I got my Heliamphora nutans from Cook's Carnivores in November 2009. Here's what it looked like shortly after I got it:


I fertilized it recklessly every two weeks since December 2009 or so. It has grown amazingly well. I decided to finally uproot it today, divide it and repot it. Here are some photos of the job.

Before dividing:




Divisions (many of which are about the size of the plant when I got it!):


The two largest divisions repotted:


More divisions repotted:


All together now:



Back in the terrarium with their friends:

Wow! Nice, Matt. I have begun a cautious fertilizer program on my Helis too, after seeing photos of your h. nutans and others. That's a LOT of divisions, and I can directly compare your plant to my own H. nutans bought at the same time from the same source (mine doesn't compare favorably to yours now though).

In my defense however, I have been "stress testing" the Heliamphora with high heat, low humidity, absolutely no fertilizer, medium that gets pretty dry before I water again, etc. This is a new plant for me, so I'm trying to learn its limits and preferences. That will take a while, I'm sure. It's nice to know however that these plants divide as freely (it seems) as Venus Flytraps, or perhaps even more profusely.

Thanks for posting all the photos!

cool.
do these get bigger? as in the size of the mouths

That's very interesting. I don't pay much attention to Heliamphora because I have only plants that I can grow outside year-round in my region (so mostly Sarracenia.) The only Heliamphora I've seen photographed before are the types with the wide vaselike openings-- I didn't know that there were species that looked almost exactly like young Sarracenia.

kevinqwe wrote:do these get bigger? as in the size of the mouths

Luke O Phylla wrote:I didn't know that there were species that looked almost exactly like young Sarracenia.

Well, this plant hasn't made an adult pitcher yet. The juvenile pitchers stay mostly closed like young Sarracenia.

Adult pitchers are much taller and open up wide to the sky.

Wow Matt, that is an impressive H. nutans. Not even fully mature and already dividing that much. Wish mine was like that. I too got one from Cooks last fall. I like to take a more natural approach though and never fertilize my plants. I dont want to risk burning them with too much fertilizer so I just dont bother with it. Here's mine in a 6 inch pot:

Looks good, Doku! I guess quite a few of us are trying to grow and learn about Heliamphora right now. I'm glad that it is becoming more widely available. Very interesting plants.

Your plant looks great Manny! That's about what mine looked like until I started recklessly fertilizing it. Then it exploded in growth!

Steve_D wrote:I guess quite a few of us are trying to grow and learn about Heliamphora right now. I'm glad that it is becoming more widely available. Very interesting plants.

I agree. I can't wait until the price on them comes down. I'm going to try to learn to TC them (I know people know how, but no one shares their method yet) and hopefully help make them more widely available. They're interesting and gorgeous plants.

Wow! That's a lot of divisions! I'm hoping these little plants are more resilient than people think and I can get some similar results open air with my Minor. It's still alive after a week and I've started the dry climate acclimation...bring on the divisions!

OMG that's like AWESOME!

Thanks guys

Hi Matt -

Great plant! Is this where the nutans I bought from FTS came from? And more importantly, what are you using to fertilize it?

Thanks!

TonyT wrote:Is this where the nutans I bought from FTS came from?

No, the FTS nutans came from a different source, but it could be the same clone. They look very similar.

TonyT wrote:And more importantly, what are you using to fertilize it?

Fertilizer Seriously though, I was using Maxsea at 3/4 strength every 2 weeks and the thing seemed to love it. It grew so quickly and divided so much I was surprised. Then, after the repot, every single piece died. I have no idea why.

Thanks Matt.

Damn, shame about the divisions! As far as fertilizing it goes, did you fertilize it foliarly (is that even a word?) or directly in the potting mix? Did you flush it after a bit? Any issues with algae, etc?

Thanks!

TonyT wrote:As far as fertilizing it goes, did you fertilize it foliarly (is that even a word?) or directly in the potting mix?

I fertilized it via the soil. I think foliarly is a word. I use it all the time

TonyT wrote:Did you flush it after a bit? Any issues with algae, etc?

I flushed with RO water once a week. I didn't have any big issues with algae or moss.