Will this fertilizer kill my plants?

[Clint]

Lmao. I'm not writing a term paper.

Maybe I've been in the south too long...

 

[BigBella]

Why don't you try feeding the pitchers and see if you don't think foliar feeding isn't nearly as great as you say

I can't fertilize the media AND grow live Sphagnum, either. I've never heard of an orchid grower who ONLY foliar feeds and doesn't feed the roots, too. Nepenthes in general have pretty waxy cuticles, and the mist just runs off into the media if you mist heavily enough for anything to matter.... oh wait.. that would be media fertilization wouldn't it Think of it like this. How much mist can you put on a plant before it rolls off? Not much at all, and if it rolls off that's media fertilization and ruins your argument that foliar feeding is so fantastic. However, how much solution can you fill a pitcher up with? Neigh, every pitcher on the plant! A whole lot more, and that means the plant gets a whole lot more nutrients.

It's literally like misting your skin with vitamin water. You will absorb some vitamins... but it's a joke when you could take a vitamin orally. I've received plants with white residue all over them from foliar feeding. I wonder how much better they would have grown prior to me receiving them if they didn't have that layer of unused crap blocking the light

As I had previously mentioned, I have attempted any number of methods to fertilize Nepenthes and many others, including adding it to the pitchers; the usual result was an increase in algal growth -- especially after insects were trapped -- and a diminished life-span of the leaves in question. Also, the orchid growers I know tend to fertilize specifically, depending upon the media they use; if it is a live media, particularly moss, foliar feeding is a likely method to use. If it is bark or some synthetic aggregate, they are likey to submerge the whole pot in a fertilizer solution. My eight year old Nepenthes hamata is just coming back after such a treatment (the feeding of the pitchers) and I am not likely to repeat that. My experiment with a large Heliamphora heterodoxa x minor divided into thirds last Fall sold me on foliar feeding -- even with that species notoriously thick and woody cuticle. The one which received the fertilzer will be ready to divide once more in the Fall . . .

 

[Clint]

Ta-Da! That was your problem. You should not mess with the pitchers if they can catch insects. It's literally indigestion when you water down their natural solution.

 

[BigBella]

Ta-Da! That was your problem. You should not mess with the pitchers if they can catch insects. It's literally indigestion when you water down their natural solution.

There's a firm grasp of the obvious . . .

Well, I certainly realize that but did not count on how efficient the plant was in catching things, even when while indoors. The pitchers I added fertilizer to were then new leaves and, at that time, completely empty; it was only a couple of weeks later that the Nepenthes had managed to lure several wasps that the problem began. Other plants -- foliar-fed -- remained unharmed and grew very well . . .

 

[Clint]

Other plants -- foliar-fed -- remained unaffected . . .

There's a firm grasp of the obvious.....

 

[BigBella]

There's a firm grasp of the obvious.....

It should have read that the plants foliar-fed were "unharmed" not "unaffected" and performed well . . .

 

[Clint]

Oh no, I understood what you meant.

Don't get me wrong. Foliar feeding is not useless. It's just practically useless. The benefits are minimal compared to the other two methods. When you foliar feed, you're really fertilizing the petioles; filling the pitchers (actual leaves) is also (more literally) foliar feeding.

 

[polywer2345]

hey Bella! You have a very nice heli as nightsky said

 

[phissionkorps]

I'm too lazy to read what everyone is saying, but foliar feeding of Nepenthes is more or less a waste of time. Seriously, the benefit is so low that it isn't even worth the time spent mixing it up and spraying down the plant. Try the pitchers or media to get a real benefit. The best Nepenthes growers in the world fertilize through the media - not the leaves. There's no point in foliar feeding when you have two other available options that will be of greater benefit.

If you "can't" fertilize the media because you use sphag, A) stop using sphag (a good idea for multiple reasons), B) use an organic fertilizer. Lots of people that use sphag, at least as a top dressing, report benefits to the sphag when using organic fertilizer. Hell, I use inorganic fertilizer (orchid fert) and it has never killed the sphag I have as a top dressing in a couple pots.

Roots and pitchers were meant for nutrient uptake......leaves were not. Or hey, let's do an experiment.Go get 3 ventratas, and spray one down with idk...an oz of 90% alcohol. Then water one with an oz of alcohol, then fill the pitchers of a third with alcohol. The one that was sprayed will survive, the one watered with alcohol will look like hell and may or may not pull through, and the one with alcohol in the pitchers will either just lose its pitchers, but will more likely than not just die. Now what does that tell you?

Nepenthes are not orchids, and have obviously evolved different ways to take up nutrients. Foliar feeding being beneficial to neps because its beneficial to orchids isn't a good argument, and doesn't prove anything.

 

[BigBella]

hey Bella! You have a very nice heli as nightsky said

Thanks . . . Bella is actually my dog by the way -- a "Rotten Huskey" (a Rotweiller / Siberian Husky mix) who destroyed a good-sized clump of Sarracenia last year, chasing a racoon about half her size (damn thing looked like a toddler in a Halloween costume). I kept her anyway, even fed her . . .

Long story short about the Heliamphora. A bunch of friends all thought it would be a great idea to order a bunch from Germany some years back when the dollar meant something (remember?), divide them up, that sort of thing, without really giving any thought to growing them. That's the problem with beautiful colour catalogues. Anyway, I ended up getting the plants from them at fire-sale prices when they quickly bored of the task of caring for a couple dozen plants, just out of tissie culture, which all looked the same in their juvenile leaves. Heliamphora are notoriously boring until adult leaves are produced. Now some of them are . . .

Here is Heliamphora heterodoxa x ionasii. I am having file "issues" with some of the others . . .

 

[Flip_Side_the_Pint]

I'm too lazy to read what everyone is saying, but foliar feeding of Nepenthes is more or less a waste of time. Seriously, the benefit is so low that it isn't even worth the time spent mixing it up and spraying down the plant. Try the pitchers or media to get a real benefit. The best Nepenthes growers in the world fertilize through the media - not the leaves. There's no point in foliar feeding when you have two other available options that will be of greater benefit.

If you "can't" fertilize the media because you use sphag, A) stop using sphag (a good idea for multiple reasons), B) use an organic fertilizer. Lots of people that use sphag, at least as a top dressing, report benefits to the sphag when using organic fertilizer. Hell, I use inorganic fertilizer (orchid fert) and it has never killed the sphag I have as a top dressing in a couple pots.

Roots and pitchers were meant for nutrient uptake......leaves were not. Or hey, let's do an experiment.Go get 3 ventratas, and spray one down with idk...an oz of 90% alcohol. Then water one with an oz of alcohol, then fill the pitchers of a third with alcohol. The one that was sprayed will survive, the one watered with alcohol will look like hell and may or may not pull through, and the one with alcohol in the pitchers will either just lose its pitchers, but will more likely than not just die. Now what does that tell you?

Nepenthes are not orchids, and have obviously evolved different ways to take up nutrients. Foliar feeding being beneficial to neps because its beneficial to orchids isn't a good argument, and doesn't prove anything.

I enjoyed thoroughly your choice of nepenthes for the drunken nep experiment.