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:
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
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
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
Hopefully he can post them to keep us updated with the plant.
Feel free to comment on my observations!
