FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Any ideas on how to revive this Tropical Pitcher Plant? Was a Lowe's Death Cube plant.

yes high humidity and good sun , looks like a new shoot so a start , if you can if the weather is cooler re-pot in to new mix live sphagnum if you can will help but will need attentive care

So snapper you seem to be the resident Nep Guru. What potting medium do you use? have you tried different mixes? what have been your results?

right now i mix 2 parts long fibered sphagnum (not live) that i soak very well and tear up a bit, 1 part perlite, and 1 part ground coir that has been rehydrated.

in a pot for a new nep (like all my recent rescues) i put a thin layer of coir fiber in the bottom of the pot (to retain media and drain readily), on top of that i add a 1 inch layer of rehydrated LFS. and on top of that my potting mixture described before.

i mound it up and lay the roots around it in a cone shape, then pile more media on top and snug it down, then one more layer of wet LFS on top. then i pray.

~RLK

RLK wrote:So snapper you seem to be the resident Nep Guru.

He is that for sure!

that plant looks double unhappy ,good for you for trying to revive,it means more when you bring them back from certain death,good luck

RLK wrote:So snapper you seem to be the resident Nep Guru. What potting medium do you use? have you tried different mixes? what have been your results?

right now i mix 2 parts long fibered sphagnum (not live) that i soak very well and tear up a bit, 1 part perlite, and 1 part ground coir that has been rehydrated.

in a pot for a new nep (like all my recent rescues) i put a thin layer of coir fiber in the bottom of the pot (to retain media and drain readily), on top of that i add a 1 inch layer of rehydrated LFS. and on top of that my potting mixture described before.

i mound it up and lay the roots around it in a cone shape, then pile more media on top and snug it down, then one more layer of wet LFS on top. then i pray.

~RLK

Hi RLK and ever Dave
there is no magical cure , some times plants just will up and die for no good reason,even with ideal conditions.
I dont know about a Guru but I suppose I have more experience than most people, will leave it at that
Ok well after using some large amount of mixes over the years ,now all I use except for say 7 or 8 plants out of 400 ,is live sphagnum moss, I did a write up on its befits in the plant ID section you may want to read that .
Cori fibre and coco chips are or can be quite hazards to neps if the product comes from a island country where fresh water is not plentiful as they use sea or salt water to process the cocco chips and other coco products, and once re hydrated its salt ooses out making it poison to all plants or increasing the salt levels to seriously affect your plant , so know your product !! and I dont use it at all because you just dont know lableing is not all ways true !!been caught out already use a tts meter and try yours, you may be surprised !!
I am not keen on perlite as its volcanic and carries a lot of minerals that could be not so good for nep's all so if not washed and rinsed thoroughly as its a hassle to do so I dont bother !!, had some bad experiences with it and use it rarely, using bark , charcoal , peanut shells and other products are time consuming and can get expensive for the grade you need and usually hard to find , so the simple solution was strait live sphagnum moss in a pot , you can control the watering, it lets you know when it needs water and if condition are not right , it dies or dries out , use to much fertiliser on it it goes to slime or green mouldy gook !! you know, if its growing green lush and quickly in that pot humidity is right , your temp is good light is about right and you will see the nep growing as it should ! so for me there is no other mix to use !! but that is in my green house with controlled conditions, and may not suite every one as every one has there own climate and conditions to contend with . so really the mix is important yes most neps will grow in most mixes you give them but they need the right climate condition to grow well , so look up the conditions in Borneo,Malaysia or surrounding country's , either high land or low land plants ,which ever you are growing and try to get as close to that climate condition, as they are very different conditions between high and low land plants, and most of your problems will be gone !! one critical point is ventilation stale air or non movement of air in your green house will result in fungal and mould appearing ,so you need air flow just enough to have the leaves moving around like a light breeze ,especially when you need high humidity as well as you do
If you need any more info let me know !
J

So I redid my pot. I added a part Sand mixture. How do you think it looks?

Ever Dave
Sorry Dave there is for me just far far too much perlite ,if you are going to use that stuff please just use max 5 % if at all less ok its crap stuff !! and in my neps all ways sent them back wards for some time !! if you are going to use it you will need to have a very good watering program for the next 5 to 6 months to flush it ! it being the new mix you have , is the pot free draining meaning no base on it, it looks to have a water saver at the bottom ?? if so remove it , it will hasten the salts build up and recirculate it , the pot needs to be free draining ok sorry to put hammer on you efforts , once nep's get to a certain stage of regression the come back is extremely slow and very difficult .some I have had have taken 3 years to recover ,and depends on what it is of cause some recover quickly , like maxima , ventricosa , ventrata , some species plants are the hardest ,do you know what the name of it is ?/
J

i agree with you john about using lsm.i use it for my highlanders but use coco chip and perlite for my others.my mix is i 5kg block coco and i 10l bucket of coarse perlite.here are a couple of pics

Nice Davo they have come back well after the storm damage looken good mate

these are some that i grow outside all year round with no real drama in the cooler times of the year.i do have some in a small shade house and they do pretty good all year round as well

would you say around 3-4 hours of morning sun (around 6 am to 10 am) is too much for the neps. i have a nice shady spot on my porch that get that small amount of morning sun. then stays shady all day.

~RLK

RLK
the nep's need as much sun as you can supply ,in the wild they get sun from sun up to sun down , its a important part of there grow process the more sun they get the happier they will be , but that dont mean direct sun either if its to intense it needs to be defused , here we use 50% shade cloth in summer as our sun is so intense ok and winter none at all .
I have come back to edit this because I get the feeling some people think I may be just blowing smoke up there butt !! some of my opinions are my own that I have formed over 14 years growing CP's and observations over many years in the wild when spending a lot of time through out Asian Borneo in particular , but also the knowledge of our CP society from members with up to 30 years growing experience some a lot less obviously but combined you have a massive wealth of knowledge which amounts to many many years of experience passed on to members , so trust me on this one , the amount of light you give to your nep is critical to its health and the way it will grow ! its probably the most important thing of all !! here are some pic's for you to see what happens to plant s that do not get enough light ! notice the leaf curl , discolouration of the leaf , the markings in and on the leaf ,and the tips of the leaf blackening and no pitchers this is all caused by low light or not enough sun light , so it up to you !
these plant may take yo to 2 years to recover !!
J