Secret Of Growing Amps

[Aliamyz]

Hi everyone,

How are you all?Hope you'll are fine.

Rarely online these days.It's very busy and have to attend a lot of seminars.

I'm just having problems with my ampullaria.The basals are pitchering well but the mother plant isn't.
Ban aik saw the plant and he said it's still forming but i don't think so.Every single leaf is like that.

Looking at other people's plants.i feel very sad to see mine without pitchers.

From the previous thread,you guys suggested to repot the plant.I did repot the plant and it's receiving some partial morning sunlight.

Is there anything else i've can do?

Thanx!

[kentosaurs]

Hi Ali

Well for amps they normally pitcher with they're basals instead of the main vine making a carpet of pitchers....Upper pitchers are only produced when the plant is tall so you will have to wait till then...

Ken

[plantlover]

The amp I bought 3-4 years ago growed like crazy eventhough I fertilized and water it with tap water. It produced so much basal. The main vine was pitchering too eventhough the main vine is so short.

[funkychips]

Hi Aliamyz,

For one, I can relate to your amp's pitchering problems. Through the past years I have tried four consecutive plants, all bought with basals, pitchers and main shoots, but the latter days always end up with the same condition: green leafy but pitcherless. Among other Neps that fail to give good pitchering in my garden are:

N. bicalcarata - Those damn tendrils just keep browning off
N. alata - Same case as for bical
N. fusca - The pitchers seem to stop growing abruptly
N. veitchii pink - Pitcher grew progressively smaller, became smilar case as the amps
N. albomarginata Kuching spotted - Worst of the lot. Spiralling down the sinkhole, my kuching spotted died eight months after I bought it as a healthy pitchering single plant. No offshoots even grew after the plant wilted away.

So you can see how low humidity can sometimes get in some parts of the urban jungle. The real danger of dessication is a sudden fluctuation in temperature and build up of heat in otherwise stagnant air.

[arvin555]

Ali and Funkychips, both of you live well within the city?

It may be caused by the heat island (not sure if this is the right term) which is generated by a big city. Here in Manila, if I go to the outskirts of the city the weather is way way cooler, in fact when I visited my Motherinlaw at a nearby province it was really cold that I wished I brought a jacket. Hot and dry our city air is, not to mention pollution. But what can we do? For me I try to give them as much humidity as I can. There are a few ponds and tubs in the area, plus some water dishes. For me at least it has rained for the past few days (drizzle) so at least that is refereshing for the plants.

Ventricosas are the worse off, I have an amp that doesn't have pitcher, one of my amp basals died, etc. etc. The best pitchering plant I have is my beloved Gracilis Then again they are known to give pitcher at every leaf, small and cute. My truncata still does pitcher, but slow, so does the Miranda.

Maybe, just maybe, the trick is to have some plants that have long lasting pitchers and some that are known to pitcher no matter what, so that when the other species don't pitcher, you still have some nice pitchers in other plants!

Good luck to us

TTFN
Arvin

[kentosaurs]

Hi ali

Like the others said higher humidity should be better i used to put my ventrata in full sun and even a ventrata had some tendrills drying off......Hate it when it happens...And arvin we learn in BM pulau haba soo if its a direct translation then yeah heat island or something like that....Humidity will get as low as 30's in the hot afternoon under direct sun.......

Ken

[funkychips]

Hi Arvin and Ken, thanks for sharing our experience,
I live within the city but occasionally we get drastic drops in temperature like when it rains or when cold air currents start to blow across the city. The worst part of the weather is that when the clouds gather but not sufficient to produce a rainstorm, so we feel like the atmosphere has been blanketed by a thermo blanket. After the rains, all is well, until the next day everything starts all over again... For increasing the humidity I have only one ceramic water urn that I put some fishes and water plants in, but can't afford to keep more than one container as mosquitoes do their egg laying everywhere they can.

My x Mirandas, mirabilis, gracilis, raffs and a newer clone of N x hookeriana I got two years ago, are those that still manage to put out pitchers and countless offshoots continously. Belli and bical x gracilis are also doing well. To provide higher humidity I try to clump the plants close to each other as well as slot those tillandsias into every space available.

[NepNut]

Very sorry to hear that you are having problems, Ali and funkychips. Growing condition is different for every one, but most agree high humidity level is very important for most nep species. In northern peninsular Malaysia, it's very dry, hot and windy now, so no surprise I have some neps that's more fussy refuse to pitcher or the new pticher bud dried out. In the meantime, some hardier neps just keep on growing and pitchering like nobody's business...

Don't be too hard on yourselves. Just think about it, even in nature, during certain period (changes in weather pattern), even wild neps will not grow well... They just stop producing pitchers and the growth will slow down, adapting to the changing weather.

Just to check, did you use same type of soil/media for all your neps?? I tend to adjust my mixture according to the species of neps and try my best to simulate it's original growing habitat.

[paphioboy]

Good advice, Robert. Currently, my bical, Miranda, green amp and a few others are pitchering at a slower rate, but gracilis, ventrata, speckled amp and albos are pitchering continuously.. I'm just afraid that my sarras and VFT may dry out, as I'm not using water trays..

[Aliamyz]

Paphioboy,
Don't worry about mosquitos laying their eggs.Buy some guppies adn they'll eat all th eggs.They are live breeders too.Mean they give brith to youngs.

Guys,
From my research,amps won't produce pitchers in their main stem if they have basals.The mother plant will produce upper pitcher if they stress out.

That means my plant is healthy.