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Nepenthes Tentaculata

I'm thinking of getting an N. Tentaculata and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with one? I know theres different types but all I can get from the website I want to buy it from is that it is a highlander. Does anyone know if it could do well in a windowsill terrarium, no artificial lighting but used to boost humidity? Thanks for any help :D
 
Nope..thise species is a strict HLer from what I've read....high humidity, chilly nights, and very bright light. Thez_yo grows one on her balcony, but other than that, most peeps find it to be a tricky species.

If you want to grow it, it will need to find a way to cool it at night.
 
so far so good....I have had mine for a month now. New growth and all seems to be well. However, a month is not that long for these plants.
I have it under the T5HO's with a mixed spectrum of bulbs, plenty of humidity 70%-95%, and right now I am getting the GH down to the upper 50's to lower 60's at night.
 
Ah, thanks for the quick reply, I guess I'll look into some other species :scratch:
 
I grew one for about a year (not sure really how long I had it) before trading it for a ton of seedlings a few years ago. I raised it from a small unrooted cutting to a small rosetted plant. I grew it with high humidity and under lights for most of the time while rooting.

But when it rooted and started producing pitchers I switched it to 50-60% humidity gradually.

It got highland to intermediate conditions the entire time.

Here is a pic of it shortly before shipping it out. Still miss the little booger. I'll probably get one again in the future.

img0170st.jpg
 
;) ;)
 
@dashman, wow that looks like it adapted nicely to lower humidity!

For a fussy plant like this would the old bottle-of-ice-in-the-terrarium-at-night trick work to create a temperature drop?
 
Not that it isn't possible, but I have never heard of the bottle of ice trick working effectively.

My guess is that even if it does actually lower the temp enough, that the act of filling it with ice, or freezing it every day just doesn't play out as well as most would hope.
 
Ah I thought it seemed like a bit of a futile method :p How drastic does the temperature drop need to be because here in blighty ol' england it gets to around 50F in the night..
 
  • #10
@Tom, Like I said I gave it more intermediate/highland conditions. Not true highland. But seeing as how I didn't grow it for very long I wouldn't take my experiences as anything more than that it can survive a short while in intermediate. I can't speak to anything other than my own experiences.

I can say that like all nepenthes I grow, many will be OK in slightly lower humidity (50-60%). The downside is usually smaller, thicker leaves as well as smaller pitchers. But most do adapt eventually.
 
  • #11
Hi, can't add much on culture, but I can give a bit of help on the temp side. Although it gets cold outside in summer (today it's 13C outside in mid day 'heat') I find that room temps stay pretty constant. As the sun gets through the window, my room tends to heat to ~21C. At night it drops to ~18C. If you don't have double glazing, the drop will be more dramatic- although is sunny Cambridge it might be less so. 21-18 isn't really highlander- more intermediate. You might be able to get round it by opening the window every night, but could also not work at all- maybe said plant is too fussy. In winter, if you don't use the central heating often, your room will probably hover from 10-15C, with little fluctuation in temperature. If you use it to heat the house all the time, you will have ~20C constantly. If only heated in the day, you might get a slight temperature drop, but I would doubt it would be sufficient. This is all based on my own experience of house temps, but for me at least, windowsills only really seem habitable in generalised English household conditions for forgiving intermediates. Although, if you can manage ~21C-15C you might be able to get away with it. Just remember, outside temp doesn't mean inside temp. Maybe get a good digital thermometer so you can measure day and night temps? Hope that clears stuff up a bit on what you can grow on your window. But as I said, I'm more offering a room temperature guide as opposed to cultivation guide. There's a difference! Hope this helps with making plant choices. :)
 
  • #12
Thanks for the advice! Yeh I think I'll avoid this Nep, seems way too fussy for my experience level! In case your interested at all I'm planning on putting together a terrarium sometime in the near future and considering temperature drop I'm hoping the grow lights being turned off at night and opening the window will be enough for more forgiving Neps.. For a southerner I'm quite resistant to the cold so I think I can live with my windows open at night :p I'm planning on having a little computer fan in it also to turn on at night to circulate air and maybe cool it tiny amount so I'm remaining optimistic to be able to grow some easier highlanders in the future
 
