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burkei 1 month aft. coffee

uphwiz

jimmy
OK i treated my slow growing n.burkei on Dec. 9th ,
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here it is now at about one month after 1 cup 10oz decaf coffee poured straight thru and allowed to drain without pot for a few min. then back to the HL terr.
the pic is from thh opposite side but i think you can see the small pitcher to the top right its the same one last month, and it did color up ,
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Im very happy with the results. any thoughts on the coffee treatment , is this normal growth , as i said before this nep hasn't grown at all in a very long time.
Im excited :banana2:
 
I just did the treatment on my caesar, one pitcher was stalling and has grown two inches in about 4 days. i think it works :banana2:
 
wow, great results! does tea work the same way? congrats!
 
Very nice, the results seem typical after a coffee treatment. Here's 2 of mine I treated a few months ago, you can clearly see the effect.

N. truncata pasian Highland form
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N. truncata lowland form with bronze peristome
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I've heard that the results have something to do with the acidity of the coffee. any thoughts?
 
I think it's more to do with the nutrients in the coffee beans.

Fertilizer has long been shown to have very positive effects for Nepenthes when done properly. Particularly for plants grown indoors with pure water and 'soilless' potting mix and unable to catch much prey as they would in the wild.
 
It was my understanding even the caffeine helped as well. De-caff has to go through chemical processing to remove the caffeine anyways doesn't it?
 
I'm too scared to try this with my plants. :-(

I have a bad habit of killing even the easier ones (Nepenthes, Drosera Capensis, etc) and I'm worried if I do the coffee treatment, it would kill them.


I'll wait to see what everyone else does.
 
me too but i took one of mine that hadnt grown in a year and tried it, it worked for me , i understand that this shouldnt be done more than once in a 6 month period, so no more for now ill do another comparison in a few more weeks , with more pics of the same plant
 
  • #10
Lol i the same with you guys...my neps are too precious to die..maybe I can try it on my stenpphylla and albo...
 
  • #11
Aw guys don't be such wimps! :D

I used fertilizer on my old Nep collection and it really works wonders. I used Gro More brand Urea Free ("non burning") orchid fertilizers, mainly the 20-20-20 Tropical Gro blend (including micro nutrients/trace elements) but on occasion I ran some of the Gro More Cymbidium Bloom formula (10-30-30). I'm not sure if it's what helped spur blooms on the Neps I've gotten to bloom or not but it certainly didn't kill them. Just go lightly, 1/4 strength of the label recommendation at first and be sure to do several pot flushes with pure water between each fertilizer watering. Basically treating them like Orchids is OK as long as you exercise restraint with how much you're using and use proper fertilizers for delicate plants.

If you fertilize be sure to feed the pitchers with dried or frozen crickets so the plant doesn't see a reason to quit making pitchers and start to rely on the fertilizer. Cos they will take the easy way out if you let them, they will grow into a vine but not make a single pitcher along the way. If you continue to feed them along with lightly fertilizing they will not quit pitchering, That is provided it was pitchering before you began fertilizing, fertilizer improves already robust plant growth/pitchering but it will not make the lights brighter or the air more humid. Proper conditions go a long way to speeding up growth. A small cricket into each active pitcher on a weekly basis is a good regimen, when the cricket looks to be dissolved or sinks to the bottom feed it another, on tiny plants you'll have to check the shadows through the side of the pitcher and be conservative on prey item size. The "Small" size crickets at Petsmart are generally good for 4" plants with 2-4" pitchers. I would crush the cricket with the feeding tongs and then gently shake the pitcher once it's in the fluid.

Back to ferts, be sure to look for non burning fertilizers used specifically for orchids, not roses, vegetables, Bromilads or pine trees... orchids! These tend to already be gentler and if used sparingly it's hard to go overboard with them. If you don't find what you want at stores look on the web. Infact, before you buy check the reputation of the brand you're looking at buying on the web first. It doesn't have to be Gro More that's just the brand that they sell at the local Orchid shop and so it's the one I use for all my various plants and soon HL Neps again!

Dyna Grow & Dyna Bloom are also decent fertilizer but being a liquid it's kind of a rip off compared to Gro More which is a blue or green powder that can be mixed into your watering water a couple times a month. 1 lb of powder lasts almost indefinitely. My Neps also got foliar feeds because I would be spraying the orchids mounted on the back and side walls of the grow chambers on a weekly basis and the garden sprayer tends to spray everything in it's path.

Like anything start out with one or two plants you can use as test subjects with the particular fertilizer you choose and see what happens. I'm quite sure you'll be pleasantly surprised with the results. Why grow a seedling/tiny clone for 5 years when you can have a adult sized or flowering plant in 2 or 3?

I never did use coffee (N) or tobacco ashes (P) on my plants. I'm sort of concerned it might lead to mould/fungal attacks of some kind or simply just stinky pots, but maybe those fears are unfounded. Powders are clean and no smell.
 
  • #12
Hey guys, can someone explain this coffee thing to me, or point me in the direction of the related article or reading reference/material.

Sounds interesting and I would like to give it a go on two of my neps which seem to have gone "Nope, not growing any more" when they were, previously, growing like crazy.
 
  • #13
Requiemsong,

The first I heard of the coffee treatment for Nepenthes was from a post made by Dave Evans. Since reading his post, I have tried it on almost all of my Neps without any ill effects to any of the plants.

If anything, I think it helped them make darker green glossier leaves, and seemed to spur on plant growth with pitchering as well.

Here are some links:

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~dpevans/Nepenthes/N_rajah.htm

http://pitcherplants.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=6288&page=1

http://ocps.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=nepenthes&action=display&thread=2396&page=1

http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119045

regards,

dvg
 
  • #14
It was my understanding even the caffeine helped as well. De-caff has to go through chemical processing to remove the caffeine anyways doesn't it?

De-caff still has some caffeine. About 3.5% of the caffeine remains after the decaffeinating process.

-Hermes.
 
  • #15
Hey guys, can someone explain this coffee thing to me, or point me in the direction of the related article or reading reference/material.

Sounds interesting and I would like to give it a go on two of my neps which seem to have gone "Nope, not growing any more" when they were, previously, growing like crazy.

just pour your day old coffee , thru the the media and let it drain a little set it back in the dish or back to however you grow your neps. and treat as always ,:-D can you see the difference mine are showing after one month .
This is my first try and i'll be doing it again to others that look a little stalled in their growth.
I think you can only do this at 6 month intervals , so be carefull to keep up with the ones you try it on
 
  • #16
I have a stubborn N.bicalcarata I think I'll try this on...
 
  • #17
Jimmy, between the coffee treatment and the new set-up, your N. burkei is off to a great start for 2010. Congrats on the new and improved growth!

Here are some pics I shot today of a soon to be opening N. burkei,

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dvg
 
  • #18
For some reason I love the way the lid connects to the perimistome, Lol.
 
  • #19
Jimmy, between the coffee treatment and the new set-up, your N. burkei is off to a great start for 2010. Congrats on the new and improved growth!

Here are some pics I shot today of a soon to be opening N. burkei,

IMG_2134-1.jpg


IMG_2140-1.jpg


IMG_2136-1.jpg


dvg
Please ,Please, take a few more pictures as it opens if you could, and post them here , can you do time stop photos, I think thats what its called , from the same point and same focal length , i think you know what i mean , any way I would like to have a goal for mine ,say by the end of 2010. Just love your burkei's , best ive seen.:-O
 
  • #20
Hmm what about cactus & succulent fert?I spray them in the PITCHER odf my small viking and hooker and they grow real fast but the pitchers sometimes dries up and..well not nice
 
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