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Simple care for Neps


Mujician

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Hi, I had a couple of Neps last year and they died due to lack of knowledge. I assumed I could keep them in pretty much the same way as my other plants - drosera/dionaea/sarracenia in that they stand in water. I have since found out they do not like their feet getting wet. I also had them in the same peat/perlite type mix. Now I have discovered they are similar to orchids in that the roots like lots of air around them so they need to be in a loose growing medium. Is this correct?

At the present time, I cannot get a terrarium of any sort as there is no space. Are there any nepenthes that I could have growing on a windowsill as a house plant? 

 

Could anyone suggest a hardy species, and a suitable growing medium, and care regime?! Many thanks for your patience!

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Hi, I had a couple of Neps last year and they died due to lack of knowledge. I assumed I could keep them in pretty much the same way as my other plants - drosera/dionaea/sarracenia in that they stand in water. I have since found out they do not like their feet getting wet. I also had them in the same peat/perlite type mix. Now I have discovered they are similar to orchids in that the roots like lots of air around them so they need to be in a loose growing medium. Is this correct?

At the present time, I cannot get a terrarium of any sort as there is no space. Are there any nepenthes that I could have growing on a windowsill as a house plant?

Could anyone suggest a hardy species, and a suitable growing medium, and care regime?! Many thanks for your patience!

Hi i assumer your talking about highland nepenthes?

I kept a N.Ventricosa x talangensis on my south window sill and it put out new pitchers rather quick. Some of the nep experts will advise you what species are easy. I found the key to happy neps is humidity.

The soild mix i use peat/perlite/fir bark 50:25:25

As they like airated soil i think using pond pots works best as there are holes in side of pot.

I found my nep to be rather easy to care for, i didnt have it sitting in water i just put water in the tray, let it drink it then i would fill the tray back up.

Dan

Edited by carnivorousDan
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Its not quite true that they are similar to orchids. Orchids have thick roots (or rather roots covered with a protective layer) so these are able to stand being xposed to air and drying out, in fact some will rot easily if not allowed to dry out daily.

Nep roots on the ther hand are typically very fine and dont like to dry out excessively but prefer to stay moist, like most other plants, garden or otherwise.

What they are not typically is bog plants, those are adapted to tolerate anearobic conditions at the roots which would kill most plants including the majority of neps.

Growing neps is much more like growing any typical houseplant rather than either an orchid or a bog plant.

However thy can be picky in other ways, some prefer very high light or high temperatures/humdity and can be difficult to grow in the UK. Others grow like weeds.

If you want something easy try ventrata (available just about everywhere) or maxima. If you want something a bit more unusual and which tolerates drying out completely try boschiana, it does very well on windowsills.

My advice would be get a ventrata or maxima, put it in the biggest pot you can find, use about 70-80% perlite / peat, and keep it damp in the sunniest windowsill you have. If you still kill it, its probably time to find another hobby.

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