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Nepenthes villosa

  • #21
I don't see why it would not work. I have often thought about taking the evaporator out of a college dorm fridge and putting it into a terrarium.

Although in the winter time you have all that sub zero air outside. Gotta be a way to utilize that. Maybe a small vent tube with a fan inside to pipe some cold air to the terrarium, along with the humidifier to moisten it up before it hits the plants. The trick I think will be to not turn the terrarium into a deep freeze.
Tony
 
  • #22
Excellent idea Neps!
I would like to try some serious highland Neps too and that could do it for me.
I guess you use something like a sheet of clear perspex as the lid?
How is the humidity in there, I would imagine that the colder it gets the more difficult it would be to maintain any humidity?

Joachim why not post your pics to www.clubphoto.com, that's what I did with my Sumatra pics?
I would like to see some pics of your plant.

I have been to Kinabalu a couple of times.
Lowii is actually grown in the little garden they have set up at the base of the mountain which is at approx 1500/1600m I think. Wasn't the best example of that plant that I have seen but it was surviving and producing pitchers. There is also a lot of tentaculata along the trail as soon as you begin walking.

After walking for a few hours you pass an altitude marker, again my memory is hazy but it could well have been 2600m (if Charles told you that then it's almost certainly correct as he's been up that mountain MANY times) and the first few villosa appear within a few metres. After that they are everywhere! The guide told me that lowii doesn't grow at that altitude and I didn't see ANY apart from the couple in the garden.

Unfortunately I did not get to see any rajah
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Cheers, FB
 
  • #23
I would have LOVED to see a picture of your son next to a huge Rajah.
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  • #24
Thought I'd elaborate a bit about what I've done after seeing that there is some interest
in my approach.

I removed the lid from a 5.5 cubic foot standard chest freezer, and replaced it with clear
plexiglass, of about the same size and 5 mm thickness. Inside, I placed a thermostat,
set so that it would turn the freezer on when temperatures rise above the set point, which
is 3 C. The freezer itself is plugged into a timer, so that it only turns on and lowers the
temperature at night. In addition to the thermostat, I've also enclosed a small fan and
a humidistat which activates it when humidity drops below the desired value.
This serves quite well to keep the humidity fairly high since the bottom of the freezer is
watertight, and runoff from the plants collects there.

Over the enclosure, I've placed a fixture with two 40 W flourescent shop lamps, also on
a timer, and running opposite the time that the freezer is on. Photoperiod is set for about
13 hours.

I've been running this setup for a year, and my villosa's pitcher from every leaf. Currently,
the largest pitcher is about 5 cm in height, and the largest plant ia about 15 cm in diameter,
as I may have mentioned in an earlier posting. The plants are very healthy!

Moreover, this same technique may be used to cultivate other ultrahighland species, such
as NN. diatas, artistolochioides, lamii, murudensis, etc., keeping in mind that one should
employ a thermostat setting a bit warmer for some of these than for villosa, since most
grow at somewhat lower altitudes.

I should point out that using a freezer directly may be better than tearing apart an old refrig-
erator, for the simple reason that a freezer is quite well insulated, and this insulation allows
one to keep the inside (and the plants) quite cool, even in summer, at only modest cost
for electricity.

Please look for my upcoming article in CPN for more details. I'll try to post some pics of my
villosa on my website soon.
 
  • #25
Hey an even better idea Tony!I hadn't thought about that!
I could just use my other 4" CPU fan and the same ducting setup I already have for the AC in the summer. Ah, now I have more $$ to spend on bulding a larger highland enclosure and some more plants!
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  • #26
Believe it or not, I've actually tried something similar to what you're thinking, Swords.
One year, I actually drilled a hole through the side of my house (only about 8 cm diameter)
to draw in air from the outside using a 10 cm fan. My intent was to cool a much
larger area than what you are considering, so this approach may work better for what you have
in mind, but I can tell you that it was not very successful for me. What's more, one would need
a thermostat in the loop to turn off the fan to prevent cooling below the desired temperature.
Finally, on warm nights, you're not going to get much cooling, and there's nothing you can
do about it. I live at 1800 m elevation, and during the summer, overnight lows are sometimes
no lower than 20 C, which means temps inside are considerably higher.

