The Birth of Las Vegas Nepenthes

 Most importantly, welcome to Las Vegas Nepenthes and thank you for taking the time to check out my blog!

My name is Jon McHugh and I am a Nepenthes hobbyist. I am by no means an expert and this blog will be to document my experiences, both good and bad. I have been in the hobby for close to 2 months now and have dived deep into the rabbit hole. I am in love with these tropical carnivores and want Nepenthes to be a main factor in my future. I don't know exactly what this means yet, but I am taking it one step at a time. 

To begin my journey in the realm of Carnivorous plants, I bought some bunk seeds that never germinated...not a good start.

Next, I decided that I would specialize in a certain genus and found that I had the most interest in Nepenthes. The next few days or weeks revolved around a lot of internet searching. I would like to throw out that it is very difficult to find consistent information regarding Nepenthes online.

Anyways, after some research I took an outdoor planter that was no longer in use and converted it into a nepenthes chamber.

The beginning 4' x 2' planter was re-sanded and stained with a waterproof coating. The bottom was lined with gardening cloth used to line the bottom of a planter and the plants were placed in standard 1020 grow trays. Here are the specs and timing for the grow chamber:

    -planter - 4' x 2'

    -2 computer fans

        -1 fan set on interval timer to control air circulation

        -1 fan set on humidistat (turns on above 95% humidity)

    -1 x reptile humidifier (turns on below 80% humidity)

    -pool noodle and shower curtain used to cover the chamber

    -MARS Hydro SP150 grow light

The first plants I began with were a N. Ventricosa, N. Diana, N. Suki and N. St. Gaya.

The initial grow chamber seemed to work well, especially at keeping up the humidity. The main problem that I ran into was the drastic rise in temperature. At points, I was reaching temperatures close to 95 F. For this reason, I quickly upgraded my space and moved into a grow tent.

If you are a beginner looking to take the plunge in the world of Nepenthes, I would recommend moving into a larger space immediately. If you are like me and go all out on a new hobby, you will run out of space faster than you would think. The planter grow chamber lasted me 1 week before I upgraded me growing space.

Thank you so much for tanking the time to read about my experience and I have close to 2 months to catch up on my growing experiences! It has been such an exciting journey so far and I can't wait to show all of you how the plants have been growing and the new space they are living in!