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fertilising nepenthes seedlings


lesthegringo

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Guys, someone drew my attention to the fact that the coir/perlite mix I am using for my nepenthes seedlings has zero nutrient content, and that as they grow potentially they may need some form of fertiliser to prevent them from withering as they grow.

Clearly they are far too small to put anything in the pitchers, and I am wary of using something that would be too strong on the soil. Do any of you have experience of what could be used safely with them?

Cheers

Les

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I regularly use a very weak (about 1/8 strength) solution of DynaGro's range, as well as "Orchid Myst" on young plants, ranging from vigorous hybrids to edwardsiana. My only complaint is how it makes Sphagnum slimy so I'll be reverting to a largey inorganic soil mix (lava, epiweb, perlite, rockwool).

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Any live Sphagnum seems to have all but given up the ghost and dried Sphagnum tends to just go slimy and not sprout at all. I exclusively used live Sphagnum where I could years ago, but I never fertilised through the roots back then. The plants are fine for now though.

Edited by Amori
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I regularly use a very weak (about 1/8 strength) solution of DynaGro's range, as well as "Orchid Myst" on young plants, ranging from vigorous hybrids to edwardsiana. My only complaint is how it makes Sphagnum slimy so I'll be reverting to a largey inorganic soil mix (lava, epiweb, perlite, rockwool).

Hi do you use the Orchid Myst as it is in the bottle or do you dilute it as well for seedlings

Cheers

Mark

Edited by carni grower
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  • 2 months later...

I put seedlings in peat/perlite mixes, the peat contains enough nutrients to keep very small seedlings going, then when they are a little larger i spray with 'rainmix', which is a very dilute orchid fertilizer based on MSU formula, designed to replicate the natural nutrients contained in rain (yes there are some).

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I use standard NPK pellet fertiliser on my neps (seedlings included), depending on the species I normally mix spag/peat/sand (ration various by species) then once they germinate and are about 1cm I spread about 3tbs of the fertiliser on the tray (standard 30cmseed tray).

In saying this I keep them in my greenhouse which is automated, so excessive watering, but it works well for me.

Alternatively I got good results outs of seasol, though again misters.

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