January 2017 - Vidyut

My Nepenthes Ampullaria pitcher plants arrived today. These are seed grown plants. And there were surprises. Some good, some… not.

The two plants I purchased arrived somewhat haphazardly packed. But there were lots of pitchers. Someone had put in a lot of effort and time growing them from seed.

The plants were sent in plastic bags with an inexplicable piece of wood added – for support? Can’t say. Didn’t appear to be supporting anything.

There were loads of extra plantlets. All apparently seed grown. And completely mixed up in the sphagnum moss they shipped with. It almost seemed like someone simply got rid of all the nepenthes ampullaria they had. Packed the two plants sold, then just collected the seedling pot and bundled it up as an extra – grown seedlings and newly germinating seedlings all mixed up in the sphagnum potting mix. Summarily evicted. Broke my heart to see it. The seller wasn’t selling anything else at all after I purchased these. I wonder if this was an end of hobby clearance sale. Plants grown from seed take ages to get as robust as the two I had purchased. And yet the manner in which they were packed almost reminded one of a trash bag.

Nepenthes ampullaria plants mixed up in sphagnum moss. You can’t see it in the photo, but the sphagnum moss contains lots of seeds, plantlets, germinating seedlings and such – nepenthes ampullaria in various stages of growth from seed.

Heartbreaking doesn’t begin to describe this. The plants were completely bruised and in some cases, just…. overwhelmed and wilting, broken, or rotting. What a contrast it was to the Nepenthes Ventrata and Mirabilis that had just arrived on the previous day, lovingly shipped in their pots in live sphagnum. Seedlings such as this one were all through the moss. Most of them broken, unlikely to survive. A joyous unpacking of new plants had rapidly turned into a search and rescue mission. I carefully pulled out as many as I could, but I could see that it was hopeless. They were too fragile for this kind of treatment.

Nepenthes ampullaria seedling rescued from sphagnum moss packing

And there were a couple of sundews as well! Completely smothered in the sphagnum and a sticky mess.

I potted them up as best as I could, knowing fully that the seedlings would most likely not make it. One larger plant perhaps may. Remains to be seen. I’ve given it a nice pot and will pamper it a bit. This is what the growing area looks like now.

The rescued nepenthes plants settled in a well lit but shady area of balcony, to rest and recover from their trauma.

So 2016 had been a pain. With my father ill for the first three months, then dying, Nisarga going through three surgeries and spending five months out of it in a cast in total, personal stress…. my carnivorous plants got neglected and died at some point. For that matter, my balcony too was mostly barren and pests on the few plants that remained. I decided to begin 2017 on a fresh note for my balcony farming as well as carnivorous plant growing. And the start is looking promising. I will be posting updates, but for now, here are some images of my first nepenthes plants to kick things off.

I confess, sick of my barren balconies, I went on something of a spree. These Nepenthes are the first to arrive.

Nepenthes are commonly called pitcher plants and grow in humid, tropical climates. They are broadly divided into highland and lowland nepenthes, depending on the altitude at which they grow. I’m mostly buying lowland nepenthes, given that Nalasopara (near Mumbai) is hardly any elevation from the sea.

All in all

Nepenthes Mirabilis and Nepenthes Ventrata soon after unboxing.

All in all, they were pretty well packed and traveled well. The Nepenthes Mirabilis is the one on the left. Its leaves look a bit worrisome with the dark spots and overall unhealthy look. The Nepenthes Ventrata is the one on the right. It seems just fine – at least to my inexperienced eye.

Unhealthy Nepenthes Mirabilis pitcher plant showing damage from travel.

I sent the pictures of the Nepenthes Mirabilis to the seller, and he assures me that it is just dampness and travel stress and that he will replace the plant for me at no cost if it does not recover. I am supposed to keep the plants in a shady location for a while and give them some humidity to keep them happy. I have just misted them before taking these photos.

The Nepenthes Ventrata seems to be doing fine. The water in the pitcher had spilled during travel, so I put very little distilled water inside it. All my reading indicates that this may or may not be useful and there is nothing conclusive about it, but I figured that if the plant likes humidity, having a dry pitcher may not exactly be fun after travel stress. Don’t we head for a glass of water on returning home tired? So I gave it some :p

Pitcher on Nepenthes Ventrata pitcher plant had lost water in shipping. I put very little distilled water into it to help it settle. I have no idea if it helps.

The pitcher itself looks fine, though many have said that it is common for a nepenthes to lose all the pitchers that it shipped with as it acclimatizes to a new location. I do hope it doesn’t lose this one. On the other hand, it is a good measure of how well the plant is doing, I guess. If this pitcher doesn’t die and the other one just forming forms normally and opens, I suppose I can say all is well.

So, fingers crossed. Hope the rest of the plants arrive safely and thrive here as well.

Vidyut

Writing || Carnivorous Plants || Artisan soaps || DIY

Monthly Archives: January 2017

Nepenthes Ampullaria pitcher plants

Starting to grow carnivorous plants again