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Bicalcarata care

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 4:55 pm
by dmagnan
So I finally took the plunge and bought a N. bicalcarata marudi. I have little experience with Neps, I've been reading up on care, but I have a couple questions still:

1. I've read that these plants are very intolerant to cold, but nothing that I've found yet has defined "cold." For lowland Neps "cold" is basically anything below 70 right? Does anyone have experience with this plant in particular?

2. I'm debating growing this plant outdoors, or (at least while it's small) indoors in a terrarium. Houston is pretty humid (80% in the morning, 60% in the afternoon, year round) and warm enough for most of the year. It would have to come inside for maybe 3 months during winter, but the rest of the time it could easily stay outside. Opinions?

Re: Bicalcarata care

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 5:15 pm
by jht-union
dmagnan wrote:1. I've read that these plants are very intolerant to cold, but nothing that I've found yet has defined "cold." For lowland Neps "cold" is basically anything below 70 right? Does anyone have experience with this plant in particular?
Not sure if it is a higland or lowland, but cold for highland would be something below or about below 45F.

For a Lowland nepenthes, cold is temps below about 60F i would say.

The max temps for hihglands or the temps that you should provide your plant for better growth would be around 85F-80F

The max temps for lowland nepenthes is 90F, or about there.
dmagnan wrote:2. I'm debating growing this plant outdoors, or (at least while it's small) indoors in a terrarium. Houston is pretty humid (80% in the morning, 60% in the afternoon, year round) and warm enough for most of the year. It would have to come inside for maybe 3 months during winter, but the rest of the time it could easily stay outside. Opinions?
Remember that nepenthes are not plants that appreciate tons of sun, however i have acclimated my neps to 6 hours of direct sun, and they can stand it! :)
I would say since neps like high humidity, grow it outside until winter comes, remember too that neps like a drop of temps at night every day, however mines get temps of 100F and the lowest it can get at night is around 70F, and they are growing just fine!

Since neps don't like that much sun to thrive like a VFT for exmaple, suring winter it will do fine in a sunny windowsill. Or if the window if you do grow it inside all the time it gets enough filter sun, then grow it indoors.

Also grow it in all LFSM, that's the perfect media for neps to keep humidity up, and keeps the roots moist but not wet, since they don't like to sit in water, so becareful with that too.

Let me know if you need more help, and i send the SASE today!

Re: Bicalcarata care

Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 2:50 am
by Astarift
bical is considered as ultra lowlander living in swamps, so filtered light and hot temperature is the best. They tend to grow really really big, so unless u want to restrict their size, overpot them to a big pot

Re: Bicalcarata care

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 1:46 am
by snapperhead51
1. I've read that these plants are very intolerant to cold, but nothing that I've found yet has defined "cold." For lowland Neps "cold" is basically anything below 70 right? Does anyone have experience with this plant in particular?

the information you need is in the weather patterns of a place called kuching Sarawak Borneo just for a easy place to look up !! , to find this just look up the weather for that region, I have been there many times, and experienced the weather , its constant all year round and just have wet and dry times , then you will see the temps you need to maintain, I have seen bicals in open terrain ,open road site , semi shrub land and in dense tropical forest in Mulu national park , but the climate still remains the same in all locations , temp and humidity , just the amount of light varies .
the info from the yearly weather pattern will help you understand what you need to know to grow them properly , as far as cold goes the bical is a tropical plant in low land conditions, no such thing a ultra low land , ?? its low land plant , intermediate and high land ,some high land plants can be classed as ultra high land but only a few !!,, out from that climate and its not going to grow well the colder it gets the more likely it will go back wards and may result in its death !!all low land plants are susceptible to cooler conditions , you must keep your tepm's above 30 c best above 35 c all year round and humidity about a constant 70 to 90 % the amount of sun will depend on your plant and where it comes from, open in full sun ,semi shaded or forest plants !!
you can covet that c temps to f for comparisons
hope that helps
j

Re: Bicalcarata care

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 8:48 am
by dr-spangle
I don't know if this can be much help but maybe it will be

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=cl ... wak+Borneo

That's the climate (Average temperatures and precipitation rates) for kuching, in malaysia, throughout the year :)

Wolfram alpha is a very powerful and maybe a little bit odd, calculator, it can tell you the climate of most anywhere in the world :) As well as doing almost anything else you could ever want from a calculator :D

Re: Bicalcarata care

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 1:55 pm
by dmagnan
snapperhead51 wrote:the information you need is in the weather patterns of a place called kuching Sarawak Borneo just for a easy place to look up !!
Thanks, good idea!

Wow, it's actually hotter here than it is there. The lows are the same, about 26, but where the highs there are around 32, the highs here are around 37. Ok, well I'll keep an eye on that, and decide when to bring it in. Thanks

Re: Bicalcarata care

Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 2:23 am
by tzestan
I have bical marudi for over a year now. Probably the same clone. It is doing very well. In fact, bical is among the hardiest lowland plants. I have it above 25C all time. With a 1.5cm tray, it does not mind sitting in water a few days during raining season. Anyway, I have the advantage growing it at its optimum climate outdoor... probably that's the main reason making it an easy plant.