Mind you, I'm not saying that this won't work. Am merely trying to share my experience with
you and play the role of "devil's advocate". Certainly, this could be useful in the winter, if
implemented correctly.
 
  • #27
Ok I managed to take a few pics today...

Here is my whopping 1" (2.5cm) villosa pitcher..  I guess I can't complain as the plant is only about twice that size.  But it is getting bigger (slooooowly hehe). BTW this is a clone from Borneo Exotics. They have a couple different ones.
Tony
nvillosabe.jpg
 
  • #28
Wow !

Under what conditions do you grow your N. villosa, Tony ?

Martin
 
  • #29
Here is a picture of one of the pitchers from one of my plants.  The photo was taken about
two hours ago.  Tony, please don't think that I'm trying to "show you up" by posting this
now.  I'd intended to do so for a couple days now, but didn't get around to taking this photo
'til now.  Judging from your photo, your plant looks great and you are to be commended upon
the job you are doing with it!

As the plant gets older, the pitchers start to look more and more like what one sees in
photos.  Development of pitchers is very slow, however!

villosaWeb.jpg
 
  • #30
No offense at all! I am anxiously awaiting the day for my little guy to look more like an adult hehe.

hmm well If I tell you how I grow it your gonna say.. ACK he's gonna kill it! But I will tell you anyway.....

It is in a mix of fine coconut husk chips, chopped NewZealand sphagnum and perlite. (fair amount of sphag on the highlander blend) Sorry I don't have ratios.. I just mix it till it feels right. Rough guess 1:1:1..

It gets watered every day or two with RO water so stays fairly moist. Pretty high light.. sorry no footcandle meter. Humidity is pretty high.. sorry no hygrometer. There are underbench misters in the whole greenhouse that come on at 82-84 degrees for cooling. At 86 or so one exhaust fan comes on and at 88 or so a second one comes on. The second one normally isn't running. The misters also help keep the humidity up when the exhaust fans are running, which is why they come on first. I do not have evaporative pads on this greenhouse.

Summer time the greenhouse cools down at night to whatever it is outside, to a minimum of about 52. Most nights it is between 55-60, although we could have a few days of 65 at night occasionally.

During the winter the Night temps are actually warmer since I don't have set back thermostats (yet). SO night temps during the winter are around 62. During the day if the sun is shining it might be 80 in there.. if the sun isn't shining it's ... 62

I do think it is very important that Nepenthes are feed if they are not catching enough of their own insects. I have freeze dried crickets and bloodworms which I use periodically.. although with all my plants it is hard to keep after them so I do use a liquid fertilizer at least a couple times a month.

ALL this is going to change next year however as I already have plans drawn up for some expanded facilities that will allow me to give the various plants a more natural environment.
Tony
 
  • #31
Jeez! That's very nice Jeff! You too Tony! Both those palnts make me envious. j/k
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Keep it up guys!
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  • #32
Wow, I am gonna have to get that plant! Both of your plants looks awesome : ) . I was wandering Jeff, and Tony how old are your plants is and how tall are the pitchers pictured? I know the plants grow very slow, but I am still curious how slow. Thnx.
 
  • #33
My plant is about seven years old. It's approx. 15 cm in diameter, and the pitcher shown is
about 5 cm in height. It would probably be somewhat larger, but it took me a bit of trial and
error to figure out how to provide it with the environment it needs to thrive.

Please note that you may have real difficulty with this species as it matures if you cannot provide it with overnight temperatures which are consistently in the neighborhood of 3 to 5 C, and daytime highs of no more than about 20 C. When villosa is small, it is more tolerant
of high temperatures, but as it gets larger (several cm in diameter), it becomes much more
finicky (at least in my experience, and I've grown several of them). Therefore, if you don't
have a long-term plan to give it what it needs, I'd try growing something else. Not trying
to discourage anyone, just trying to be direct and honest.
 
  • #34
Very nice pitchers Jeff and Tony!

