A while ago I made a post on my project “Growing carnivorous plants hydroponically”, because I was frustrated that pretty much no one tried finding suitable alternative substrates to peat or conventional setups.
You can find the initial post here: https://slrpnk.net/post/15097559
Nepenthes
Those seemed to be the easiest.
According to some sources, contrary to other CPs, they don’t grow in bogs (very acidic, waterlogged, etc.), but rather prefer “normal” substrates, more similar to conventional houseplants, and even prefer more dim lighting conditions.
I was even able to find a few anecdotes of a few people here and there in some CP forums who at least tried growing them in inorganic substrates.
I bought two grown up plants a month ago and successfully transitioned them, but I already mentioned that in my last post afaik.
Both look relatively healthy. The transition from soil to hydro is super stressful for most plants, these included, and because of this the pitchers died back to regenerate the root system.
The greener plant already grew the first new pitcher, which I fed with a small shrimp I had lying around. I also fed the reddish one, but the (old) pitchers started stinking very fouly, so I had to empty them.
They are both living in LECA and get treated similarly to orchids.
EC 0,5 mS, normal pH, and indirect light.
From what I’ve heard, the pitchers only form when needed, so if I overdo it with the ferilizer, they might die back. So I have to find an acceptable EC that they’re happy with.
Both seem to regenerate from the stress pretty well and are already growing new leaves.
Sarracenia
Since the last post, not much has happened.
Sarracenias need some hibernation, so I placed it into a clear box and put it outside at around freezing temperatures.
It looks like it’s dying, but this is seemingly normal and healthy.
I regularly cut back the crispy leaves, and when I accidentally dropped the pot a while back ago, I saw new, healthy roots already forming.
Remember, this picture is already a month old, so they might look completely different by now.
The substrate is pon, which I soaked multiple times before with distilled water and then added fertilizer and a few drops of phosphoric acid (pH down) to an EC of about 0,3 mS to mimic the conditions of peat a little bit.
Seems to work fine for now!
Seeds
I bought some cheap seeds from a hobbyist and started sowing them a few weeks ago. Those were different Drosera, Sarracenia and Venus fly trap seeds.
I pre-treated them with a soak of gibberelic acid to make them germinate faster, and many of them are now outside next to the Sarracenia, because they need some stratification first.
I believe none of them started sprouting yet, but that apparently is relatively normal, so I don’t panic yet ;)
As soon as a few of them germinate, I will post another update if someone is interested :)
Feeding nepenthes shrimp is probably not a good idea. They like time release pellet fertilizers like nutricote or osmocote. Small amounts of fish food are OK too. Just don’t feed them more than one or two pellets (or an equally tiny amount of fish food flakes) per pitcher, and no more than once a month at most.
This is a really interesting project, thanks for sharing!
Sure, it’s not the best feed. I know that. But I bought a tin of freeze dried shrimp as a treat for my cats, and those snobby butthole lickers rather eat nothing than the shrimp.
And I thought they’re close enough to pass 😶
I split the shrimp into many little crumbles and dropped the amount of about one or two peas into the pitcher, which should be about the size of a wasp or so.
The pitchers probably just began smelling because dumbass me filled them with plain water when I repotted them, and only found out that this isn’t just water with some enzymes, but usually also super acidic and hostile against microorganisms. So it just began getting fermented by bacteria I guess…
The healthy pitcher (newly formed) already digested the shrimp in less than a few days, and instantly began thriving. There’s nothing left of their prey ;)