FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello,

Does anyone grow they’re neps from seed outdoors? I know the basics of growing them but people mainly use grow lights.

I’ve grown vft, sundews, and byblis from seed so this isn’t my first rodeo, but with nepenthes it will be.

My main concern is sun/lighting. People say they don’t like sun, but bright light. But then again some people say that about growing neps altogether.

Any tips help.

Thanks


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In my very limited experience sprouting neps they seem to need 90%+ humidity. Unless you live in the jungle you'll have to artificially increase the humidity. The obvious solution is the bag method, however keeping the seeds from cooking in the sun is going to be the determining factor if you don't have a greenhouse. Even though I have a tent, I still use a bag to further increase the humidity. I've had very poor luck otherwise.

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If you keep the media moist, and the pot in a tray of water to keep it moist, you will have a higher localized humidity. However, a bigger issue is heat. I have tried a few times with Nep seeds and have only gotten two germinations, but only after the temps warmed up. However, they didn't make it due to the temps being lower than their natural environments.
Others who got some of the same seeds from me had some success, but only those that used a heat mat to keep them at about 80 F.

I guess localized humidity is only a useful thing if A) the air isn't insanely dry, and B) there isn't much wind. I've actually attempted to grow in an arid environment with high winds and have run into lots of issues. Readings from my humidistat agree with these findings, at least with my setup. Anything that grows more than a cm off of the media is going to have issues, and seedlings will have issues because of how fast wind can dry out the top layer.

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murrkywaters wrote:I guess localized humidity is only a useful thing if A) the air isn't insanely dry, and B) there isn't much wind.

True, very good points. I missed the "outside" part in the title. Plus, I was talking from a "living in Tennessee" point, which is much more humid than southern Nevada. I used to live in Utah, I should have thought across those same lines.
In that environment, bagging or doming would be a great way to keep the humidity up. In my environment, it would substantially increase the incidence of mold and fungus.
What part of the world are you living in Frothy? That might help us give you the tips you've requested.