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Post by sockhom on Apr 17, 2008 22:30:33 GMT -10
Hi ! This is how I germinate my seeds indoors. This is just my method with which I have much success. Feel free to comment and to post and introduction of your own germinating method. Set up # 1:As you see I use propagators. I've placed 4 of them in my living-room. They are lit 13 hours a day by fluocompact tubes (9600 lumens, 110 W) placed at a 20 cm distance from the seeds. When the seeds germinate, i move the light at a 50 cm distance. The humidity level is 100% at night and more or less 70/80% at day. The first picture does not restore the light intensity faithfully. Actually, it looks more like this (bottom of the picture): Temperatures range between 30°C at day and 22-23°C at night. In this very setup, I sow lowland species AND highland species (for further developpment on this, see below) . I sometimes prepare the soil recipee (here pure sphagnum) before the seeds arrival. It enables the mixture to "rise" (I'm refering to the bacteria 's work). Actually, reserach need to be done on that particular point in order to check its real efficiency. I confess It's just convenient to use old media. The propagators are partitioned in a simple manner. This is a picture taken in september, 9th, 2007. I try to ventilate two times a week by opening the caps and I sometimes mist lighly. Here are some Nepenthes ampullaria seeds from Sumatra i sowed september, 7th 2007: Here are some pictures taken in april 2008: Set up # 2:This second setup is in fact a terrarium i've placed in my garage. We might consider those as highland conditions. Seeds are placed in individual square 13/13 cm pots, placed at a 30 cm distance from fluocompacts (the same as described in the first setup). I know the pots may look too deep but placing the seeds that way enables me to shorten the distance between the live material and the lights. Temperatures range between 25°C at day and 15-18°C at night. Humidity level range between 70 and 100% (i try to spray regularly). Seeds take more time to germinate in those conditions but the seedlings (highland and intermediate species) are already placed in what some might call "natural conditions". I prefer to sow all Nepenthes seeds in lowland conditions. Once the seedlings are quite big (5-6 cm), I shall place them in their "natural conditions". François Mey.
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Post by sockhom on Apr 17, 2008 13:27:34 GMT -10
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Post by sockhom on Apr 17, 2008 13:21:58 GMT -10
Hello . Nepenthes lowii is known as one of the slowest species. At least, that's what most of us have been told. I ordered some plants from Andreas Wistuba in 2006 and ,to my surprise, plantlets developed at a more than satisfying rate. Maybe they have somehow inherited of a vigor that TC plants sometimes show. I don't know. You tell me. Just the facts: Nepenthes lowii, december 12th 2006 (a few months after reception). The center specimen barely reached 6 cm across: The same plants on december 9th 2007: François Mey.
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Post by sockhom on Apr 16, 2008 11:32:32 GMT -10
You're welcome . If you come at home in june, i'll show you many pictures of the plant in the wild. Now you must go to New Caledonia. François.
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Post by sockhom on Apr 16, 2008 10:32:45 GMT -10
Hello Can we find already some on the Island Pins ? Kina Hi Jacques . Many specimens have been collected on the Isle of Pines. You should find the plants there. It is also known from Mount Kohgi. François.
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Post by sockhom on Apr 15, 2008 11:58:05 GMT -10
Hello . Growing highland Nepenthes is usually considered to be very challenging. Even in northern latitudes. One of the best solutions when it comes to indoor growing chambers is to set a cooling-system. Some of my friends built terrariums in which they have included a cooling-system extracted from a fridge for example. It is also possible, when you live under a temperate climate, to use a cold room such as a basement or a garage. Such a place enables the grower to create a range between daily and night temperatures which is very often required when growing highland Nepenthes . I will show you my highland growing area. I have the chance to own a large garage in my house and i have decided (make sure you have the wife agreement ;D) to use half of it to stock many terrariums, home of highland tropical pitcher plants, Heliamphora and south tropical Drosera. Here is a part of the area: I live in northern France. In winter, we sometimes experience temperatures as low as 7°C minus and in summer, when there are scortched heats, temperatures (seldom) reaches 32-33°C. This is two of my highland terrariums: Each terrarium is lit with very bright lights provided by fluocompact tubes (9600 lumens, 110 watts). There are some centimeters of water at the bottom with a tank heater. It warms the water in winter mostly, in order to avoid the temperatures to drop too much and to keep a decent level of humidity. Thanks to the "natural" cool atmosphere of the room, i manage to have the average temperatures: - October to april: Night: 10°C Day: 22°C - May to september:Night: 18°C Day: 28°C. The extremes being 35°C and 6°C. As you can see the temperatures are not always optimal. It is sometimes too cold or too hot. Fortunately, most of the plants have adjusted to those conditions. The very few tricky ones either slow down when the conditons don't suit them or they stop pitchering. For example, my N. ventricosa doesn't grow that well in the winter period where it's a bit too cold whereas my N. macrophylla is, at that time, producing nice leaves and pitchers. The situation reverses during the summer period. Of course, it would be great to have ideal temperatures all year round but this garage setup allows me to grow a very wide range of species as the following pictures show. Besides, i have learnt to adapt myself to my setup too: as a consequence, i never buy a highland plant in summer. I prefer to receive it in fall. I will soon set an intermediate terrarium where the tank heater will be active even in winter providing thus better conditons for intermediates plants like N. tenuis, eymae, vogellii or sanguinea. I'll keep you posted. François Mey.
