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Brand new to Nepenthes. Have several questions concerning cultivation.

Hello all, I stumbled across a book in Barns and Noble called "The Savage Garden". After reading it through, I decided I simply must get me some. I look on the internet and did a bit of searching around. I really liked all of the information and professionalism on *a certain website*, so I decided to buy two plants from them. They both just got here today:

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Nepenthes Sanguinea - Highland

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Nepenthes Rafflesiana, Giant - Lowland (but apparently can be grown as an intermediate)


Both plants arrived in very impressive packaging. The way they were packaged was ingenious and perfect for shipping a plant (though rather tough to remove).

I do have a few concerns though.

The first is Humidity. At night the Humidity drops to 65% and during the day it is around 45% (according to a very accurate Hygrometer). I went to the store and bought two "trays" and some pea-sized rocks to try to make two Humidity trays (as pictured). I filled the water up to about 3/4ths the height of the rocks. I'm waiting for them to sit for a while to start letting off humidity into the air, and I don't know the results yet, but has anyone had any success in using a humidity tray to increase the humidity in the air around their plants any noticeable amount?

The second is sunlight. Both are in a South-facing window but also have a slight amount of sun in the morning from a West-facing window (however not for long as there is a tree that blocks most of it, which is why it is against the South window and not the West window). The amount of sun the two plants get in the evening is about 3-4 hours. And it isn't quite direct sunlight as there is a tree in between them and the sun that has very few leaves, and sun does get to the plants but since the wind is always blowing, it's more like sun for a second, no sun for a second, sun for a second, etc.

Another slight concern is temperature. At night it drops down to about 60 degrees and during the day it gets up to 82. Is this ok for both plants?

Also, my N. Rafflesiana came with some slightly discolored small spots on it. As if someone sprayed water on it in very hot sunlight. Is this normal for it going dormant or perhaps from being in a box for 3 days?

Finally, I ordered some Nepenthes Burbidgeae seeds that were collected this summer and kept in a refrigerator until now. I'm expecting them in the mail any day now. I've heard that some Nepenthes seeds have rather short lifespans so my question is this; Out of 20 seeds, could I expect a good germination rate regardless of being refrigerated for a few months?

Any replies/feedback is greatly appreciated.

Other information: I live in Southern California (Moreno Valley) in an almost desert-like area that usually has low humidity. I plan on watering the plants twice a week (with distilled water) or more depending how how good they retain water and misting them every morning.
 
About the humidity: Do you know whether your guage reads relative humidity or just humidity? Sanguinea could deal with 45% without too much trouble. Raff may take a while to adjust, but I think it'll hang in there and eventually send out some pitchers. I had mine on a little wooden shelf to the right of a window in the middle of winter (terrible light, terrible humidity) and it was slow, but opened a trap every so often. Wait a minute... the humidity drops to 65% from 45%? Is it the other way around? :D.

I think your light should be sufficient, though you might not get great coloration on your plants. In the wild, rafflesiana especially experiences that sort of dappled sunlight from the canopy. Highlanders, from what I've read tend to go for the more open, sunny areas, but I think you'd be all right with a sanguinea.
I think the temperatures won't be a problem, though 82 is pretty high without decent humidity. In the wild it'll hit 82 easily, but of course the humidity will also be about 70%.

Burbidgeae seeds... Wish you the best of luck with these. You could try growing them on the windowsill like that, and you may get some germination. You'd get a better germination rate if they were fresher and if you had them in a more humid/seed-friendly environment, but I think something would pop up if you're patient.

Savage garden is a great book (it's like the CP bible), but it recommends putting Nepenthes in standing water. Usually you can only get away with this with the extreme lowlanders (raff, bicalcarata, ampullaria). Highlanders usually like some drainage -- some of them even grow as epiphytes. But the gravel method has been proven to work for many people.

Check out Nepenthesaroundthehouse.com . Joel is another So cal grower who has success growing neps outside year round. Sounds like you're in a pretty dry area, but it's worth checking out.

