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Ok so I was just sitting at my computer (as always) and my dogs started barking so I looked out the window and yelled "MAIL!" and the mail lady sat a big box down on my porch and I practically flew out the door and grabbed it. Though I wanted to tear the box to shreads I let my step brother open it, as soon as the tape was cut I ripped it open and pulled out my little Nepenthes Sanguinea "orange pitchers" from Cook's Carnivorous Plants! YAY! It is looking really good except for a few things that I'm paranoid about and decided to ask if it was okay.

There are these little brownish markings on some of the leaves and I was just wondering if they were okay to be there? It's not like..diseased or anything is it?!

When I took it out I untwisted a few of the leaves and took the little cap off of the pot and put it outside in the shade. It was really hot yesterday so I didn't want to overdo it with the sunlight. I stuck it in a VERY SHALLOW tray of distilled water and I also sprinkled some cool water overhead.

I just checked it a little while ago and it looks fine, I actually think I have a new pitcher! It's really small compared to another pitcher that's on it but it's still a pitcher! WOOO! I think it's planted in pure Live Sphagnum Moss.

So what does everyone think? Is it okay? It's not gonna be dead in a week is it? I'm soooo paranoid because I may have overestimated the difficulty of growing neps even though I got one of the easiest to grow! Oohhh man, someone please put my paranoia and worries to rest. x.x I think I need to stare at it for a bit to make sure it's not slowly crumpling up or something like that....
 
Sorry I can not help you with your leaves. Do you have a camera to post pictures, maybe someone else can help you.

I remember how paranoid I was why I got my first nep. The ones that came after my first I had no paranoia, except my N. hamata. I think I was more paranoid then when I got my first nep.
It seems neps to be a lot tougher then most give them credit for. Just give it some time to settle into the new conditions and it should be alright.
 
Sounds fine, the leaves probably just have rust spot, which should go away. Keep it in very mild conditions, NO direct sun, NO extreme temps and plenty of water.
 
Just rust spots? Whew...that's a relief... I'm glad to hear I'm not just a paranoid freak too... Even though I already know I am. ^_^

As for it's conditions, I've been completely babying it. It only gets about 4-5 hours of direct sunlight in the morning and for the rest of the day it gets the shade. It seems completely content with its' conditions right now. I keep checking on it every hour or so to make sure the medium is still nice and moist. So far I haven't needed to water it today. I've heard stories of it rotting before so I'm using the water sparsely. It's looking good! Thanks for the support guys. ^_^
 
Wow...ok first take a deep breath and relax.....good. N. sanguinea is a very tough plant and I'm sure it will be fine...if anything DOES happen to it it definately won't be from neglect. I do have 2 suggestions. I would not use the tray method. This is unnecessary for neps. Second, if the plant is in 100% sphagnum moss, depending on the size of the plant, I would consider changing your medium to one that allows for quick easy drainage. One that I've had success with is one recommended in Peter D'Amato's Savage Garden and is made up of equal parts sphagnum peat, perlite, vermiculite and fine orchid bark. It will be essentially impossible to overwater your plant in this medium. I find that mine appreciates high humidity (over 70%), so depending on where you live and the humidity, it may be a good idea to mist it a few times a day.

Good luck, you'll find that plant to grow like a weed!
 
It's a tough plant to grow? I heard it was one of the easiest. x.x

It was only on the tray for one day to let some water soak in from shipping. I've heard stories about rotting a plant from overwatering it. So I'm aware of drainage issues it may have...and I'm worrying about them everyday. But I think I'm going to increase it's full sun period to like...6 hours so I can be sure that the soil drys out between waterings. I'm not sure if I'm going to do that yet though...

Humidity has been crap for the past two days but before that it was VERY HUMID. I think that's why the biggest pitcher is closing.

I don't have any vermiculite or orchid bark right now but I think I know where to get it. I've seen vermiculite at Lowes and I think I saw Orchid Bark too, I'm not sure though. I'll switch it when I get a bigger pot and the ingredients I need. Thanks for the tips!
 
"Tough" meaning 'hardy"...difficult to kill. Alata and ventricosa are 2 others which are good for beginners.
 
Yeah I've heard ventricosa was a good begginner, I didn't know that alata was though. Thanks for the info.
 
Try getting some hybrids. Many are nearly indistructable, even if they have difficult to grow parents. Order from exoticplantsplus. They have N. x predator and a lot of nice hybrids involving rare species. There is a limited number of N.hurrelliana x veitchii available now. Tony also has N. x medusa(belli x sibuyanensis) available. They do great in household temps. N. x medusa looks like a pink N. x rajah and can produce traps bigger than the actual plant!
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]The ones that came after my first I had no paranoia, except my N. hamata.
Paranoid, why be paranoid? No big deal. Yeah, yeah no big.. no big deal... I have a hamata... They're watching aren't they!?

