Notes on Bical Nectar.

[Dexenthes]

So I've seen a few people ask around and I myself have wondered how or why a Bicalcarata will produce the infamous nectar which seeps from the 'fangs'. My time here or elsewhere on the web has yet to produce a solid answer, and my experience growing them also lacks any real findings.

But today, I found something which I had not seen in a few months, and that was, nice little beads of nectar coming off all the fangs on the plant. (4) I found this really strange because, for the previous two/three months I have been giving the plant conditions which I thought to be pretty ideal. Humidity of probably 90%< and temps in the upper 80s to 90s. During this period the plant significantly increased the size of the leaves it made, the size of the pitchers it made, and the rate of general growth. Now I am back in Alaska, and I have transfered it to a new terrarium where conditions are less than optimum, it's hard to keep the large terrarium even in the 80s, and it has a screen top so humidty has been irregular just whenever I have been able to mist it. but it has produced nectar.

So the only thing I have found is that maybe a slight decrease in humidity and or temps has led to the producing of nectar, but that amount of nectar is not exactly profound and there must be a ideal condition for this nectar to occur.

Please any other N. bical growers, share your notes on how you have produced fang nectar and how often, and such. It would be nice to find a diffinitive answer to what makes it happen.

 

[wolcottaj]

From what I have read the bacalcarata produces the nectar to attract insects. If you could put a glass lid on you tank you are keeping your neps in that will help alot. I have to do this in the winter time to keep my neps in the right conditions. The bacs love it hot and humid. Mine is kept in the 80's with the humidity up there (I don"t have anything to read the humidity). It takes a few days once the pintcher opens for the nectar to start producing. Hope this helps you some
Andy

 

[Capensis]

Well, bical's fangs are just continuations of its peristome, so you might as well be asking how to get the peristome to nectar, or do the fangs actually produce nectar differently from the rest of the peristome?

 

[F R e N c H 3 z]

All of my larger Neps produce ample nectar. My bical is too small still to produce anything noticeable but I have found that good lighting, longer photoperiods seem to be responsible for the nectar production on the peristome and underside of lid. I use 4 t-8s about 8-12 inches away from the plant. I've also noticed smaller leaves since the lighting is stronger and sometimes red leaves indicating too much light. The pitchers do not get smaller though like the leaves and color up very intensely.

 

[Dexenthes]

In my experience peristome nectar actually doesn't coincide with fang nectar all the time. I've had my peristomes oozing and the fangs dry before. Wollcat: Thanks, like I said though, the optimum conditions that I had didn't produce fang nectar and nearly two months after the pitcher's opened and in one of their cases four months later, it produced fang nectar but only with severe humidity drop and temp drop, which has slowed growth quite a bit.

So perhaps humidity should be somewhere closer to 70% instead of the likely 100% I had been keeping it before. No other bical growers have noticed the fang's pickiness to produce?