N. truncata Cultivation guide
 

Species: N. truncata
Highland/Lowland: Highland & Intermediate
Country of Origin: Philippines
Natural Habitat:
Described by:

Cultivation Guide

Lighting: 60 to 80% sunlight (some full sun)
Potting Medium: Coco chips
Temperature: 20C to 38C
Humidity: 60 to 80%
Watering: Daily
Propagation: Seeds

Remarks:
Though N. truncata is considered a highland or intermediate, there are some low land varieties and even the highland varieties should acclimate to lowland conditions.

Slow growth rate. Does not seem to like too wet a medium, the water tray if present should be allowed to go dry a bit before watering. Benefits from a big pot as well.

I have never heard of propagation by cutting yet, seems difficult, probably even more difficult than Veitchii.

Pitchers seem to grow quite big if it is resting on top of something so that the leaf does not support the pitcher by itself.

Re: N. truncata Cultivation guide
 

It will take at least 5 months for it to recover after stress.Mine died though.:(

Re: N. truncata Cultivation guide
 

If I may add from my experience with N. truncata, they prefer very well drain media, just treat them like you're growing any epiphytic plant (more or less), they have thick leaves so they can handle a short period of dry out condition (but that doesn't mean low humidity). I don't use water tray method and don't think that's neccessary for growing N. truncata.

I prefer using smaller pot mainly because smaller pot size have smaller volume hence it won't be able to hold too much water and dry out faster especially during monsoon season if you grow your plants outdoor.

I found BE's N. truncata "Pasian" is a much vigorous grower compared to MT's clone in L/L tropical weather. BE's clone seems to be able to acclimitise fully to flourish in L/L tropical condition. My 2 cents.

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What media do you use ?

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I'm currently using 60% perlite : 30% coco chips : 10% charcoal. Will be experimenting with just chunks of coco chips next trial, L/L N. veitchii seems to be doing well for me with 100% coco chips.

Re: N. truncata Cultivation guide
 

RIGHT!!!Although Fauzi told me already*biggrin2*He says the neps that come from Phllipines prefer airy media

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Umm as for me....Mine did well at the beginning till it got attack by rust spot fungus...They seem to get this fungus easier then other neps...I agree with the airier mix..I've also read that do not over pot them......

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Mine is fine. It is still growing. All my neps experience the same condition. Bad quality LFS, filtered water, 65-80% humidity and full sun with some shade sometimes.

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Thx guys,this really has enligtened me on how to grow interesting neps like N.truncata.Btw where can I get cocochips?

Re: N. truncata Cultivation guide
 

Marvin, please be careful, do not generalize "all neps from Philippines" because not all neps here are Epiphytes, N. alata (lowland) and N. Mirabilis like continually moist medium and not well drained.

Ken what does "overpotting" mean? Do not use too big pots?

Thanks guys for your feedbacks, comments and questions, I learned a lot and the initial data will be edited accordingly :)

TTFN
Arvin

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Hi Arvin...I've only read about it but if i remembered it was about if you give it too much space when it is small the roots can't hold on that fast and growth will be slow etc etc or something like that..But it could be true cos when i got my small truncata it overpotted it and it took soo long to pitcher...

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Any media that I can use besides cocochips?

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Pretty sure you can get Coco chips or coco chunks in your area, if you can't then Osmunda fiber will probably work, but I personally have not tried, it, though should work quite nicely. Also you might want to mix it with clay pellets. Check out the thread about inorganic potting mix about the clay pellets. You can also mix in some sphagnum moss.

TTFN
Arvin

Re: N. truncata Cultivation guide
 

You can try 30% chopped Sphagnum moss : 50% perlite : 20% crushed charcoal bits if you can't find cocochips in your area.

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Oops...Sorry:tongue:

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I have seen some big bad ass truncata's in small pots.So whats the real secret of growing them?Can anybody share?

I was using 100% moss previously but now using clay pellets (expensive),florafoam,riser sand,perlite and moss.Seems better but im not satisfied."Saya mahu besar punya :tongue:...."

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Fertelizer?Full sun?Mine loved those...sob..

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So Marvin,how big is yours?Show la some pictures?Will show mine later...

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Erm....er....how should I put it....it passed on...yeah sob......about 4 inches and leaf to leaf 5.5 inches and pitcher is about 2 inches?Has red on the side of it's leaf if full sun and cute vigorous(for me)Likes the fert (cacti fert lol) and grow quite fast when I give a little squirt in the pitcher

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This is what i got due to over watering:

Big leaves but very tiny pitcher.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...x/DSC00275.jpg

After reduced watering 2 days once.This is what i get.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...x/DSC00276.jpg

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Latest pitcher.Biggest so far i got.

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...x/DSC00312.jpg

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Hey arvin...I assume thats the MT clone...right? and what media..

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You forgot to wear your specs ah?Hehehe...Im alienfx la not arvin..Not sure clone from where.Bought from Fauzi la..

