i currently have 2 neps growing in my dart frog enclosure. I feed the frogs with dusted fruit flies (calcium and vitamins) I put the nepenthes in to attract the flies so they dont get too far away from the frogs. Is the calcium and vitamin powder rubbing off from the flies gonna be a problem for the nepenthes?
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Clint
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i was thinkign about something like sugar water, but in that case, id have to put a screen over the cap to prevent the frogs from getting sugar on them. another problem is that then teh flies would go under the screen and the clumsy frogs would be trying to get them through the screen. i was also thinking about fruit, but that would get moldy quickly in the humdity and be a hassle to remove
What kind of neps are they?
I know the calcium powder sounds horrible, but there was an online article about eggshell water being beneficial to Nepenthes. The basic concept is below(as well as the opiniopn we all probably share). I do not think I would try it, as my smaller tanks lack air movement of bigger chambers, and I think either would stink.
Joe
Criss Creel's article on growing Nepenthes
(http://redtail.unm.edu/cp/nepinfo.txt) states the following:
4) Bone meal at full strength - Bone meal provides something which
most people do not consider a needed mineral: calcium. Plants in
general love calcium. There is basically no calcium in the growing
medium for Nepenthes, so they resort to catching insects. I know of
no ill effects of using bone meal.
5) Egg shells - This is something an old woman told me once. She
said that the secret to her beautiful plants was a biweekly shot of
egg shell water. Making egg shell water is a simple enough task.
First, take the egg shells of six eggs. Put them in an oven at 300
degrees for about 15 minutes. Take them out and stuff them in to a 1
gallon water jug which may be capped. Fill the jug with hot water and
let it sit in the sun for about a week. After that time, shake the
jug vigorously and water your plants liberally.
As you may have guessed, the calcium from the shells probably leeches
out during the time in the water, thus producing growth spurts. I
have tried this myself except that I did this once a month during my
normal feeding/fertilizing time. I did notice a spike in growth and
I have been doing it ever since.
---------------------------------------
This reminds me of something I once heard a poet say in a speech I
attended (don't recall his name). It went something like this "When
an elder speaks, listen, and listen respectfully, but don't believe a
word of what they say." This is obviously meant to be humor, but in
reference to the excerpt from Chris Creel's concerning the old woman's
advice, I think it should apply.
While taking a test (unrelated to CP) I encountered a paragraph in a
reading section which talked about how calcium can be added to bodies
of water to REDUCE acidity.
If this is indeed true, then using Bone Meal or eggshell water would
be detrimental to CP, as while it may add calcium to the growing
medium, it at the same time reduces the acidity. I am not sure if
this is on a molecular level or a base/acid reaction, if the latter
than there is the potential for salt build up as well.
Hopefully Chris subscribes to the CP-List so he can comment on this,
he may after all know something I overlooked.
I know the calcium powder sounds horrible, but there was an online article about eggshell water being beneficial to Nepenthes. The basic concept is below(as well as the opiniopn we all probably share). I do not think I would try it, as my smaller tanks lack air movement of bigger chambers, and I think either would stink.
Joe
Criss Creel's article on growing Nepenthes
(http://redtail.unm.edu/cp/nepinfo.txt) states the following:
4) Bone meal at full strength - Bone meal provides something which
most people do not consider a needed mineral: calcium. Plants in
general love calcium. There is basically no calcium in the growing
medium for Nepenthes, so they resort to catching insects. I know of
no ill effects of using bone meal.
5) Egg shells - This is something an old woman told me once. She
said that the secret to her beautiful plants was a biweekly shot of
egg shell water. Making egg shell water is a simple enough task.
First, take the egg shells of six eggs. Put them in an oven at 300
degrees for about 15 minutes. Take them out and stuff them in to a 1
gallon water jug which may be capped. Fill the jug with hot water and
let it sit in the sun for about a week. After that time, shake the
jug vigorously and water your plants liberally.
As you may have guessed, the calcium from the shells probably leeches
out during the time in the water, thus producing growth spurts. I
have tried this myself except that I did this once a month during my
normal feeding/fertilizing time. I did notice a spike in growth and
I have been doing it ever since.
---------------------------------------
This reminds me of something I once heard a poet say in a speech I
attended (don't recall his name). It went something like this "When
an elder speaks, listen, and listen respectfully, but don't believe a
word of what they say." This is obviously meant to be humor, but in
reference to the excerpt from Chris Creel's concerning the old woman's
advice, I think it should apply.
While taking a test (unrelated to CP) I encountered a paragraph in a
reading section which talked about how calcium can be added to bodies
of water to REDUCE acidity.
If this is indeed true, then using Bone Meal or eggshell water would
be detrimental to CP, as while it may add calcium to the growing
medium, it at the same time reduces the acidity. I am not sure if
this is on a molecular level or a base/acid reaction, if the latter
than there is the potential for salt build up as well.
Hopefully Chris subscribes to the CP-List so he can comment on this,
he may after all know something I overlooked.
Sound slike we have a reptile thread crossover, lol.
What kind of flies? Personally, I think a dusting of powder(vitamin and calcium) on small insects would not be poison, but I have never experimented.
We have an idea on how much the frogs are-I would worry about them before the plants.
What Neps are we talking about? You could experiment on N. ventrata and see if anything detrimental happens.
There is a well-known online place that sells both dart frogs and neps-I am not sure if I can mention their name w/o offending, but I would be shocked if they did not have an answer on this one.
Cheers,
Joe
What kind of flies? Personally, I think a dusting of powder(vitamin and calcium) on small insects would not be poison, but I have never experimented.
We have an idea on how much the frogs are-I would worry about them before the plants.
What Neps are we talking about? You could experiment on N. ventrata and see if anything detrimental happens.
There is a well-known online place that sells both dart frogs and neps-I am not sure if I can mention their name w/o offending, but I would be shocked if they did not have an answer on this one.
Cheers,
Joe
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they are fruit flies (d. melanogaster)... my frogs are too big to get into the traps to be on teh safe side. ppl have kept poison dart frogs with nepenthes and there has never been a known incident of a frog death due to nepenthes. ppl have actually reported taht they raise their tadpoles in the pitchers. supposedly they have no trouble climbing out of hte pitchers if they got inside
