A few nepenthes to share...
 

Time to show the best of my neps yet :smile:
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The pitcher has red dots! First time for me :smile:
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The size of the pitcher compared to my little finger.
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Pitcher compared to the previous pitcher before it, look at the size increase :spinning:
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Does this look strange? :laugh:
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I plan to make a shade house for my neps here. There's one advantage, and thats the small forest on the small hill behind it :1thumbup:

Sorry for the quality, my camera isn't that good :crying:

More to come next time!

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

your 3rd pic looks like mirabilis x rafflesiana, isn't it ?

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

Lol, forgot to mention the first nep is northiana and the second is rafflesiana (not sure which variant).

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

Wow great plants bro :) Looks like you have a great envrioment for your plants :) I'm struggling in my balcony haha...

cbkhoon, Should be a raff...The leaves doesn't look like there is a hint of mirabilis in it...

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

nice northiana:smile:

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

Thanks all! I'm hoping my northiana gets more prettier, then all of u will be jealous *biggrin2*.

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

Already am jealous cause my balcony is to dry in humditiy to grow northiana...

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

Plant in a wide shallow pot and let the top layer be more moist. As long as the pitchers can rest on the media, they will develop.

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

Too late my northiana is already dead couple of months back....I did that but it just didn't do well and slowly withered as though it couldn't absorb water..

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

I find northiana quite hardy. When I grew it at my balcony, it pitchered, just not with the colour and size of current pitchers. Also, if you noticed I planted it in a big pot is because there will be more humidity from the soil surrounding the plant. It also eliminates the need to repot the plant within a short period of time.

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

Although using a big pot, I find it beneficial to dig up the medium to fluff it a bit as the soil will compact over time. Say about once a year..

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

Hmmm....true. Thanks for the advice, paphioboy!

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

I would like to share my observation and experience in growing N.northiana....

So far, I have lost 5 of this magnificent but tough plant. Now, I'm proud that I have finally gotten the technique(or part of it) to cultivate this particular nep.

Last year, I started using this method of preparing media for N.northiana. It was based on the hypothesis that I made-"N.northiana grows on limestone cliff, therefore it's roots should be digging in deep into the limestone rocks for support". Therefore, I attempted this:

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By putting pebbles (and later, small pieces of limestone, I don't have to picture), I planned to see whether the plant would root itself into the pebbles as it matured. I was also curious whether the northiana would experience any changes or size increase if this happens. For the moment, the plant is still very young so maybe within 2 years, the result can be seen :1thumbup:

Some observations I made for N.northiana:

Watering & media-Depending on the media you use. I used unwashed burnt soil, which meant that the dusty, fine particles remained and it became a little muddy. Together with this mixture, I added charcoal, small limestone pieces(1cm diameter) and tree bark. The water drainage is rather poor since I didn't wash the burnt soil. However, my northiana thrived as you can see in the pictures. At first, I watered it every 4-5days. It grew really slow. Then I increased the watering to every 3 days and I would drench the media with lots of water. Eureka! and the plant started to grow normally and at a steady rate with pitchers :biggrin:

Light-Give the plant as much light as possible. It is very tolerant to exposure of full sun for a short while, unlike some neps which show signs of wilting within a day of being placed under hot sun. However, bright light is optimum for the plant. The pitchers will also colour up with more light.

Thats all for my observation. However, there are some precautions I would like to say:

DON'T ever ever injure the root when the plant is young. Pulling off even a single root will disturb the plant and send it into 'stasis' for quite a while. Recovery can be painfully long. I'm not sure whether the plant gets more hardy as it matures, but don't injure the root. You'll regret it.

Don't overwater. Too much water, and it will die. Northiana has a really bad tendency of simply dying off without warning. Unlike other neps, if it has been badly injured, the plant will deteriorate badly with leaves wilting almost everyday. By the end of the week, your plant would be very critical or even dead.

It's a tolerant plant to envirionmental changes. However, humidity changes will drastically affect the pitchering rate of the plant. Keep it high in humidity, one solution is to plant the young plant in a pot 3 times it's size so that surrounding moist media will increase humidity around the plant. Note that this only works on small plants.

Above all, be patient! As for the moment, my experience for northiana is only limited to the small guys. If you want good advice, seek Robert. I know he has a northiana with 4-5" pitchers :wub: Hopefully he can post them to keep us updated with the plant.

Feel free to comment on my observations! :smile:

Re: A few nepenthes to share...
 

Actually plan before on buying one thx goodness decided not .....Need more info before start on this sp.as it will be challenging. Cant wait for your update