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Post by sockhom on Apr 15, 2008 7:27:23 GMT -10
Hello . Those two species are very closely related and one might wonder how to distinguish them. Nepenthes hirsuta Hook. f. (1873) is distributed in northern Borneo: Brunei, Kalimantan, Sabah and Sarawak. As you can note, it is quite widespread. Nepenthes hispida Beck. (1895) is found in Borneo too but only in the north-east of Sarawak, near the border between Brunei and Sabah, on Lambir Hils for example (Cheek and Jebb, 1997). Both species are very similar, pitchers do not exhibit any particular feature. According to various authors (Cheek and Jebb, clarke), here are the keys which might help to distinguish them: Pitcher colour:- N. hirsuta: Plants are usually entirely green but some specimens show some red blotches on the inside surface and below the peristome. Upper pitchers are yellowish in colour. - N. hispida: Plants are also usually green with sometimes red blotches... Leaf attachement:- N. hirsuta: semi-amplexicaul sheath; - N. hispida: amplexicaul and often decurrent leaf base. indumentum:- N. hirsuta: all parts covered with 1-2 mm long brown hairs. The indumentum varies: some specimens may be densely covered with hairs; others are weakly covered only. - N. hispida: the hairs, purplish-grey, are dense and bristle-like. They are longer (1.5-4 mm). Flowers:- N. hirsuta: Male flowers have a 3.5-6 mm long stamina column at anthesis; - N. hipisda: Male flowers stamina column is only 1.5-2 mm long at anthesis. I received the following plant a few years ago as Nepenthes hirsuta (from Borneo Exotics): This is another N. hirsuta cultivated by my friend Olivier Baijot. Christain Klein, a seasoned grower from Germany who sold the plant to Olivier, thinks that this late plant is the real N. hirsuta. Both plants look different. I think many cultivated plants - this is only my opinion- might be wrongly labelled. Growers should confront, once they reach maturity, their cultivated plants with both species diagnosis. This will not be an easy task. Even with the two diagnosis, it may be quite a pain to make a difference. If there is one ? François Mey.
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Post by sockhom on Apr 15, 2008 6:30:10 GMT -10
François Mey.
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Post by sockhom on Apr 15, 2008 6:18:28 GMT -10
Lower pitcher: François Mey.
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Post by sockhom on Apr 14, 2008 22:41:49 GMT -10
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Post by sockhom on Apr 14, 2008 22:40:16 GMT -10
Hello . I found this species of pitcher plant when I was in Cambodia in july 2007. It has been collected several times in the past, though (specimens dwell at Paris and Bangkok herbariums, among others) but it has been either unindentified or wrongly labeled as Nepenthes thorelii. Here you will find the full-lengh field reports I wrote in Marcello Catalano's site: www.nepenthesofthailand.com/. For taxonomical details, see here: www.lhnn.proboards107.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=list&thread=1094&page=1In this thread, I will share some informations - pictures and comments - about this spectacular species. Cambodia is a wounded country as, I hope, most of you know. The kingdom is filled with landmines and this was my sole anxiety. I had to talk almost endlessly with locals and authorities before wandering in some areas. Fortunately, I speak the language. After visiting many places, I stumbled across an interesting location: Phnom Bokor (Bokor Hill) in the province of Kampot (south-west). It is a flat hill which altitude is 1080 masl. Here is the road surrounded by jungle. Day temperature are warm (20-22°C) . After my journey in lowland Phnom Penh, it was a relief! The humidity level was very high. The open habitat mostly include ferns, bushes, sandy bogs and large flat stones. After a few hours of trekking among the Dicranopteris linearis -the resam fern-, my joy was immense to find my first highland / intermediate Nepenthes. I thought it was Nepenthes smilesii but it is definitely not. Here are some pictures of the aerial pitchers: - under the lid. A very colorful spot with lots of glands: Ants love this orange place. I found plenty of them in the digestive fluid. They seem to be the main preys of those pitcher plants. The plant is called "Bampong sramoch" (pronounce "Bamepongue srramoïa") in khmer language, which means "ants pithole".