  • #13
I have that set-up already. Works fine- just a pain. I like to keep my window open at night anyway, don't like being hot in bed, so it's no problem for me. In summer, even with my cold nights, the inside of the room only drops to 15-16C at night, however the air by the window is much colder. My terrarium thing is on the opposite side of the room to the window(only place to put it), but if it was on the window the cold air would definitely be <15C, so I would explore that option, as it might be the best. Only problem is finding a tank that will fit, or a table the extend the sill. Anyway, just thinking aloud virtually. :)
 
  • #14
Hmm I was planning on putting it on my floor because im pretty short for space but I've got a desk in front of my window which I could put it on, just gotta add something on the windowsill the level them out.. I guess I'll just wait and see if they respond ok to being on the floor. Haha thanks for the helpful thoughts!
 
  • #15
Helpfull thoughts are what I do best! And yeah, the floor could work too, as cold air sinks, but again, only near a window! Also, on a desk it will look less ghetto :) I have mine on a chest of drawers/cabinet thing, with all the wires leading into the drawers to make it look neat. Works well. Levelling may not be a problem, depending on the size of the desk- if the desk would fit the supposed tank, as long as it was near enough, it would pro ably work fine. One good consideration is tank size- wattage in bulbs increases with the size of the bulb, so the smaller the tank, the lower the light (also the quicker you run out of space :p ). Again, helpful thoughts ;) . I had to do a lot if thinking about the tank, and was a pain - I'm painfully un-technically minded.
 
  • #16
At the moment I'm thinking about getting a 30 gallon long tank which is about 3ft long 1ft wide and 1.5ft tall with 2 2ft 24 watt 6400K lights, does that sound like a high enoug wattage to you? I'm having trouble finding places that actually sell grow lights, all I seem to find are weed growing kits! ^^
 
  • #17
Haha, so true! Yep, some don't specifically say so, but I remember coming across one that was a faux computer-tower thing that could grow plants in. Hmmm, wonder what that one was for? ;)

As for grow lights, I wouldn't bother. I have to use them because of size limitations, but they are 5x more expensive than normal fluoros. They are useful because they come in bizarre sizes, and have a higher wattage per size, but otherwise not worth the money. Probes better getting 1:1 warm White and cool White bulbs. As for 24W- I would say too low. Maybe for neps it's ok, but I have the impression that 40W (probably 36W in normal bulbs) is the minimum. Only problem is that they are 3-4ft long. It's an annoying complication. But maybe that would be just enough for neps, but I doubt it. Not really sure about alternative solutions- I'm a complete technical noob, as mentioned before. Also, 30cm is probably the furthest bulbs can be for most cps, although again, maybe not with neps. But with 24W, defo too far away. You'd probably need to lower them in or something. If you look for normal lights, they're easy to find. The specialist grow lights are sold in a lot of pet-shops/ aquarium/ reptile places. I think they call it 'sun-glo' or something stupid. Expensive though. Also, reflectors are advised to maximise light, and decrease wastage. That's what I learnt from my own grow tank research/buying period. I got one pretty late and was making do with a grow shelf. Didn't even bother with neps until recently, so I am no expert on their requirements- I just have experience with the whole climate/finding stuff in England shebang etc etc. :D
 
  • #18
So any fluorescent bulbs work?! Wow im confused, I thought they had to have UV or whatnot.. I can always put a layer of bricks/something else at the bottom of the tank to raise the plants so that should be ok. I can't seem to find any 2ft bulbs with wattage above 18W, d'you think four of these would be ok?
 
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  • #19
I don't use a tank, but I suspect that having one would aid in the effectiveness of the ice bottle as it would probably keep the cold somewhat insulated within it. As temperatures climb, I will occasionally stick a large bottle of ice in the grow area of my neps. It doesn't cause drastic changes, but it does make a very small difference in the temperature.

My primary use of ice bottles is in a styrofoam box that i put my villosa in for the night time slumber. Drops the temps to the low 50s which is what I want. Only caution I would provide to you if you try the ice bottle at all is that it can drop humidity levels a bit since the cold draws water out of the air and does the whole condensation bit. I give everything a good spray with the water bottle to compensate.
 
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