Nepenthes succession

[Vincent]

Hello everyone, hope your collections are thriving! Today i wanted to address the topic which i call, Nepenthes succession. I will first off tell you my grow set up. The lights i use are t-5 bulbs;2 blue and 2 reb spectrum, ran on a timer from 7 am to 11 pm.(slowly dropping lighting hours 1hr a week). The table sits right in front of a gaping, east facing window, and in my expierience, cp's like sun pitchers, cephelotus, and nepenthes require this not-so-intense light that our sun provides us in the morning. so in the nut shell, they are perfect with light, but what about soil and humidity? Well with all of my Nepenthes i use 1 bag of vermiculite, 1/2 bag of perilite, and 1/2 bag of sand. This, personally, is the ultimate soil mixture for nepenthes(so far). I use vermiculite more than anything because it isnt really organic, and it has alot of mica, which is shiny and looks good with any plant. Sometimes some sphagnum moss is used as a top dressing, but this mixture is made so nothing can decay or rot, thus harming the plant. For humidity, i have these deep long trays, and i put chicken wire(alittle stronger though)on top of my trays. So every 3 or so days, i go in my room, and top water all my plants.(takes 2 gallons of distilled water) And last but not least, i suspended an atomizer to the ceiling of my room, so all i do is turn it on, and it makes every leaf,pitcher and tendril 100% wet! They are pretty expensive; mine was a little over $200. Now that i have explained my set up, i will finally explain plant succession. Now i grow a wiiiide rang of nepenthes: i basically grow high land and lowland plants in the same environment. When i received my plants, i wasnt worried that every single species i ordered was gonna have special preferences and that doesnt stop me from growing rajah,villosa,bicalcarata, and not so picky sanguinea in the same environment! If you grow your plants as a whole, they will survive. If you try and nit pick them all out, i find, you wont be successful. Also, aim for hybrids! They are so wonderful, and they dont really care what environment you give them, as long as you mind there soil sun water/humidity. Succession is about being able to freely grow any nepenthes, because any plant can acclimate. The only plant that is still acclimating is bicalcarata; 3 plants i recieved are alive and well, but the lids and fangs are under developed, due to acclimatizing.Other than that, villosa is doing really good, and rajah too, it takes its sweet time..hamta x subuyanensis is superb, one of my faves. And i grow even more difficult plants in the same environment ;nothing special except i made it. Hope to talk to you all soon