll order some decent sphagnum soon. Thanks.