I still get jitters on how you could have felt to have lost such a specimen. My humble condolences. I do agree with you on the fact of the media deteriorating. I did expect that the moment I decided to pot the plants in it. The concern is how long it can go before considering a repot.
Well Phil....to be totally honest...I feel that I should wait a bit longer...especially atleast till I make a definite grow setup. Right now I use a shelf method with 3 crappy single tube, CFL light fixtures positioned on cardboard boxes to light a shelf and whatnot looking horrible and inconvenient. I am planning on a new highland setup in the summer...something more of a tank style which would serve my purpose for a good chunk of time. Then I feel I should repot...i.e., let my plant regain its strength by growing more leaves and pitchers which I can feed. Then for sure...I will repot into the new lighter media. Make no mistake, your experience has taught such that I will never ever pot my future neps (and even current ones) in the same media that I currently use. My plant is still only 8 inches in diameter from leaf tip to leaf tip (measured yest with a ruler
). I still fall into the category of juvenile plant growers. I definitely want to grow this to adult size....so your information is really very helpful. I am already making an archive with information like this which I can refer to in the future.
Hmm....I totally agree with you and no denial over with that point. I have to do something regarding the wet media. Earlier when the sphagnum was very little, it used ot have a microenvironment from the LFS media and stayed pretty damp without problems. I used to water once a week then. Now, I literally use a liter of water every day just to keep the growing sphagnum moss happy. Since sphagnum only takes what it wants and lets the remaining pass..the media collects the remainder. You are right. I have to do something about it. I might probably start removing some of the moss, put it aside and use it as a media-mix for my future plants or ceph cuttings. I am currently also trying in replacing the sphagnum with polytrichum. Polytrichum has a far sturdier stem structure...grows a lot taller, looks many magnitudes better
and also provides good aeration. Plus....it doesn't require too much water as long as the humidity is fine. The concern is that it grows a lot slower and is harder to establish than sphagnum.
Yeah! there is no sphagnum from what i have seen and read about the N.rajah habitat. You are definately right:
- First thing I need to do is to start trimming away at the sphagnum layer in the rajah and my other nep pots.
I will probably start doing this tomorrow
The last thing I want is the nightmare of seeing a black creeping death on my highland neps.
Anyways, Thank you for your all your advice Phil. Thanks for sharing your experience and making me aware of the concerns with the current media that I use. I have certainly learnt a lot in this thread that will redefine the way I will grow my plants.