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Lets talk neps!

I've been really into my albomarginatas lately. I just recently got this awesome black form. Its really nice. I also have an all red form the just opened another pitcher, biggest one yet at about 6" looks really good. Its awesome, the guy I got the black one from sent it overnight so it had like no shock. Its already starting to unfurl a leaf and I've only had it about a week and a half. Also my merriliana is doing awesome. Its getting really big so I'm going to need to find away to house it in a few months as it already is about 30" across. My small 34" cube grow chamber is running out of room, green house time! My truncata is also becoming a weed. I don't understand why people think it grows so slow mine is keeping up with all my other "weeds". I've been feeding it like crazy with squished wax worms. I think they need alot of food to grow fast.

Hmm I don't know whats the haps with your nepenthes situation?
 
Good haps these days. I think I have a good environment for them all set up, and I've been re-potting them, one by one, into larger pots. They grow so fast, I think it's a good idea to get them into AT LEAST 6-inch pots no matter how small they are. It seems the larger the pot I put them in, the faster they grow. So that's been my main project of the witner, getting them into their new grow room and potting them into larger pots.

We had a little heat wave for a couple days there, and it got 85 degrees here yesterday, a record for the date. That's about as hot as it gets here all year. I found that I could keep my growroom cool by opening the door to the garage, and closing the window to outside. I was a little worried about this before, as it gets about 83 degrees in there on a cool (60 degree) day outside. So I SHOULD be able to keep a good range in there all year round for highlanders. I'm even trying a little N. villosa on the rack just a few inches up from the ground, where it gets cooler overnight.

Today, I'm going to try to divide a heliamphora for the first time. I'm actually nervous about it! LOL!

Capslock
 
better to use deeper pots or wider pots?

mess up the roots or leave them in pot-form?

when to repot?
 
Good question, JLAP. I usually go for something approaching square, but I don't know what's really best. Also, when I repot them, unless the media is rotten, I just put the whole thing (minus the pot) into the new pot, leaving the roots untouched.

These days, I repot whenever it's not in a big pot.
smile.gif
I let new plants acclimate for a while first, though.

Capslock
 
Wider pots dry out a lot faster, but good humidity can make that less of a problem.
 
but how do you know when to repot? for example, my 12 inch diameter truncata's rootmass would fit nicely in a 3 inch pot like vft's come in. it's in 6 inch pot now, but how do i know when to repot?

auctually, all my my nep's rootmasses are small in porportion to the plants.
 
Nepenthes don't need to be repotted nearly as much as people think. The only time I would repot something is if the roots are getting choked out by the old compacted media or it is severely pot bound. I repotted an N. mirabilis just the other day and the reason it lost all of its leaves and looked near death was because the sphagnum broke down and it was mostly roots.
 
Yea I'm wishing I would have used 6" pots for some of the plants that are growing rather fastly. I have several plants that are still in 4" pots that need bigger. Especially my truncata its about 8" across and its only in a 4er
 
Yeah, that tiny hamata i have is in a 6 inch pot right now, and i think it looks nice there. It leaves room for "companion plants" (aka weeds) to grow in, which i think gives it a fuller look.

I've heard that Neps grow best in wood boxes, is this true?
 
  • #10
I place my neps in hanging pots which are 14". I give them lots of room.
 
  • #11
hmm, I'm not sure if they like wooden orchid baskets better. It would allow for more aeration though. So neps that tend to be more epiphitic may grow better in those. However it also could be circumstantial. Dang 14" pots. If I had the room I'd pot all my plants in like 5 gallon pots. I have my merriliana in a 2 gallon pot and I fear in another 4-6 month it may very well need a 5 gallon
 
  • #12
If i had room, and money, i'd have all my neps growing in 10 gallon pots, but i'll have to make do with the already too little room i have now.
 
  • #13
[b said:
Quote[/b] (TunaSurprise @ Mar. 13 2005,12:23)]If i had room, and money, i'd have all my neps growing in 10 gallon pots, but i'll have to make do with the already too little room i have now.
that would be awesome. You wouldn't have to repot for years!!!!

dang now I wish I had an unexhaustible supply of LFS and a huge g-house....
 
  • #14
If you put one little one in a bigger pot what do you do with pithcers that were hanging over the sides of the first small pot that they come in?  Do they get tucked in or something maybe.
 
  • #15
Crunch, sometimes they have to just lay horizontal, though I try to get them to stand upright. That's only a problem on some plants, though.

Capslock
 
  • #16
Well I traded two of my four (soon to be five) lowlanders for some highlanders. I still have my bical (no way I was trading that) and N. mirabilis 'Pink Thiland', I will soon have N. bical x. amp though. I traded off my amp 'speckeled green' and rafflesiana 'giant clone 99'. I will have to fill my lowland terrarium again though. I unfortunatly put a 6 inch wooden orchid basket and a triangular 8 to 2 inch triangular basket on my homemade plant stand. They dry out too fast. I have to water them twice a day some days. OTher then that everything is starting to get pitchers again.
 
  • #17
thats awesome!

Yea I tried those wooden baskets for awhile but they dried out to fast for me as well. I'd love to use them though if I could devise some automated watering system. That would be choice!

I was, however, cleaning out my growchamber of algae and moss, when I noticed that my gigantic merriliana was hiding two really nice pitchers from me on the backside! I was so surprised. So I fed them and now they're happy sauce.
 
  • #18
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Flip_Side_the_Pint @ Mar. 13 2005,3:20)]
[b said:
Quote[/b] (TunaSurprise @ Mar. 13 2005,12:23)]If i had room, and money, i'd have all my neps growing in 10 gallon pots, but i'll have to make do with the already too little room i have now.
that would be awesome. You wouldn't have to repot for years!!!!

dang now I wish I had an unexhaustible supply of LFS and a huge g-house....
Yeah, "If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candies and nuts, we would all weigh 300 pounds."
 Wait, I DO WEIGH 300 POUNDS...

 
Dang.

 
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  • #19
I guess we don't want to redo them in bigger pots yet because it is new so I have to wait. When it grows bigger I can redo the plant but i have to wait now so I don't maybe kill it on accident. If I lay the pitchers on there sides why won't they rot that way? My momn thinks they might rot if they aren't hanging and if they are touching the dirt like that.
 
  • #20
They are not going to rot if they are touching the substrate. infact in the wild the lower picters will often be resting on leaf litter and the surrounding substrate. You can tell your mom that they will not rot if they are touching the dirt. some species of nepenthes acually form thier picthers partially in the ground.
 
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