From Tony's picture I would say my plant looks similar in some respects but the differences may be due to its smaller size. Tony, you made an interesting point, writing that you do fertilize your plants. How do you do this? I've also started to fertilize this special plant with a very strongly diluted fertilizer spraying the leafes about once a month. My plant did loose its pitchers alwyas few days after feeding very small insects, which in my opinion is still the best way to get nutrients into nepenthes. The N. villosa was able to use these nutrients to its best, as could be seen from the leafsize of newly produced leafes. But from the light yellow colour of the leafes I thought it still wasn't enough and well it did change after fertilizing it.

Jeff, I'm glad the size of your plant is "only" 15cm after seven years. My N. rajah is still in shock after I told it the growth rate of your plants, you did tell me few years back on the ICPS list... ;-) My N. villosa has reached a diameter of about 7cm after two years of growth coming direct out of TC (about 15mm diameter that time). I had the impression it was also quite slow due to its two growing points, which in my opinion hindered the growth of both. At least I did cut them apart in April this year. From what I do see now from this plant and also my N. murudensis and N. macrophylla which had the same problem, I do think I should have done this much earlier.

I do also think plants are best grown in conditions which do match their natural habitat as close as possible but especially the temperature requirements are sometimes not as easy to reach. So I am very interested in the signs you, Jeff, did see from your N. villosa when grown under too warm conditions. This would be quite helpful for me as I would at least know what to do, seeing similar signs from my plant.

Joachim
 
  • #35
As my plant got older, I observed that its rate of growth slowed, and it stopped pitchering,
Leaf color was also a lighter green, perhaps even yellowish. If you observe these
symptoms, it's quite possible that your plant is suffering from temperatures which are
too high.

I should also add that I've observed a similar pattern with several other highland species
of Nepenthes which grow at a minimum altitude of 2000 m or more. Among them are
NN. diatas, aristolochioides, and murudensis. When these are small, they are not as
intolerant of high temps, but when they get larger, they are much less forgiving.
 
  • #36
Jeff how big would you say your plant was when you started seeing these symptoms?
My plant is about 5.5cm across with 3cm pitchers. It is a light to medium green but villosa always looks on the pale side for me. I have had the plant for almost a year now. The pitchers are about double the size of when I got it although the plant has not increased in size a whole lot. This does not worry me too much as the new leaf now is showing noticeable increase. Plants typically get a little smaller for me initially from the stress of overseas importing/reestablishing and then adjusting to the much higher light that I give my plants than they get at the other nurseries. I usually look at increasing pitcher size on seedlings as a good indication that the plant is going in the right direction.

What I find interesting is what happened with your plant. I have a hard time understanding why one set of conditions would be ok for smaller plants but not for bigger plants. Any idea why that is the case?

Joachim I feed the plants with dried bloodworms occasionally. Larger plants get freeze dried crickets. I also use a liquid feed 2-4 times a month. The plants are watered nearly every day in the summer so they get plenty of flushing between applications. I use a 'peat-lite' formula. It has no urea and is primarily nitrate N. It also has minor elements and calcium and magnesium. Many fertilizers don't have sufficient calcium, sulfur, magnesium because they assume your source water will supply that. But when using the RO water they become defficient. Any good hydroponics type fertilizer would work as they are also designed to have all the proper nutrients in it. Final concentration RO+Fertilizer is about 75ppm TDS. pH is about 5.5. The plants get a good soaking. I have seen pitchers go black if too much gets into them. The plants really respond well to feeding. Ideally I would like it to be all fresh bugs but with a big greenhouse jam packed with plants it just isn't possible, so they really do need supplimental feeding.
Tony
 
  • #37
Don't know exactly when I started observing the sensitivity to warmer temperatures, but
surmise that it was when my plant was two to three years old. No recollection of how
large it was at that time, but 5 cm would be a good guess.

Really cannot guess why young plants would be less sensitive to their environment, but
have observed this to be the case many times.

Regarding fertilizer, I never use it. Too risky; have heard of roots getting burned off plants with
it. The plants have evolved carnivory for a reason, and I try to accomodate them, even though
it is time-consuming and distasteful.
 
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