All my paranoia aside, congrats Chrono, I hope you enjoy your new plant and that it'll grow well. The only thing I can think to add is don't baby it forever! It wont always be summer vacation (that's what I keep telling myself,) so you need to eventually prepare it for conditions when you wont be able to keep a constant watch on it. But for now, baby it up since ya just got it! Enjoy.
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  • #11
Actually I'm homeschooled so I will be able to baby it for quite some time. ^_^ But that doesn't mean I will, I'll get bored of babying it soon when I'm 100% positive it won't die from the lack of my eyes on it. Thanks for the congrats!

N. Predator?!!! WHOA WHOA WHOA! *goes to the site*

~*~5 Minutes later...~*~

Availability "Fall 2004"......darn! N. Predator is soooo cool! I thought it would be impossible to grow for a Nep grower "trainee" like me. I must now stalk every CP selling site until I find one!
 
  • #12
Ooops Sorry been crazy busy and haven't updated the site
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I do have some though. N. hamata hybrids though are gonna run up some $$ I would recommend sticking to inexpensive plants. There are alot of nice species and hybrids you can build a colorful collection with. Drop me an email.

Tony
 
  • #13
ya those nep 'predetor ' are running for more money then an average hamata which is strange but i guess theres not to many of those predetors.

As far as sanguinea i had that as my first nep and i had it for 2 years and it was really easy to grow but it died because when i first got the plant the roots where wrapped in spagnum and it was a pretty big size plant. so when i planted it in it i left all that spagnum around it. which over time well actually during the winter it rotted and died.
 
  • #14
Yeah you told me about that. I hope your new one does okay.

I think I'm going to repot it when the winter comes around in vermiculite, perlite, orchid bark, a little peat, and I guess a little sand in there as well. That way it doesn't hold so much water and I won't have to worry about it rotting when I bring it inside for the winter. I think it would like a bigger pot anyway. It's so small yet it has a basal shoot already. And the basal shoot even has pitchers!

That's your site, Tony? Oh, lol. I had no idea. Anyways, yeah I think I'll work myself up to the difficulty and get my own truncata and hamata and make an N. Predator myself! Yeah! Then I can sow the seeds and have a bunch of little N. Predators to trade (or give) away! It's gonna take a while though... You can wish me luck on that. x.x;
 
  • #15
Deeeeeeep breath on that sanguinea.

I have a sanguinea that I have thoroughly abused, and it's still alive & kickin'. Not too much in the pitcher dept. right now, but it is recently hacked for cuttings, so I'm not too worried.

If you want really bomb proof, I would have to recomend the hybrid N. x 'Miranda.' Not only easy as heck to grow, but very showy to boot.
 
  • #16
i will have to go with schloaty on that one . N. x 'Miranda' is about the best looking of the cheap bombproof hybrids/species. N. x ventrata is pretty bombproof also but not as showy IMHO. surprisingly N. x 'Ile de France' is proving to be a very hardy hybrid for me and is pitchering with out me doing anything special for humidity, to bad its harder to find.
 
  • #17
I've figure the perfect neps for me right now can grow outside in the summer and on a windowsill in the winter. I don't have a nep chamber yet so those two places are the best ones I've got. I do have a flurescent light but I don't trust where it is. It was the site of a mass feeding of gnats. R.I.P. old collection.
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Plus I have covered byblis seeds in there now. I guess I could risk putting it in there when I repot it in a rockier, drier mix. Which brings me to my next question.

It has been raining A LOT in the past 24 hours and it looks like there's going to be a lot more in the next few days and no matter where I put my my sanguinea it gets rained on! I tried to sort of ring out a little bit of the LFS because I'm sooo paranoid of it getting root rot. I'm hoping it dries out quickly so I can put my worries for rest and save them until the next time there's a downpour. x.x

N. Miranda, I've heard that name a lot. *goes to look on Cook's* Ah well I didn't find it, maybe it's not listed as N. "Miranda". What are the parents? There's no way I'm going through his "Nep hybrids out-of-stock" list on dial-up. x.x I looked into ventricosa and there are tons of them on Cook's. I just wanted to go with a less cliche choice. I hear lots of people start off with either a ventrata or ventricosa so I wanted to be a little different.
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Thanks for the tips.
~Kyle~
 
  • #18
you really need to stop worrying about your n sanguinea.........i think youre being a bit silly now.

There is no need to take out its LFS to stop root rot, In their natural habitat Nepenthes prefer areas of the rainforest which are wetter and get more sun
Dont forget, it does rain every day in a rainforest after all....
I keep mine wet all the time and they dont rot
 
  • #19
Well I obviously don't know the boundaries yet because I've only had it for a week. I haven't made any mistakes to learn from with neps so I'm going pretty blind, even though I've read all of Savage Garden twice. Also, Carnivorkid's N. Sanguinea died from root rot so I really do have something to worry about. I don't appreciate being called silly. x.x Not today at least.
 
  • #20
Well just trust the grower, Cooks is a very experienced grower and Im su4re he would put it in a suitable medium where it wont die of root rot

Taking spaghnum off its roots will just disturb its root system and put its pitcher production on hold, in my experience Neps dont take kindly to transportation and any sort of root disturbance

Really, there is no need for all this fuss........put it on a sunny window and keep the soil moist with rainwater, all there is to it
 
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