Carnivorous plant "N. ventrata"

[elgecko]

The hanging baskets have a coconut liner in them. Good air and water flow.

You might want to hold off on a Cobra lily. They are very hard to keep alive. If the soil temps get above 70 degrees there a very good chance of it dieing. They could possibly do good as windowsill plants, keep them in bright indirect light in an A/C room.
Lowes usually sells Sarracenia purpurea and Sarracenia rubra. I would recommend these before getting a Cobra lily.
My Cobra lily has not shown new growth on it yet. I bought it in the fall, forced it into dormancy, and does not seem to be waking up. All my other dormant plants have started new growth.

That link show how I made my cutting.

I've never used fish food for my neps or any CP's. I've also read something about using milk. They both sound risky to me. Possible fungus.
What I do is when a new pitcher opens I go to the pet store and buy some crickets. Throw the crickets in the freezer for a few minutes. (You will not have any escape this way) and drop them into the newly opened pitcher.

 

[Dragonscales]

nice plants elgecko you should be proud to have such healthy looking Nephs growing indoors

I've been growing CP's fer a while now and am a member of the vcps (Victorian Carnivorous Plant Society), one of my many other hobbies aside from fish, and it depends on your tapwater in your area. Where I live tapwater is fine for my CP's, but if you don't know what your water is like then you can get the same effect as some of the dearer types of water such as distilled by putting some tap water in a container and letting it sit for a few days. Fertilising your CP's is a definite no-no except for some of the nephs, a few don't mind a very diluted dose every so often, no more than half strength though! I would recomend steering clear of all fertilizing for beginners though as it's easy to turn a healthy plant into a dead one I keep my CPs in a few portable, plastic greenhouses to keep the temp and humidity up and they are all flourishing to the point of outgrowing their containers bigtime...need to replant soon lol. I sit my pots in containers filled with spagnum moss that is constantly kept wet, this also helps keep the cobra lillies roots cool, something they appreciate. I own a wide variety of CPs ranging from Darlingtonia Califonica (cobra lillies) to drosera (sundews), butterworts to venus flytraps, sarracenia pitcher plants to Nephs, albany pitchers and serveral others. Anyone interested in Cps or Bonsai can feel free to visit my personal website on my profile and take a gander at a few of my plants, I haven't updated my site in a long while though so please bear in mind that it's in dire need of a spring cleaning and alot of changes and additions

 

[elgecko]

Dragonscales,
Thanks.
I'm in the process of redoing all my CP pages.
Stopped by your site. Nice looking plants and bonsai.
How long have you grown your Darlingtonia Califonica?
This was my 1st year for them. I have brought the cobra lily out of dormancy at the same time as all my other plants. All the others have lots of new growth. Earlier this week I dug around the rhizome to see what it looked like. It looks like there might be some new pitchers starting. Do cobra lilies take longer then other cp's to start there new growth after coming out of dormancy?

 

[Dragonscales]

yw as fer the cobra lillies, I've been growing em a while now and they can be real picky bastards when they wanna be. Mine sort of go through spurts of growth, have noticed that they grow a bit faster when it's warmer and more humid, but then again, living in Oz, it ain't a hard thing to do in summer and spring lol Just be sure to keep them roots cool if it gets too hot though and check out the VCPS link on my webpage for detailed growing articles on heaps of CPs

 

[endparenthesis]

I've attached a picture of the Nepenthes ventrata I ordered 3 weeks ago. I wish I could take credit for the growth but that's all the doing of the greenhouse it came from.

Let's hope after it acclimates it'll do just as well.

 

[Dragonscales]

nice pic endparenthesis Maybe look around for a portable greenhouse? I picked my two up pretty cheap and they do wonders for growing CPs Or maybe even make your own? They're pretty much just a metal frame with clear plastic over it

 

[elgecko]

Looks very healthy and happy.
Give it 3 - 6 months to get adjusted to it's new living area, and it will take off.
I keep looking at mine and thinking, ok I'm going to make some cuttings now. It's about 32" high, but keep holding off. Looking at the first picture that I posted of my N. ventrata, which is a month ago, the plant has grown like 10"!
Here's a picture of the newest pitchers it has produced. A lot larger (7 1/2") and plumper then any of the original ones.

 

[endparenthesis]

Have you ever considered training it to just keep going up and up? From what I've read in the wild a Nepenthes will typically grow its way up a tree and can end up being 5, 10, or more feet tall. I'm wondering how tall a ventrata would get. It would certainly be impressive.

I'm not sure what the best way to do that would be. As far as I can tell the tendrils between leaf and pitcher are what it uses to cling to things. I'm trying to think of what it could climb up most easily.

Edit: (What do you know... http/www.petflytrap.com/cgi-bin/ib312/ik...=ST;f=7;t=12010 )

 

[endparenthesis]

Oh man... if you want to give your plant a good feeding, leave it next to your porch light overnight. I'm a little concerned about overfeeding now... I counted 3-6 bugs per pitcher. Wasn't expecting that much success.

 

[elgecko]

You asked earlier in a post about fish pellets. I have decided too try it in a few pitchers a few weeks ago. All seems to be going well, no fungus or mold on the pitchers.


There are a few of us trying to get a South East PA Carnivorous Plant Society together. I know you are to far for this, but maybe someone from the area will see this post.

Started to make a page here:
http/www.geocities.com/sepacps

 

[endparenthesis]

I've tried milk so far in pitchers that are already drying up, so I don't care if something happens to them. They're still fine... I don't know how it affects the plant growth since I don't really have a frame of reference. Right now I have about 8 new leaves with tiny pitcher buds that weren't there when I first got the plant. The buds seem to be getting bigger extremely slowly... I don't know at which point you know the leaf won't pitcher, so it's hard to say if it's doing ok in that regard or not.

I did notice something that I mentioned on the CP forum, but there were no responses and maybe you guys have an answer to it. I've noticed that on the pitchers that have dried up the most, the leaves seem to have tiny breaks in the stem. I don't know which came first, the break or the drying up, but it would appear that maybe the nutrients don't have a pathway back to the plant. So it's possible the last bit of milk I put in didn't even make it to the plant... I'm not sure.

I don't know if it would be best for me to leave those leaves just in case they're still useful or to just cut them off and maybe encourage new growth (which may or may not actually happen when you do that). This has happened only to the smaller squatter pitchers that are left... lower pitchers that aren't necessary anymore maybe?

Think I should cut or not?

I'd join the CP society if I were close enough. I don't really know what CP societies do though. I may not be very useful to one since I don't really want to have a large number of plants yet.

 

[elgecko]

I've had leaves that I did not think would pitcher because they were not doing anything for several months, and all of the sudden they decided to inflate the pitchers. So that's hard to know.

I would leave the leaves on. They might not be taking up nutrients but I'm sure they are still photosynthesizing.

 

[elgecko]

endparenthesis,
I'm going to give you more then you asked for, so here we go:

I could not find small hanging pots, so I made this one to hold my Nepenthes rafflesiana. Just moved it to the windowsill 2 days ago. When I got it, it was so small I kept it in the terrarium for 2 months to get a little size.

 

[elgecko]

Here is my Nepenthes sanguinea.

 

[elgecko]

I believe this on to be Nepenthes khasiana x ventricosa or maybe Nepenthes khasiana x maxima.