Can highland nepenthes be grown in lowland?

[Red Dragon]

Hi, I'd like to ask you guys out there if you had tried growing highland neps in lowland condition. Can you share some of your experience? I personally tried growing N. sibuyanensis but to no avail.....it stop pitchering then RIP. N. spectabilis, and mira was also not successful. But had good experience with maxima, veitchii, truncata, ventricosa, and sanguinea.

[caseyhoo]

Key of success to grow HL in LL is, humidity and airy media...

[caseyhoo]

And make sure the media is most and not wet...

[Ifurita]

Originally Posted by Red Dragon

Hi, I'd like to ask you guys out there if you had tried growing highland neps in lowland condition. Can you share some of your experience? I personally tried growing N. sibuyanensis but to no avail.....it stop pitchering then RIP. N. spectabilis, and mira was also not successful. But had good experience with maxima, veitchii, truncata, ventricosa, and sanguinea.

One thing you should note when you ask such a question is how high and low a person's "highland" and "lowland" are respectively, taking into account that there are the Neps considered as "intermediate" as well. Given what you've listed as your successes, your conditions are probably quite humid(humidity is very important) and at the same time around the middle of the lowland condition range. Note also that most of the Neps you've listed as successes are fairly forgiving. You should actually be able to grow sibuyanensis too, but sibuyanensis isn't exactly a fantastically easy Nep to begin with.

Most if not all the people who have succeeded in growing highland Neps in lowland conditions are either growing the lower altitude highlanders or their lowland conditions are more intermediate rather than lowland...or both. To be blunt, there is a massive difference between lowland conditions in Singapore than lowland conditions in Florida for example. Every 100m in altitude counts, as does the distance of the location from the equator and seasonal temperature change. I highly doubt anyone is going to succeed in growing something like N. villosa under Singapore's lowland conditions anytime soon, but N. rajah in say Florida, now that's possible, if not already done.

There are also two different factors to take note of: Temp and Temp drop. Most highlands can take fairly high temps if given a decent temp drop at night. If you can provide some form of cooling at night(doesn't even have to be that low, lower end of 20C may be good enough), you'll find that many highlanders will be a lot more forgiving.

[Red Dragon]

My garden is located right next to a brackish rivere that opens in the sea. Yes, I live near the beach in the Philippines. My ventricosa (an intermediate) finally pitchers. Temp here range from 25 - 33oC. Very humid.

[miacps]

Originally Posted by Ifurita

but N. rajah in say Florida, now that's possible, if not already done.

I think you underestimate Florida's summer temperatures. Days are consistently around 32-33C with nights around 29-30C.

Completely unsuitable for a lot of highlanders much less an ultra-highlander like N. rajah.

In my experience, intermediate and a handful of forgiving highlanders can be grown in these conditions if you can provide a few things:
-airy media. like casey says, if you go for an airy mix like LFS + perlite you can keep the roots cool. I had grown ventricosa, sanguinea and fusca - sarawak with this media and had good results for many years. As soon as I switched to a peat based soil they went into decline. Peat traps too much heat.
-open shade. I have the benefit of having a large royal poinciana which blocks a large amount of heat while keeping everything under it bright and cool.
-seasonal temperature variances. This last one is the key to keeping forgiving highlanders long term. Back when I grew the plants mentioned above, they would refuse to pitcher during the summer but as soon as temperatures switched to a more highland/intermediate (days around 24C, nights around 18C) the plants perked back up and continued growing like normal.

And of course regular fertilizing with organic fertilizer at 1/2 to 1/4 strength is a huge help. (I use neptunes harvest fish/seaweed blend @ 1 1/2 tsp per gallon twice a month with good results)

[edwardyeeks]

If you want to get HL neps pitchering, you would need high humidity around 80%+ for the best results. Everything else has been mentioned by Casey, ifurita and miacps

[agustinfranco]

I think Ifurita has answered this question already, but to those who are still
not sure. What is a true highlander? or strict highlander. Those species which can't tolerate warm to hot nights for long periods of time.....
The species presented at the beginning of this thread are not strict highlanders, but some sort of intermediates. Especially the phillippino species

Species which can't be found from ground level to high altitudes can't be labelled
highlanders or lowlanders. ie veitchii, truncata, albomarginata, and even some varieties of ampullaria.

Gus