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Post by sockhom on Apr 5, 2008 12:03:37 GMT -10
Hello. Growing Nepenthes in a terrarium is quite easy. This is my lowland setup. It comprises a big terrarium with sliding doors (130 cm long, 110 cm high and 60 cm large): The terrarium is lit by a 250 W Metal Halid lamp. It is of course possible to use other light source such as HPS lamp, fluocompact tubes , T5/T8 tubes or envirolites. The spectrum is not perfect (there's not enough red) but it is more than enough for Nepenthes culture. I grow tropical pitcher plants with this kind of light for almost four years now. There is 10 cm of water at the bottom of the tank. I placed an aquarium heater which heats the water at 26 °C. I thus obtain a very good level of humidity (70 to 80 % at day and 100% at night. The terrarium is placed in my living- room where the minimum temperatures is 15 °C at night. Thanks to the aquarium heater, the temperatures never drop below 20°C. I will soon set some fans for air circulation. The lowland plants have been grown for a few years without air circulation but I'm convinced that air movement will be beneficial (I already tried that for a few months in the past).
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Post by sockhom on Apr 5, 2008 11:35:05 GMT -10
Nepenthes neoguineensis (François Mey): Leaf lamina: Stem and leaf attachement: Lower pitcher: Under the lid: Top of the lid: Spur: François Mey.
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Post by sockhom on Apr 5, 2008 4:10:30 GMT -10
A bit further, i found young stunted plants growing in full blazing sun. I searched for nearly two hours in the area for other mirabilis plants but i couldn't find any. I didn't get it. I HAD to discover mature plants not far away. Then i stared at the blue sky and found the answer to my questions, at the other side of the river: Thanks to this raceme silhouette, i managed to find the adult plants. I had to walk for half an hour to reach them. Those were 6 or 7 meters high Nepenthes mirabilis. This is an impressive climbing stem: Some aerial pitchers: Later on that day, i discovered some young plants along the river: Lastly, on my way back, i found a big colony of Nepenthes mirabilis on the road border. The plants were completely inundated. Alas, i had no time left to explore the road borders. François Mey.
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Post by sockhom on Apr 5, 2008 4:06:02 GMT -10
Hello. I found N. mirabilis, the most widespread species of tropical pitcher plant when i was in Cambodia in july 2007. After a short journey in Phnom Penh chewing over my itinerary and collecting as much as informations that i could gather on cambodian biodiversity and security precautions, i decided to head toward the south-west near the thaï border. I meticulously examined some maps then i chose the touristic site called Kbal Chhay, located near Sihanoukville (The name of this city means "Sihanouk city" - Sihanouk being the late cambodian king). At the touristic period of the year (november-march), cambodian people and tourists rush to lay their admiring eyes on the river and its beautiful falls. This site, surrounded by a great forest, is located near the wild Cardamones Mountains. Here are some pictures of Kbal Chhay: I quickly realised that i would not find anything relevant on the site itself so, i decided, to branch away (there was no land mines in the area). There were a few Khmers on the place (we were in july which is not a touristic period) and they explained that all i would find if i went through some parts of the forest were mere insects... and plants. After two hours of trek, i found an interesting spot which reminded me of the "Belukar" vegetation that is regularly described in specialized books. Hope began to soar when i discovered hordes of Dicranopteris linearis, the resam fern, a robust species which is often found growing along with Nepenthes: Finally, at the bend of another path, i saw this nice rosette:
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