Help with Indo nep cultivation

[Adelae 13]

I will be getting a few indo chinese nepenthes (kerri, euch and a others) in a few weeks and am wondering if they need special care due to the thick roots, so far I am thinking

Soil: 2 sand: 1 peat :1 basalt or 2 sand: 1 peat : 1 spag

Watering will be by automated misting in my greenhouse, 15min every moring and every arvo, plus whatever rain comes.

Temps are no issue as I am in a tropical climate and have the same temps as the most southern N.Mirabilis colony (which is only a couple hours away), and humidity will be above 70% year round.

Light: partial sun all day (full sun from about 9am-1pm but through 50% shade cloth, the rest is blocked by a mountian)

Main worries are if the soil is ok and if I can use a water tray like I do with most lowlanders or not, also if they need/like an induced drought where I could move them outside the greenhouse and let rain water them only (in the gry season we still get rain every week or 2 anyway.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Adelae

[marcello catalano 9]

Hi,

These taxa don't need the dry season that they experience in the wild. They are mostly easy to grow, but I would avoid to keep them in a water tray, at least until they are big enough to tolerate some standing water. Depending on your climate and your other lowland nepenthes, get them used to some direct sun (don't forget that they come from the tropics, where they grow in full sun all day long). Also, I would avoid the sand in the mix (it just makes it heavy) and the sphagnum (it makes it wet for too long, good for other species but not for these), these plants do fine with the usual mix of peat and perlite in equal parts. Kerrii is a bit of a tricky plant, the climate it comes from is more intermediate than lowland, and in cultivation it grows better during our winter and autumns, when temps are not too high, and even nicely low during the night. It also doesn't seem to like very wet soils. I've no idea of what an euch is, but if you mean eustachya, that's not from indochina. If you have other taxa from that area, feel free to ask. Oh, mind that my climate is different from yours, i know in Australia everybody grows all nepenthes in sphagnum because they would otherwise dry too quickly, a problem we don't have here. And yet, be careful with these taxa in particular, from that point of view...

[Gareth Davies 17]

Marclello, I had been wondering why I have been struggling so much with kerrii. I'd assumed as a IC species, the more heat I gave it, the better it would do. I can see now why it's been going downhill. I'll go and move it somewhere cooler, right now! Thanks for the tip!

[Mark Long 19]

On the subject of the IC species, what kind of conditions are best for chang and bokorensis? I've currently got them into what is probably considered intermediate (18 - 26 C) but do you think they would be happier in lowland conditions?

[marcello catalano 9]

Hi Gareth, intermediate indeed, and also don't keep it too wet, I think if sphagnum in the same pot is thriving and the plant is not, then it's too wet. Mlong, both chang and bokorensis are better treated as intermediate plants too.