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Best one?

  • Thread starter dewy
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What is the best and easiest nepenthesis for a beginner like me to grow?
 
That's a subjective question! There are tons of them, especially hybrids, that are very hardy and grow in a variety of conditions.

What sort of space do you have for one? What temps/humidity/light can you provide? This will determine the list that's appropriate for you.

Capslock
 
You need to figure out what kind of conditions you can provide, Dewy. Do you have grow lights? If so, you have a wide range of plants to choose from, more than I could list off the top of my head. If all you have is a bright windowsill, you'll be more limited in your choices. A good, hardy starter plant for the windowsill might be N. maxima, N. khasiana, or, as AlphaWolf suggested, N. ventricosa. These are highland plants; they like bright light and a temperature drop in the evening, making them a good choice for the window.
A few things must be accounted for, no matter what Nepenthes you choose. Nepenthes need humidity to pitcher and be happy, so if your home has dry air, that will be a problem. But, I see from your profile that you're in North Carolina, so unless you have the air conditioner on all the time, you should have decent humidity. You might want to get a hygrometer (humidity gauge) and check to see that the air is at least at 20 or 30% humidity throughout the day (that's very low for Nepenthes culture, but good enough for the really hardy ones, I think. Aim for 50+%.) If you mist your Nepenthes with clean water a couple of times a day, it will have a much easier time coping with low humidity.
Next, you need cool, bright light, so that you don't cook your plant during the day time. So you'll need either some grow lights (not incandescant bulbs) or a good window. The sunlight gets hotter as the day goes by and the atmosphere warms up, you should take that into account if you want to grow a plant on by the window. If your window faces the east or NE/SE, then you'll get morning sunlight, which is a benign as it gets and the best choice. If your window faces west or NW/SW, then you'll be getting mostly hot afternoon sun - these windows are not the best for Nepenthes, and should only be used if the light they get is partially shaded (such as by trees outside or a curtain.)
If light, humidity, water, etc. are not as good as needed for your Nepenthes, it's not the end of the world. The plant will do just fine, but it probably won't produce pitchers or grow very fast.
If you have grow lights, there are a lot more choices. You could get lowland plants, which like warmer, more consistent temperatures and very high humidity. Lowland Nepenthes typically require some sort of enclosure (like a terrarium) to keep the humidity up. You could also grow a lot of different highland strains, as highland Nepenthes like the cool temperatures and very bright light provided by most artificial lights.
I hope that helps some. You can find a much more detailed FAQ on Nepenthes cultivation from Barry Rice's CP FAQ.
Good luck!
~Joe
Edit: growl lights. Heh.
 
N. x 'Miranda'

You just can't go wrong with this one. Big, beautiful, and it has the constitution of a vending machine.
 
ill second the 'Miranda' vote, unlike ventrata or khasiana, this guy(all 'Miranda's are male plants) produces the kind of pitchers most ppl think of when they think of Nepenthes. nothing wrong with ventrata or khasiana i have the former and a rather plain hybrid with the latter, 'Miranda' is just plain colorful and produces large pitchers and is very hardy in most conditions. plus its inter-nodal(sp?) spacing is quite short so it is also a fairly compact plant.
 
N. x ventrata may be boring, but it is probably the easiest and most reasonably priced.

Cheers,

Joe
 
I would put one by a windowsill as I do for my other few plants. I could get a terrarium to keep humidity. The temps would be a constant 70 to 80 degrees day and night. It would have to fit in a 10 gallon terrarium. Thanks for your help.
 
Most of the Nepenthes you can buy online or at a nursery should fit nicely in a ten gallon terrarium. You may need to keep it pruned back after a few years, but as long as you get a plant that fits in your terrarium, you'll be OK (in other words, don't go dropping $50 on some monster-sized ten inch pot for your first Nep.)
~Joe
 
  • #10
Ventrata is an easy one and I just happen to have an extra one.
smile.gif
 
  • #11
N. khasiana is in-freakin'-destructible. It will grow like a lowland or highland. It can even survive frosts!
 
  • #12
Would n."judith finn" be a good choice?
 
  • #13
N. x judith finn is a fine choice, though you'll need enough light to get the characteristic red peristome. I think I'd go for a good N. ventricosa though. They're cheap and mighty good looking as it gets bigger.

Capslock
 
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