Mostly clay pellets,some moss,some florafoam and some river sand la...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...x/DSC00273.jpg

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wow,very healthy and big truncata pitcher you got there!!Really envy you.T.T My truncata is suffering from rust spots now.

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Really nice truncata. Great job.

BTW. Just wanna ask what type of clay pellets are you using and what are the size?

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Last when bought frm Fauzi the pitchers are decent.Then the new pitchers keep becoming small and small.Only when i reduced the watering cycle,the pitchers start to become bigger again.I guess when the media is dried,more air go to the roots.

The clay pallets are small.Bought from Carrefour.1 small packet around rm5 plus.

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James, did you supply any fertilizer or what to yours plants?

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Zero fertilizer.Dont believe in them.All those king kong size pitchers in the wild where people feed fertilizer?The pitchers catch tons of ants by themselves..

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IC...

But, Im not agree with you... If you fertilize yours CP with correct dosage. Im 100% it will help yours plant overall growing...

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I personally apply honey in their peristomes to see if they can attract more ants,but the pitchers started to dry up.

May i know what's the difference since it produces nectar too??

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Ooh nice...Mine also from fauzi, same as yours

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KC in the jungle the neps also very big big..But nobody put in fertilizer ma..How can they become so big by eating mostly ants?

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Lol, fertilizer is for those staying in condos, ants and other insects aren't very abundant there.

Btw, I think that feeding nep truncata a huge food (I fed one pitcher with a slug cut in half and another pitcher with the other half of the slug) will stunt the plant. The pitcher died in two days and rust spots started appearing including fungus. I'm not sure, but is it possible that big food causes terrible decomposition that attracts lots of bacteria and fungus that harms the truncata plant?

Anyway, my truncata died. :( It's hard to recover once it has shock but usually, when it starts producing huge pitchers, its quite hardy.

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I stay in a condo....Nvr really had much trouble finding ants....I can alway see them...Well 1 or 2 running around cos most of them have been eaten....Seriously almost all my pitchers have at least a couple of ants in them

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Which floor is your condo, Ken? Mine is the 10th floor. My mom exterminates ants on sight, without leaving them for my CPs :) and originally, there was an ant colony growing near the drain in my balcony. Then my neps ate them all, especially the ventrata. When you stay at the 10th floor condo, chances of insects caught by your nep is slim unless you count ants and occasionally cockroaches. There won't be enough insects to feed 8 neps.

And most of my VFT and droseras died out of starvation. I swear I will never put my VFTs next to my sarracenia flava again :)

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VFT and drosera do not need food. They can photosynthesis. The insects are just for better growth. Mine is worst. My father cause them to starve to death by preventing photosynthesis from taking place.

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@KC
I do not fertilize my neps too. I believe they just need insects(my house has tons of them). They can catch so much ants that the pitcher looks black. I also catch the occasional grasshopper or caterpillar and feed them to my plants. Revenge is sweet. Take that for munching on my plants, pest. I feed scale and mealybugs to my fish too. Muahahaha.

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In jungle, there is so many insect... So, dont need to fertilize or feed them.

Catching insect and feed CP workable. But, troublesome... So, fertilize them is faster way to give them supplimenter...

I still believe on fertilizing CP and there is many post at internet said that fertilizer will help on CP growth...

We are ways out of topic... :blush:

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I don't feed them, they catch insects themselves. I do occasionally feed them when I'm bored. Well different people have different opinions. Agreed, way off topic lol.

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after reading here and there, plus consultation of few experts around, i got to know this sp require less water than most other nep, but does it require good humidity or not? thanks

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All neps benefit from good humidity but not to soggy (example all the time around 90+ too 100) But truncata in my experience is not that fussy bout a lot of things..

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The only thing that can kill a truncata is poor lighting.Other than that it can handle almost all neglection.

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you mean they can even stand the heat of 35 degree celcius under afternoon full sun? mine is growing super slow and the new leafs are getting smaller, most pro told me that i water them too much:spinning:

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I think it is shrinking from heat. They don't like hot temperatures like that. 35C is like 95F, right? Personally, I keep my truncata pretty wet. Mine shrinks during the really hot weather.

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What about weird markings on new leaf?? Maybe I water too much. The leaf's kinda red too

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u mean there are red spot on new leaf? I got that trouble too and my new leaf not growing big as well, plus all the pitchers have their top half brown in color

Re: N. truncata Cultivation guide
 

u mean there are red spot on new leaf? I got that trouble too and my new leaf not growing big as well, plus all the pitchers have their top half brown in color

The leaf is small and kind of wavy with small red dots on it, right? That happens to me during hot periods.

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It happens when you expose the plant to too much sunlight or there isn't sufficient humidity or it's too hot. Try moving it around, if it doesn't work you can repot it.

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Then I moved it to a much shadier place :) How many days you guys leave it before watering?

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thanks for the clues:1thumbup:

need to achieve drier medium but high humidity is really a big challenge