Fertilizing nepenthes

[Aliamyz]

Guys,
After so many research about fertilizing nepenthes, i've found out that a very dilute mix of orchid fertilizer once or twice a month will give out bigger leaves and pitchers in nepenthes.I thought i can try this out because i'm having problems on small sized pitchers in my plants.As i'm not so familiar with fertilizing nepenthes,for those who have tried and doing this in monthly basis, how am i supposed to do that?
Any help is highly appreciated!

Thanx.

[kentosaurs]

Hi Ali

Im strongly disagree in using fertilizers on neps maybe its just because of what happened to my neps when i used liquid fertilizers mixed with 1 litre of water and my plant really didn't like the leaves burned,pitchers dried up and lots more.

Ken

[wijaya]

@aliamyz: here we go again , try to check out this website, got it by a reference from a forumer at 'carnivorous plant" http://www.progressivegardens.com/gr.../plantnut.html, got a complete guide over plants requirements for proteins, amino acids, enzymes, vitamins, hormones, chelates and the roots thing explain widely here and foliar feedings as well.

@kentosaurs: fertilizing is good to some extent, do some research, use light dosage at first, usually for neps 1/3 of the recommended dosage for regular plants. Why leafs burned? when do you fertilized? the best time is early morning before the sunlight get too hot. The leftover fertilizer on the leaf will cause the burnt. Also the 'leaf stomata' is opened up in the morning to get nutrition needed for the plant and getting ready to "photosinthesis". Do correct me if I am wrong here.

Ed

[Victoria]

@ wijaya - Awesome link, thanks for sharing it!

@ kentosaurs - was it a chemical fertilizer or organic? Checmical fertilizers are very easy to burn Neps with, so I only use organic (actually I use organic on all my plants including my veggie and fruit gardens).....also, did you use it on the soil or as a foiler spray?

@ aliamyz - I fertilize all my neps including seedlings. I use Neptunes Seweed and Fish Blend (which is an organic fertilizer) at a rate of 1 tablespoon per gallon twice a month in the summer and once a month in the fall and winter.....please note that I started out quite diluted and took about 2 months to get to that dosage......you dont want to put your neps in shock by giving them a full dose of fertilizer when they have never had it before. I do use it every other watering with my seedlings as they are growing quite fast and seem to benefit by the fertilizer. I NEVER get any fertilizer on the leaves though, I only fertilize through the soil (I use coco and perlite for medium) as I dont feel that Neps naturally obsorbe any nutrients from their leaves, correct me if I am wrong, I just havent found any evidence of it..... I have never had any negative experiences with this organic fertilizer....it was recommended to me by sunbelle exotics (a US Nep nursery and importer of neps). I now use this fertilizer for all of my plants (tropicals, cacti/succulents, etc)....my Neps are showing excellent growth and pitcher size but most of all they are a nice shade of green on their leaves which I was lacking before fertilizing.

Just to throw this out their....the only other thing I use on my Neps is a product called Hygrozyme.....I am very impressed with the amount of roots that my Neps got after using it (dont use it on seedling though, they dont seem to like it at all)....I use it once or twice a month.....but that can be another topic as it isnt a fertilizer.

Well, thats my experience with fertilizing, I look forward to seeing others experience as well.

Happy growing!
Victoria

[Boris]

I use also fertilizer. All based on effective microbes. Have a look here: http://www.eminfo.info/
I use a mix of bokashi juice and EM A. I use only a fifth of the recommended dose but I use it weekly. I don't know what the reason is to make such long breaks like a months or two weeks. If you use Osmocote there is a steady release of the nutrients. So I decided to use less but this more often. My neps are very happy with it. Also I put it on the sarras and the vfts but this only with a 10th of the recommended dose and they got also a good push after I used it.

[alienfx]

Its fine to use fertiliser on ur nep but must use in a very very small quantity.Over fertiliser will make the pitcher root or the plant wont produce pitchers because it got plenty of nutriens from the fertiliser.So dont over due it.If ur nep catches enough insects then no need to fertiliser.If inside pitcher empty only then can try some fertiliser.Nep can take tons of ants and the pitcher still ok.I seen it in the wild like that but if you over feed it with something else the pitcher will root faster.

[kentosaurs]

Hi

My miranda has caught hundreds of some sort of ants maybe termites.Oragnic fertilizers does it mean the ones that u put in the soil????I use hb-101 for my orchids and other plants i tried it on neps and bad stuff happened.But i didn't spray it on my miranda,only tried it on 2 neps

Ken

[Aliamyz]

Guys,
From what i heard is that you can't fertilize the soil or the plant will die.Spray 1/3 recommended dosage to the leaves and you can see some difference in a month.
Over fertilizing or regular fertilizing will lead to roting of plant or pitcher production stops.(because no need to produce pitcher if all the nutrients in given by us)
My plants can't catch any insects though!
Since Ken was having problems, is it ok?

[kentosaurs]

Im not sure but maybe i could have added to much fertilizers im not that sure.But im defitnitly not going to try it again until i'm more experience.(Fertiphobia)= afraid of using fertilizers on neps o.0.Maybe in a few months time im gonna try it on my ventrata since its the most hardy plant and has lots and lots of leaves with small pitchers though cos its in normal potting soil.I'll use it as an experimental plant.

Ken

[Aliamyz]

Forgot to tell you guys that you musn't spray it on the root and the pitcher except for the leaves from what i've heard.
I think i'll try it with my ventrata since it's the most hardiest plant in my collection.