Bad (Root) Hair Day

[marvin1997]

Oh sorry I had no idea....but don't they contain mutrients?When I wash that stuff(when my non-cps die)they always have something black come out like balck-silt.

[poweramps]

Originally Posted by paphioboy

Wow.. those are some roots.. Is the previous media burnt earth too? I don't see any soil at all in the first pic, or have you washed the roots..?

The previous media was 1/3 burnt soil, 1/3 spaghnum moss, 1/3 cocopeat. The cocopeat and spaghnum had deteriorated and flushed out through copious watering in the past 3 yrs i think. But I did washed off the remaining potting mix. Good thing of burnt soil is that it is easy to remove completely.

That 1:1:1 mix was from the earlier days of experimenting with burnt soil. Never used it once I found that 100% burnt soil is cheaper and easier to gauge the water requirements.

To answer David and paphioboy, it was a vining crazy 'at least 3-yrs old in the same pot' plant that I was hoping to see it flower to see if it is a boy or girl. Since it didn't and i kinda got fed-up, I slashed and trimmed it.

Marvin, the red burnt soil (not the black one) can have bits and pieces of burnt wood used in the process..and occasionally if you are lucky...dog or cat poo .
The rest are ash (ie oxides, hydroxides, phosphates of potassium etc), all except phosphate are highly soluble, hence the reason for washing.

N. gracilima from BE grown under LL condition with full sun till midday. Soil surface occasionally dries out till bone dry. The new leaves are the ones that are smaller than the original when it came from Fauzi.


N lowiixcampanulata from EP (all through Fauzi)

[paphioboy]

Nice neps.. Can gracillima be grown under LL conditions? Thought it is a highland species..

[poweramps]

Originally Posted by paphioboy

Nice neps.. Can gracillima be grown under LL conditions? Thought it is a highland species..

Knock on wood, so far so good :-). A little gritty, as you can see, the plant becomes smaller in size. But as long as it is growing and producing pitchers albeit super miniature sized ones, I am happy. Would love to hear frm those who bought gracilima frm BE and growing them in LL conditions. I think Fauzi is doing quite well with growing them as well.

[marvin1997]

What about campan x lowii?

[poweramps]

Originally Posted by marvin1997

What about campan x lowii?

Hybrid vigour plus campa is a lowland, so should be no problem in LL.

To be honest, I was quite reluctant to take lowii x campa as I am no big fan of hybrids. But seeing Fauzi's lowii x truncata (EP's hybrids with lowii is something) and after asking him if lowii x campa will do okay over here, which he said it does for him, i got my lowii x campa.

Mine is kinda etiolated as I kept it in the shade after buying it (more like just chuck the darn plant somewhere after collecting it from Fauzi ). After I repotted it (it had grown 3 new leaves in neglect), and placed it in 70% light, the tips on the three new leaves that did not seemed to be pitchering started to grow and swell. It may be anecdotal in nature, but EP plant seems to have very healthy root system. So worth the money...(pocket still feeling the burn = mee maggi for 3 months)

[NepNut]

Nice to see you're also using a healthy amount of burnt clay and the neps are doing well. From my observation, N. campanulata x lowii seems to prefer drier and well drain media, it also like a lot of sun. I'm a sucker for any nep hybrids with N. lowii in it...

I tend to agree that most EP plants are robust and have healthy roots to give a good start to quickly acclimatise to our new growing condition.

Very nice collection you have there...

[kevyn chan]

wanted to ask something about the potting mix that you used. you actually thorough mix them or you put it in layers? do you face any snails problem? especially the see-through type of snails that attacks orchid rhizomes and shoots.

[poweramps]

Originally Posted by kevyn chan

wanted to ask something about the potting mix that you used. you actually thorough mix them or you put it in layers? do you face any snails problem? especially the see-through type of snails that attacks orchid rhizomes and shoots.

From my experience, whatever attempts to mix different media of different density and particle sizes would invariably result in a certain amount of separation. I do mix them, but nature reorganises them in her free time .

Snails are aplenty in the garden...from the giant Achantica (siput babi) to Bradybaena similaris and Subulina sp but they don't seem to be a problem. This could be due to the presence of other lush vegetation that are more palatable than Nepenthes.

[kentosaurs]

Hi poweramp......I just got a bag of burnt soil from ace hardware but i'm not sure if i can use it for my CPs.....Well i ask u since you use it quite often. heres the link

https://forum.petpitcher.net/show...2902#post22902