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Succumbing to French Roast Pressure . . .

  • #61
Lookin' good there David.

dvg
 
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  • #62
aaaaah....you're one of the fortunate ones who has the weather that permits it all. :D Canada is extreme both in summer and winter.
 
  • #63
vraev said:
aaaaah....you're one of the fortunate ones who has the weather that permits it all. :D Canada is extreme both in summer and winter.
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True enough but I have had some great times in Ontario in Summer and Winter. Bella even came with me and rolled in the snow . . .
 
  • #64
haha! I can imagine... on some days...weather is magical...in winter when it snows...but there isn't too much wind/wind-chill.....and then like today...when it was nice and cool....with a misty drizzle in the face...perfect! But those are connected with times of 90F..and then suddenly 60F. Its crazy right now. :p
 
  • #65
i tried the coffee treatment to my n.ventricosa's. havent really noticed MUCH of an improvement to the plant as of yet (its only been a month) BUT the sphag defenetely got a kick in the pants. too bad that when i first got the vent , the media dried up in the pot (just the toppest layer of sphag) and it burnt so now it looks all brownish with bright green underneath.
 
  • #66
I tried it once......all that happened was it was a fertilizer for algae. Nothing else....tons and tons of gooey...green...slimy algae. heck...I think sphagnum even died.
 
  • #67
Wow those are nice! I did notice in my plants, the the stubborn pitcherers did pick up the pace a little after coffee, but it did coincide with winter ending so it may have just been more sunlight that helped them along. The bigger leaves they grew after coffee though - I would definitely have to say I believe it was because of the coffee.
 
  • #68
I didn't read through the entire thread so I am sorry if someone has asked or tried this already.

Has anyone tried this on a recently established rooted cutting? Or perhaps even an unrooted cutting.
 
  • #69
dashman said:
I didn't read through the entire thread so I am sorry if someone has asked or tried this already.

Has anyone tried this on a recently established rooted cutting? Or perhaps even an unrooted cutting.
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I have not attempted that, nor would I -- for the same reason that I wouldn't fertilize anything that had not rooted and exhibited new growth; it would simply encourage algal growth . . .
 
  • #70
How about one that has rooted and has new growth? I have a a vent x (lowii x vent) that has two new leaves and has rooted. I was thinking of trying coffee on it if it were safe to try to give it a kick start. Still too early you think?
 
  • #71
dashman said:
How about one that has rooted and has new growth? I have a a vent x (lowii x vent) that has two new leaves and has rooted. I was thinking of trying coffee on it if it were safe to try to give it a kick start. Still too early you think?
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I imagine that it could work; but I would initially suggest using a 1/4 strength 30:10:10 orchid fertilizer before considering coffee . . .
 
  • #72
OK Thanks. I'll check out that method.
 
  • #73
I realize that this plant is an "illegal alien" on this thread, but this bugger was also experimentally treated with coffee back in March; and while pitcher growth hasn't been accelerated, the same cannot be said for the sphagnum "Afro" that the plant is sporting, since that dousing . . .

Heliamphora tatei
HTATEI2-1.jpg


HTATEI-1.jpg
 
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  • #74
wow BigB! I really need to bug someone to make some coffee with DISTILLED water. Perhaps thats why my sphagnum died.
 
  • #76
yup! I totally agree about sphagnum being the'canary' or 'coral reef'. I used to have tons and tons of live sphagnum that I grew from a starter clump and back in those days (before jan 10), I used to have a very very nice stock of it in all my nep pots. Infact, it was to the point that i had to weed it out to prevent it from drowning the plants. Unfortunately, after it all died, its at the painstaking process of re-colonizing and regrowing.

this was a clump I pulled out from my old N. rajah pot a couple of years ago. I haven't seen one strand like this since.

2375671254_37d0389259_o.jpg


I am trying to see if I can get some of this growing again. There are a few heads here and there, but it might be the chilean form. For sure I have got quite a bit of the chilean sphagnum growing. But, I prefer the older newzealand form.

Yeah!! when I coffeed my small villosa, macro, all that happened was the dead moss and little bit of live moss in the pots got fully ridden with slime algae. I haven't noticed any positive effect of the coffee at all. If anything, my bigger villosa which is on a pure bug diet is still doing better than the smaller one.
 
  • #77
I find that strange that you experienced algal growth after the coffee treatment; and I know of few instances where that was ever the case. Last March, I treated something on the order of sixty pots without incidence of any algal bloom; and it's clear that my sphagnum moss hasn't suffered either . . .
 
  • #78
Hmm...perhaps it has to do it with the fact I bought that black coffee at Tim hortons? They use regular tap water for brewing coffee. As some of the water evaporates, the conductivity and level of ions in the water would be far higher than normal? Either way, I might have to get into the habit of coffee and then, I should serve my botanical pets some brewed and distilled coffee. ;) But until then, I'm still a bit wary about trying it again.
 
  • #80
vraev said:
Hmm...perhaps it has to do it with the fact I bought that black coffee at Tim hortons? They use regular tap water for brewing coffee. As some of the water evaporates, the conductivity and level of ions in the water would be far higher than normal? Either way, I might have to get into the habit of coffee and then, I should serve my botanical pets some brewed and distilled coffee. ;) But until then, I'm still a bit wary about trying it again.
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I'm going to be the red herring and say out in the forest, when the neps get watered, it's through tree leaves and ground litter which definitely isn't practically hypoallergenically sanitized and R.O'd. It's likely running through pollen, animal poo and rotting vegetation...which is sorta like coffee :-)) [I'm totally a coffee fiend, btw...Sumatran all the way cuz it's tasty and neps are from around there..]

I think what we're missing is someone to go to the top of Mt.Kinabalu and/or some other mountain, put a water gauge up in a shallow hole in the ground in multiple places, and then take at least a ppm reading.
 
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