Neps outside?

[pond boy]

Hi,its going to be in the mid 80`s during the day,and low 60`s at night for at least the next week can my neps go outside at least during the day? The neps I have are N.sanguinea,N.ventricosa,and N.rafessiana.

Currently they are growing together in a 10 in. hanging basket 2in. under a twin tube strip light in humidity averaging 69%


Thanks for any help,
pond-boy.

 

[swords]

The real problem is that each time you move a Nep to new growing conditions (light, temps, wind, humidity, etc) it must reacclimate to those conditions to begin growing well. By that time you may need to move them again to save them from cool fall and winter conditions, then they'll need to reacclimate in some new environment. Stable (and correct) conditions are required for continous "fast' growth and pitchering.

 

[herenorthere]

I find Neps to be very tolerant of change.  The key is they cannot go directly into bright sun for a while after being inside.

Moving them out in rainy weather is best and I first put them out on the north side of the house, where they get first hour or so of sun in the morning and the last hour or so in the evening.  After a week, they slowly migrate around the east side of the house to south side.  Some hang in a tree, others hang from a trellis wire, and maybe one will hang from a post.

I'd say I give them 3-4 weeks from the time they go out the back door until they are fully exposed to sun in the front yard. Mine are all highlanders.

 

[schloaty]

In my experience, neps tollerate temperature changes very readily, as long as the change isn't rediculous. They are much more picky about changing humidity. Also, Bruce is right about not putting them right into the sun from flourescents...many neps shouldn't ever get too much direct sun.
So the real question is (to me, anyway): what's the humidity outside? If it's within a few % of the 69% you quoted, go for it....At least with the ventricosa and sanguinea... I don't know how well the raf would tollerate those cool night temps....I HEAR they don't mind, but have no direct experience (yet....I'm actually giving it a shot right now....night temps in the mid 60's. Too soon to tell). The problem with rafs that I have seen is thet are more fussy than your other two about humidity fluxuation.

 

[Pyro]

I am currently growing khasiana, faizaliana and (not really a) tobica outside in Atlanta and they are doing great. I moved them out of my sunporch about 2 months. The only issue I had was that some leaves got sunburned but that was my fault for not positioning them in the right spot.

 

[rocklizard]

I can only speak from the point of vierw of hybrids. Having a mini green house makes the neps susceptible to sudden increases in temp. On one day the medium dried out when temps spiked resulting in the loss of a sanguine seedling. Otherplants were burnt or wilting - but has since recovered from the experience.

From my understnding certain highlanders require stricter humidity or temps which I know I cannot provide with my setup. It really depends on what specises you're growing and it's hard to generalize as such.

 

[agustinfranco]

Hi Rocklizard:

I tend to agree with your description. Many people can put their neps outside, because of factors involved which are somehow allowing a particular plant to grow:

Humidity, light, temperature, shade, etc.

We all not live under the same climate, therefore some of us can actually take their neps outdoors, others just can't.

Even if you live in a hot area such as Arizona or central Australia, temperatures may benefit lowlanders such as bicalcarata and ampullaria, but the humidity is terribly low, so they'll fry away. I have also seen people growing highland neps in the colorado area such as Jeremiah. I was wondering if he ever tried to grow his ultrahighlands outdoor. My gut feeling is that the temperatures are too low or there is not enough light. Anyway, we just keep trying to optimize the conditions so one day, we can have our monster neps growing beside us.


Gus

 

[pond boy]

Thanks guys(or girls),I`m keeping mine outdoors on my patio hang ing on a nail where they get the first 1 hour and last 1 hour of direct sun every day and them bringing them inside for the night,I mist them at least once an hour when they are outside. Other then the newest pitcher burning on my N.ventricosa burning they all seem to be doing fine. The humidity averages about 50% during the day and 80% at night right now,but later in the year it will be around 70-90% all day(hot sticky Missouri summers!). I plan on keeping them outside day and night when night temps stay above 68 degrees.

 

[rocklizard]

Pond boy,

Would it not be better to give your plants 50% sun thru shad cloth during the day. It is not just the amount of sun, but the peak intensity of sun that can damage the plant. It's a lot of effort misting it through out the day, plus do you have to with such high humidity?

Gus,

That's very true. It depends alot on the specise which would dictate how much optimization one needs to perform. With my hybrids, I try to maintain some randomness in their environment which produces a stable solution for acceptable growth but not the ideal solution point.

I sacrifice having the best looking and faster growing plant, but hopefully the plants become tougher and more resilient to shocks that are beyond my control.

But again, doing this with some specise might kill em.

 

[pond boy]

Well I dont want to shock them. I don`t have any shade cloth,nor any way of aplying it. I enjoy misting the plants and it doesn`t do any harm right?

 

[rocklizard]

If there are water droplets on the leaf and you leave the plants in direct sun -it may damage the leafs if the sunlight is intense.

Maybe you misunderstood, not having shade cloth may shock the plant if the sunlight became intense. But if your plants are well established and well adapt to such conditions maybe it is not such a concern.