| Establishing
Your Plants (bare-root plants only)
Malesiana Tropicals takes great care to ship you only the
healthiest plants which have been well acclimatized to nursery
conditions and are actively growing. However, it is unavoidable
that bare root plants will undergo a certain period of shock
after shipment due to the handling of the roots. After you
first receive your plants, the following steps should be taken
to ensure a minimum of transplant shock so that they may quickly
resume rapid growth.
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Check all the plants thoroughly upon
arrival. If there are any which have died or been severely
damaged as a result of shipment, please notify Malesiana
Tropicals immediately and send us a picture of the damaged
plants.
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The plants should be potted into an appropriate
soil (see above under Soil). The media should be thoroughly
moistened before it is used, and then watered again after
the plants have been potted. While potting, care should
be taken to spread the roots in the pot. In any case,
be sure not to damage the roots during this process as
this may stunt or kill the plant. If possible, potting
the plants should be done in a cool shady area to ensure
that the leaves and roots will not become dry during the
process.
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Newly potted plants are still extremely
sensitive because of their recent transplanting and should
be handled carefully. Only several minutes in sun or dry
air is sufficient to severely stunt or kill a plant at
this stage. They should be immediately placed in a suitable
environment for their establishment. The vital factors
here are: moderate temperatures (22-27 C), moderate light
(60-80% shading), and high humidity (90-100%). Placing
plastic bags or clear containers over the plants is an
easy way to provide this environment, but care should
be taken to ensure that the temperature does not rise
excessively. A terrarium can also be modified to serve
this purpose easily. The plants can be placed in a more
open position in the greenhouse only if they are given
frequent misting.
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The plants should now be watched carefully
for new growth. If conditions become too stagnant, you
may notice fungus or algae on the surface of the soil.
This is not usually a problem, but can be treated by giving
the plants more air circulation. After a week or two the
plants may gradually be acclimatised to a more normal
environment for their growth. After a month or so the
plastic bags may be removed entirely and light increased.
At this point you can begin to treat the plants according
to the usual cultivation requirements listed in the section
above. The plants can be considered established when they
have grown several sets of leaves and pitchers.
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