Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 4/11/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I am about to receive some nepenthes that are being shipped bareroot. In the past I have purposely avoided this situation becuz it has ended badly for me. Can you please give me some tips in repotting these plants with minimal damage to the plant? thanx pete

ANSWER: Hi Pete,

Try using a 15 minute soak in some Superthrive.  We do it with hundreds of Nepenthes we get bareroot every year.  Also, keep the humidity higher with the plant for a couple of weeks, then gradually harden it off.  Since you don't know how the grower was caring for the plant, it's better to ease them into low humidity, and that gives the roots a chance to establish some.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: First of all thank u for the help. I really appreciate it. But I wanted to know how much superthrive you use in the solution and I was wondering if you knew of any place that sells live spaghnum in the portland area thanks pete

Answer
Use 1 teaspoon per gallon for the soak.   At this time we don't know any place that sells live sphagnum moss.  It's a difficult commodity to carry since not many nurseries have the set up to keep them alive for an extended period of time.  We plan to rebuild our sphagnum pools, but it's a project that we probably won't start until fall.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin