growing neps on peat soil,open ground

[Robert]

I have tried ampullaria on clay and peat soil on open ground and curious to find out if rafflesiana and bicalcarata will do well. The following were the results since november, 2007
i scoop up the peat soil to show. During rainy season the ground was sticky.





another raff form


bicalcarata was also doing well.


The reason they grow in the peaty conds - the ground are all opend up by tree roots( note fibrous roots intertwined with soil) hence soil are well drain. Now a trial if northiana will grow, O planted yesterday ;D

[plantlover]

I noticed neps can be watered tap water and growed in normal soil BUT with either very small or no pitchers at all. I saw 2 mirandas in a nursery watered with tap water and flowering but pitcher-less. And I saw an amp treated like a normal plant in my school with an ultra-long vine but very small half-dried up pitchers.

[shawnintland]

Well Robert, from the looks of your pictures it'll be no problem. They all look like they are loving the soil and conditions. The raffs especially seem to be enjoying life there. And now I think of all the money I've been wasting on pots! No, I don't have your soil conditions, unfortunately. Is this a fenced in area? I'd be scared of an dog or unaware person running through and snapping off a plant! Keep posting results please, you may convince me to try a few yet!

[kentosaurs]

Hi robert,

Like shawn said your plants are doing exceptionally fine with the soil there but isn't that normal soil????Neps can definitly grow on normal soil but will have very tiny pitchers.And there's also a lot of decomposing leaves there providing a lot of nutrients but thats not making your neps stop pitchering at all and even makes it very healthy looking nice growing ;D

[Robert]

Aaron, the ground must be very compact and was unable to grow properly.It's struggling but can be revive if the soil around the roots are loosen.

Shawn, plants were planted on different location in the garden. The only place where they don't do well were very peaty, wet and water clogging part of the garden. plants look suffocated, not growing and leaves were crappy. I unearth them to another well drain area and they are all doing very well now. They will grow in any type of soil provided it's well drain.

Our garden is not fence. It was located in isolation far from human settlement. Behind our garden was a natural big forest. Occassionally we only have neighbours passing by using the as short cut to the forest foraging for wild ferns and edible shoots.

Thanks Ken, it's normal soil. It was a plus to have decaying leaves as nutrients but make sure it is well drain.

[Aliamyz]

Robert,
You did a good job there.
I was discusing this matter with my bro yesterday night.
How about we plant all rare neps in the jungle?And after some years will have beautiful giant pitchers.
Oh that's so great.Roberts that rafflesiana 'tricolour' is eye-catching.
Keep us update.

Aaron,
If your plant flowers , that means all it's energy is being concentrated to the flower and not the pitcher,Hence as a result you'll get smaller pitchers.
Cut off the flower spike if it flowers again.( if you don't like the flower)

Cheers!

[kentosaurs]

Hi Ali,

Why cut the flower stalk i know it might use up a lot of energy from the plant but maybe by chance it will be pollinated and u have more beautiful raffs like that in the wild or a hybrid never found before 0.o thats of course if there's neps somewhere near by the forest behind roberts garden.My mom actually asked me to help make a garden for my condo area hahahahah imagine if i asked the developer he will think i'm nuts,but actually i think thats a good idea planting neps everywhere since most of us have so many of them.

After looking at roberts planting i realised neps are really hardier then what i thought...nice size and colour on pitcher even though in high nutrient soil.I definitly cannot plant a nep somewhere in the jungle because there's no jungle anywhere near but i can give away one of my raffs hahaha i got 3 and i have limited space.

Ken

[Cindy]

Shawn,
Soil found in nature is very different from soil sold at the nursery. Not sure if it is the same in the other parts of the world but if we say "Neps can be grown in soil" here, what we are going to see is the bulk of the growers buying the brown/black soil from the nurseries. That soil is packed with animal manure!

Like Robert highlighted, the soil found in his garden is intertwined with roots of the trees which makes it very open and good for drainage. If we try and imitate that, without observing the presence of the roots, then we will end up potting up the Neps in pure clayey soil. That is detrimental to the plants. I cringed the last time someone on the forum made a very general statement that N. ampullaria grow in clayey soil. It is clear that that is knowledge gleaned from books or websites, without in-situ experience.

What Robert is doing, as well as others who spend their time in studying the plants in the wild, is to value-add and give the year-round city dwellers like us (myself included) a clearer picture of Nepenthes cultivation. If anyone has the chance to, please take a trip to any of the nature reserves and spend some time studying the plants there. It was very enriching for me and even caused a paradigm shift in my cultivation methods. I still cannot grow highland Neps for that matter but I am pretty sure I have better growing lowland/intermediate species than before.

[TS]

Thanks Robert for posting this information. It made me more confident I was doing the right thing.
I planted some of my raff in garden burnt/clay soil mixed with sand. They seems to do well. I did put some dried leaves and peat on top the medium to mimic the habitat in the wild. The decayed dried leaves provide a damp cooling condition to attract a lot of ants to make their nets there, I know some of you may say the ants will provide food for the plant, but I just don't quite like it because whenever I "admire" my neps there are ants every where, luckily they are just the normal type of black ants that won't bite.
I'll try to plant them on ground one day to see the result. Robert, please keep us updated on the result on northiana.
I have the same result on growing amps in the same mix. The "apple tree" I had just posted not too long ago was planted in this mix too. I put some leftover Spiky Moss from my planted tank on the medium, unexpectedly they grew like wild and formed a layer of green carpet on top the medium.
I agreed with Robert that, as long as the growing media drains water well it will do OK for raff. A few of my raff in the same soil mix died after I found that they are water clogging in the pot. The key is make sure the soil is well drained.

[Robert]

oh you're already testing, good try TS. Do post more your result.