Good luck :)
Ben
 
on the humidity, dont have a sang but the raff should adapt but may take a lil time....keep a close eye on it and if it starts drying out, bag it and put it in inderect light...

temps are fine

sun....depends on what they were getting in the greenhouse....most of the time even right up against a window is only equivilant to bright shade outside...

on the seeds, good luck....im running on about a 50% success rate even with fresh seed.....

as far as The Savage Garden.....its a very good book but keep in mind that is one growers opinion....there are alot of us that have had great success doing the opposite of what Peter says....use the book as a guideline but remember if what it says isnt working for yah done be afraid to experiment with different things a lil at a time....
 
I have both of these. They should both be fine over time under normal household conditions. My Sanguinea took a little more time to adjust to lower humidity and it produced small pitchers with deformed lids, but eventually it acclamated and produced normal ones.

Welcome to the forum! Please take some time to read over the rules and pay particular attention to which vendors you are allowed to reference in posts and which ones you are not.

I'll give you a hint... This site is sponsered by flytrapshop.com. You may reference them. If a vendor is not a sponsor of this site, you may not. :)
 
Hiya, welcome to TF! :wave:

So, yeah, they pretty much answered you questions, lol. Though about the spots, are they on all the leaves or just the bottom ones? If so, then they're most likely just old leaves. And Nepenthes do not go dormant as they are tropical plants.

And like dashman said, please read the rules and edit your post to remove the vendor's name. :) The only vendors you're allowed to mention are www.flytrapshop.com (the Admins's store that has amazing plants) and international vendors that are outside of the U.S. such as Borneo Exotics and Wistuba.
 
Vendor name removed, sorry about that guys.

Thanks for all the feedback! It's good to know that they won't die under the conditions they are in. The trays seem to be increasing the humidity by 10-15% during the day and ~5% at night.

Right now the humidity outside is 10%, so they would probably die pretty fast if I let them grow out there. If I lived further West then I would definitely be growing them outside. Joel is lucky. :)

When I get the seeds I'm thinking about propagating them in pure moist (dead) sphagnum moss with a sealed plastic bag around the container and letting them sit in the same window as my plants. Hopefully I can get a couple plants out of ~20 seeds.
 
nepenthes seeds are kinda hit and miss for the most part. some sprout like weeds and another batch of the same cross may not even sprout at all. if you get seedlings, pat yourself on the back! haha. burbidgea is one of my favorite neps. if you get them to sprout i will gladly trade you some plants for one or two seedlings!

good luck!!
Alex
 
nepenthes seeds are kinda hit and miss for the most part. some sprout like weeds and another batch of the same cross may not even sprout at all. if you get seedlings, pat yourself on the back! haha. burbidgea is one of my favorite neps. if you get them to sprout i will gladly trade you some plants for one or two seedlings!

good luck!!
Alex

If my yields are high, I'd definitely be interested. It's really too bad that the germination rate/lifespan are so low/short.

About the humidity: Do you know whether your guage reads relative humidity or just humidity?

Almost missed this. It reads relative humidity. After calibrating it, it's supposed to have +/-0.3% accuracy.

Edit- Updated the Nepenthes Rafflesiana with a much higher quality picture. Does this coloration look ok?
 
The raff looks to me either like it was scorched with extremely high light or hit with a cold snap at some point. In either case it should come back with nice green leaves under suitable conditions.
 
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The raff looks to me either like it was scorched with extremely high light or hit with a cold snap at some point. In either case it should come back with nice green leaves under suitable conditions.

Ahh ok. I really hope so. It's probably getting less sun than when it was in the nursery, and I sort of like green a bit better anyways. :)

Edit- Have two Nepenthes Ampullaria on their way. A friend has too many of them, so he decided to give a few to me. From what he tells me, they should do fine in the conditions my existing plants are in, just not to expect very many pitchers or fast growth given they are Lowland.
 
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