N. rafflesiana 'gigantea'

[boomfiziks1]

Greetings everyone. About a month ago, I got a N. rafflesiana 'gigantea'. I'm just curious if anyone else also has one? Can anyone give me advice for the care of it?

This plant is a clone/cutting. For a while, I kept the plant indoors near a southward facing window. Currently, I have it sitting outside on the north side of my house so that it can still recieve light, but not be scorched by the mid-day sun. It is sitting in large clay pot with a tray underneath it that holds distilled/rainwater. The soil is primarily made up of sphagnum with some coconut fiber mixed in. I live in Ohio, where for a while, the daytime temperatures were in the upper 80s (sometimes mid 90s) and fairly high humidity. The past few days, it has been in the mid 70s - low 80s with about 40% humidity (thank goodness

). I have just one pitcher (farily large) on the plant that hasn't opened up yet (I haven't seen much change in it for the past couple of weeks).

Hopefully that is enough information...if not, please let me know. Any advice to help this plant be healthy and happy?

Have a great day!
Dwight

 

[gr8oz]

Hi Dwight,

I have about 40 raff giganteas in my shadehouse, different clones and sizes. I've found that, once potted up, they take a few months to adjust and acclimate. All neps do, but these seem to take a bit longer. I've found that they do really well if there is about a 3 inch layer of sphagnum in the bottom of the pot. Whenever I unpot them for sale, the roots are always wound tightly at the bottom of the pot. Obviously, be careful of overwatering/waterlogging the pot so the roots don't rot.

I grow mine in about 50% sun and really high humidity. I'm in Florida, so that's easy to do, but I'm already making plans to enclose the shadehouse for the winter, as I usually do every year.

I get best results from all of my neps when I hand feed them, usually crickets from a bait shop. As much rain as possible, and I only fertilize once a year in early spring.

That's about it.

Oz

 

[lol]

Lord, tell me why I got four emails about this this morning.  Thought I was hosting a forum topic or something...

 Anyway, rafflesiana will do good where there is plenty of heat, humidity, and a little bit of shading.  Make sure you don't let the pots dry out too much with this species.

 

[RainforestGuy]

I am not sure who/where the term "Gigantea" came from. They all grow large if given the right conditions. I believe its from a photo of Rob Cantley showing a huge rafflesiana pitcher. These types of lowers probably came from a basal shoot from a very old and mature plant. I have seen large vines of rafflesiana with normal size lowers of about 8 inches then many side basal shoots with even larger pitchers close to fifteen inches deep.

Good soil mositure, I also find deeper pots helps, shade with intermittent sunlight. Vines should be thick too, like the thickness of a large marsh pen before you can expect large pitchers.

Michael

 

[lol]

Gigantea is a form in its own right. Pitchers are consistently large on mature plants, and should always be atleast 12". I was recently able to finally re-obtain a N. rafflesiana sarawak giant. Pitchers on this get up to 45cm ! One of the largest nepenthes.

http://www.exoticaplants.com.au/admin/uploads/big_raffgiantSarup.jpg

Lower pitchers are heavily spotted in purple.

 

[Flip_Side_the_Pint]

that is one of my dream forms, sarawak giant. Where did you obtain this plant? If you don't want to say in the public forums coudl you please PM me?

Thanks,
Jess

 

[rbjong]

Well agree with mike .Nepenthes are very adaptable in harshest condition..poor infertile well drain soil consistently replenish by rain,prefers shade and cool air.Here is a gigantea about 13" long shot in Matang wildlife Sarawak.To further compare the length view forum no.2 where i post with the gigantea.

......................................
...The forest ...my garden...
......................................

 

[Trent]

Another amazing picture!
We grow rafflesiana gigantea with more shade than other rafflesiana forms. We overpot them, in a mix of sphagnum/cypress mulch, and right now, the mid afternoon high temp is about 91 F, with evening lows around 76F. They are in the most humid part of our greenhouse, sharing the bench with bicalcarata, sumatrana, and northiana. Humidity here never drops below 70 percent.
Add this to what Doug and Michael describe, you can get an idea as to what they like.

 

[Lam_wn]

That must be so beautiful! You should have taken a phto beside it to appreciate the size! What were the dimensions of the plant? and were the pitchers actually rather heavy? because I can imagine the fluid it can and should contain, yet I see it dangling without much support...but it seems much more elongated and slender than most rafflesiana pitchers though,
And what was the lighting like? mostly shaded, slightly shaded?
Thanks

 

[rbjong]

Right Lam here 's the post with "gigantea" ,though my friend said i shoud hold a cola can (as an international recognised size) for comparison. .The next time on my outing a cola can will be in my bag:: .The "gigantea are all clinging on tree branches hence they all seem dangling.Shot under shade in open ground.Lighting slightly soft  blocked by tree leaves.Lots of other green forms gigantea around the place where the photo was taken but this and only one is different.::

..the forest ...my garden...me with Sarawak "gigantea"