Sugar=Carbohydrates [!!!]

[Yamanaka]

My friend asked me about feeding sugar to neps.Is it realy okay if I were to feed my neps with sugar?Im scared to try.Anyone?

[spark]

Neither sugar nor carbohydrates are what it's getting from bugs. They're mostly protein, and actually it's after vitamins and minerals, really. Nitrogen, things of that nature.

http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq1250.html has a little more about it.

[arvin555]

I'd say NO! Some even do not suggest using fertilizers, and now Sugar? My gosh!

TTFN
Arvin

[funkychips]

Stick to bugs. You feed bugs to plants so they are able to make their own sugar, they don't take raw sugar like we do

[Lazarus]

Anyway, I've tried sugar before, because I like to actually experiment instead of sticking to the usual dogma and ridiculous box some growers get stuck in. Good on you for wanting to experiment .

I believe I tried sugar once or perhaps a couple times. If you use it, it needs to be very dilute. I'm not even sure the plant would be able to absorb that form of glucose through its pitcher walls and use it for energy to carry on its biological processes/growth. It's feasible though, so try it and tell us what happens. All of my plants are too large and heavily fertilized for me to do such an experiment. Theres no way I could attribute any difference in growth to the addition of sugar. I once tried putting a bit of pure honey in a pitcher, and the honey withered the wall rapidly, likely because the very concentrated syrup sapped water from the plant cells.

Plants are plants. Just because carnivorous plants "apparently" (due to the limited scientific observations/experiments we have made to date) rely on their prey primarily for nitrogen doesn't mean that our plants are particularly nitrogen deficient in cultivation or that these plants can only get the benefit of nutrients through "natural" (this word should be obliterated from the English language) means. Cultivation is about finding out what a plant wants and needs, and giving it just that, doesn't matter where it comes from.

[marvin1997]

What about powder glucolin?The drink that we drink( I drink anyway).Glucose.

[jk]

I mix some molasses with fish fertilizer and seaweed extract to feed to the roots of my Nepenthes. Sometimes I also pour the mixture into the pitchers. Lately, I've also been applying a "tea" made from compost and alfalfa, which is rich in micro-organisms and growth hormones, to the leaves and roots.

I agree with Lazarus that growers should experiment and not try to only duplicate the conditions in which CPs are found in nature. In those natural conditions they are able to out-compete other plants because of their unique carivorous characteristic. However, it does not mean that they would not be able to grow better in other conditions if they did not have to compete with other plants. Of course, as growers, we are able to eliminate that competition.

[Khoas]

I really don't see need for sugar, plants produce their through photo-synthesis. While I not a nep expert, the ones I do know locally are wary about too much fertilzer because some varieties of Neps stop producting pitchers.

[TranMinh]

I think sugar not need for plants because the water in picher already sweat ( ants like sweat ). About fertilzer I'm sure that Nepenthes can take fertilzer.