Carnivorous plant "N. ventrata"

And here is the Nepenthes 'ventrata'. As you can see why I've been thinking of taking some cuttings. It has several growing points on the other side that you can not see. There are lots of small 1 - 2" pitchers.
Look at the original picture I posted and notice that the plant is not even up to the hook of the hanging basket, way past that now.

Awesome!

It's too bad they get so stretchy as they get taller... they would look amazing if they stayed bushy all the way up. That's why I sorta like that I have two vines going parallel. I see what you mean about how long it can take for the pitchers to get going.

I was just taking a hurried picture or two moments before I stumbled on this post.

Just for the hell of it, this was what I originally thought was the beginnings of my first post-plant-mail-delivery pitcher...



Until I took a closer look at the basal shoot that I'll be taking a cutting from. I realized one leaf wasn't visible and I pulled it up to see how it was doing...



How 'bout that. From what I've read it always seems to be the hidden leaves that are up to something .

And this is my thrown together growing area... nowhere near as elaborate as the terrarium/greenhouse guys....



Ventrata is a little bit taller. I'm tying the vines to the stake in the middle. Green dragon, dente, and typical VFTs to the right. Ice cube trays with sundew seedlings in the front.

The betta breeding tank is immediately to the right. The 2nd shoplight in the back (yeah, didn't bother to think about glare... there's a blinding CF bulb in the middle) is the overhang... not a bit of light being wasted.

That's why there'll be no more big plants for me for a little while.

I'm not a huge fan when they vine either, unless there are several of them together so it looks fuller. I will get that further down the road. There is about 4 or 5 small basal shoots now starting to get larger leaves. An explosion of 3 happened when I took my cutting of the plant close to a year ago. Another reason I'm thinking of taking cuttings, more basal shoots will most likely happen.

I also wanted to add, it looks like your plants are happy and doing well.
Interesting support to get the VFTs closer to the lights.

Really interesting plants - do they need to "eat" to grow?

They don't have to but it helps.

endparenthesis,
Did you get you new plants you ordered yet?
The N. truncata that you ordered, was that a 2 digit price or 3? I did not realize that plant was that much! I had a hard time spending what I did on my N. hamata.
Well here's some pictures of my N. hamata.

How about a close up on the teeth.

And a profile.

Yep... the plants came yesterday. Just potted the truncata. The truncata was about $75 (tissue culture), but I figure I can just make the money back with a few cuttings someday on ebay. I'm all for sharing the plants but I think it's ok to make my investment back too.

I'm hoping it can acclimate to about the same conditions that my ventrata is in. Maybe I'm getting spoiled by having a hardy first nepenthes. I mist all the time... but I haven't been bothering with specific day/night temperature ranges. I just bought a FloureX light to replace the dangling CF... maybe it'll warm the room up during the day. I'm focusing mainly on plants that don't need a special environment, and I hope I'm not wrong that this plant could do fine with that. If the lowland truncata does ok as a houseplant I may have screwed up.

I'm not expecting anything from the "big mouth" VFT any time soon... it'll probably take a while to recover. But both plants were bigger than I thought they would be so I'm sure I can send you something soon.

Here are a few quick pictures. Amazing that these are just the small lower pitchers. That's an 8" pot... the big one is probably almost as big as my biggest ventrata pitchers.

Those are nice teeth by the way.

I might be interested in a plant with teeth (I kinda like villosa), but only if it liked my conditions as I have them (which I know villosa wouldn't).

You don't have a special terrarium or anything, do you? What are you doing with your hamata? Will it do fine in your house?

That's a big pitcher for such tiny leaves.

I like the villosa alot too, but I do not want to keep a plant that I need to get it down to 50 degrees at night.

I do have a terrarium, but I do not like plants in terrariums. I have my ceph in it, along with a few leaf cuttings from it. The one ceph is getting some size and I might move it out to see how it does as a house plant. I've been surprised at the plants adapting to my house conditions and growing.

It can be grown as an intermediate instead of a highland plant. In all actuality the N. Nepenthes 'ventrata' ( alata x ventricosa) is a highland plant along with Nepenthes 'Emmarene' (khasiana x ventricosa). Which grow great for me as house plants.
Nepenthes species elevation http/www.cpjungle.com/nuspecies.htm

The hamata...., I think once it settles in, after losing all the pitchers and a few months, will adjust, I hope. In a few hours of having it, most the pitchers have there lids down. I'm not surprised. The shock and lower humidity, I'm expecting to lose most if not all my pitchers on the plant. Same thing happened to my ceph when I recieved it. In 2 days the pitchers died on me.
I've heard you have to be very carefull with small hamatas, around 3" and smaller leaf spread. Once they get to 6" leaf spread they can adapt to lower humidity easier. I was surprized at the size of the plant, it has a 6" leaf spread, so I planted it in a 14" coconut lined hanging basket and moved one of my other neps, it's going to work with me tomorrow, and hung up my hamata. I also have hope from talking to someone who grows her hamata as a windowsill plant. When she got it, it had a 1 1/2" leaf span, talk about a tiny plant, and been growing it there a little over a year now.
I would not try growing my hamata as a house plant, or many other CPs, if I did not have a humidifier on my furnace. In the winter my humdidity was very low. I saw signs of stress on my Nepenthes 'Emmarene' (khasiana x ventricosa), as some dark spots on a few leaves. This winter will be better since I installed the humidifier in late Jan.

I've read plants under an 8" span or so haven't developed that waxy surface on the leaves enough to adapt well to humidity changes.

Hmm... my truncata may be in trouble during the winter then. Maybe I'll try to set up an easy terrarium for it when the time comes.

endparenthesis,
Lets keep this thread going and going, and going, and going............

Hows your plant doing?
My hamata has grown a little. Most of the pitchers look horrible, which I expected. I hope around 2 months it will start to make some pitchers for me.


You might not want to see the following pictures.

The scissors......