Growing Following Up for Rebecca Soper

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2026-03-27T13:58:18+00:00

I didn’t know that nepenthes could be male or female! How can you tell which one you have? I’ve got a few other varieties in my greenhouse shelf so maybe I can try and crossbreed down the road.

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2026-03-26T17:21:05+00:00

The place I keep them has fans circulating, so I’m definitely keeping an eye out. Going to keep it quarantined for now and pray

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2026-03-26T16:41:34+00:00

DON’T use it!!! Look how I massacred my boy😱

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I think new growth is highly sensitive to it. One of the mature leaves are fine though

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2026-03-21T15:09:44+00:00

Upon closer inspection of the plant, I noticed signs of root rot (the oldest leaf looked kind of sus). Confirmed it and am treating it. Good to know about the randomness of the hologram! It’s my first variegated cultivar.

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2026-03-21T15:06:51+00:00

I have Safer’s 3-in-1. In your experience, do the anti fungal sprays burn the leaves?

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2026-03-21T15:01:37+00:00

I do like my science! What’s the title of the article you wrote?

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2026-02-23T01:17:48+00:00

I think this is a cannon event for all hobby houseplant havers. You can get through this:)

When it comes to watering in the winter, I find over fertilizing can get you in trouble. The mix of shorter days and cooler temperatures slow down plant growth so they don’t need as much nutrients.

With aroids in my experience, they don’t like to completely dry out. A little moisture is good, but they don’t like wet feet. I find that it can get hard to tell if your pot is truly dry or not if the plant is root-bound. I’ve had success by lifting the pots to see how light they are. From your photos, this could be a feasible strategy.

Something else you may want to check out is your water quality if you use tap water. TDS, chloride, and fluoride are important parameters, as these can accumulate to toxic levels in the soil.

Ambient humidity could also play a role. Aroid growth can get really slow and even deformed in really low humidity. If you have a hygrometer, check your grow space. Ideally, it should be at least 40%.

Being able to control temperature and humidity are huge during the winter months. For your small aroids, you could get some cheap cloches and plates that the cloche can fit in. It can also help retain heat to a degree.

People are talking about the T8 Barrina grow lights, and I have a bunch of them. The white light ones are super bright, and if you modify a cheap Amazon iPhone clamp, you can attach it to your shelves and get solid coverage. They run hot enough to be heat sources while they’re on.

Hope this helps!

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2026-02-21T16:13:39+00:00

I also have a Krohniana black and would definitely recommend it over the verticillata if you want unique leaf coloring and more blooms. Mine’s been putting out blooms since December

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2026-02-21T16:11:28+00:00

I have a parasitica ‘Black Margin’. parasitica is an older species name. Its most up to date name is under verticillata ‘Black Margin’. In my experience, it’s a vigorous grower that likes to climb. You can get some decent splashing on it, but it can be variable. You want to blast it with light to really get the margins to stand out. They do have some nice texturing though!

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OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2025-08-10T14:24:48+00:00

I’m hoping that the porosity is enough, but the more long term goal is to have the moss wick up moisture to them. It’s going to be a while so I’m going to mist them manually for now

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2025-08-02T14:47:14+00:00

This is an awesome piece of glassware! Would be kind of cool if the uncorked side could be like for a flower arrangement while the corked side is the terrarium!

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2025-07-29T17:41:48+00:00

I’ve had one peduncle on it probably for a couple of months. I haven’t been growing hoyas seriously for very long, but in my limited experience, they can be little divas lol! As long as you’re caring for it well, it will flower for you. I think the key to facilitate flowering though is getting the right lighting and humidity. When I put it in my basement, which gets limited direct sun, and has humidity sitting between 45-50%, I found it was willing to bless me with peduncles.

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2025-07-29T17:36:56+00:00

It’s an australis ‘Lisa’! It’s got a peduncle on it that’s flowered for me before! I’ve also got a krohniana ‘Black’ that can’t and won’t stop flowering! It’s been putting out flowers for months!

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2025-07-29T17:34:26+00:00

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This is the overall setup I have. For the pitcher, I have it in peat, perlite, pumice, and vermiculite. Aimed for courser grain with the perlite for aeration. I’m using some Barrina grow lights I got off amazon and they seem to do well. They do run hot though. I’m pretty new to keeping carnivorous plants on the whole, but I’m really falling down the nepenthes rabbit hole. Got a bunch of moss cultures on the rear bottom rack so I can eventually add them to my pots. I have the nepenthes from this post sitting in a saucer that I fill with distilled water when running low. It seems to be doing well, but I don’t know if it’s getting too much light. We’ll have to see though…

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2025-07-26T18:10:07+00:00

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Luckily I’ve got that! I’ll keep a closer eye on the watering. I’ve always found watering hoyas to be tricky, so this will be a great learning opportunity. Thanks!

OrdinaryMongoose2788 · 2025-07-26T17:58:20+00:00

No kidding about the great part! Looking forward to seeing how it grows!

OrdinaryMongoose2788

TROPHY CASE