FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello everyone! I am new to the forum, and new to carnivorous plants in general. I am from the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area zone 7A/7B border. I have 3 carnivorous plants, 2 Nepenthes (which I think are N. alata) and 1 butterwort.

I got my first Nepenthes in late October or early November. The first attached photo is the day I brought it home (hopefully I can figure these attachments out). Since the day I got it, I have given it nothing but filtered tap water (out of a Brita) and occasionally flush the pot about once every three weeks with water right from the tap. It sits in about 1/4-1/2" of water until the tray dries. I do not add more water for up to 4 days. The second attachment is what it looks like today. Note: the leaf at 6 o'clock in the first picture is the same leaf at 6 o'clock in the second picture. If I am doing the opposite of everything suggested for neps, it seems to be working for this little guy! He's still in the same little 1.5" plastic pot. He looks greener and almost doubled in size, and is putting out a new set of pitchers. He was in a south to southwest bay window between my bird of paradise and monstera deliciosa, so he got bright indirect light all day and about 4-6 hours of dappled direct sunlight in the afternoon. I just moved him under a grow light yesterday for spring.

Any suggestions are welcome! I only have one question however: HOW and WHEN should I repot a Nepenthes?

Thanks in advance!
Alyssa

I have been watering neps for over 2 years with tap water and they are fine.

Sakaaaaa makes a good point, however not all tap water is the same. I live somewhere that has nearly 800 ppm TDS and I'm pretty sure that would kill a nepenthes. Alyssa if what you are doing works u can stick with it but in my own personal opinion I'd do the opposite and at least do the flushing with the filtered water. Flushing with worse water than what you regularly water the nepenthes with seems slightly counter productive but as we all have found that a lot of nepenthes especially more basic ones like alata can adapt and grow in different conditions than recommended.
As for repotting, I think yours still looks ok for now but repotting soon using LFSM would probably really help it get going. Just my opinion

the tap water where i'm from is a 24 out of 100.. borderline gross tbh. thanks guys!

I would get a TDS meter (<$15 on Amazon) to test your water and forget the water filter. Those aren't designed to remove minerals from the water but rather contaminants harmful to humans (chemicals and heavy metals like lead.) Nepenthes are much more tolerant of high TDS than many CPs though.

In any case, while N. x ventrata (commonly mislabeled as N. alata) is a very tolerant plant and will grow with tray watering, I would recommend that you try not to get used to doing that since its likely to kill less common plants you may get in the future. Just water them like regular houseplants (water until it runs out the bottom of the pot) but water a bit more often so the surface of the soil never feels dry.

I would repot your plant now since the pot it came in is tiny. I would say a 4" pot would be a good fit given its current size. Just pull the soil out of the pot and drop it in the new one, packing more long fiber sphagnum moss around it to fill up the new pot. You can often get Sphagnum at home improvement stores, pet stores, sometimes nurseries, or just buy online. It is sometimes labeled as orchid moss. I prefer Spagmoss brand myself but you need to buy a lot to make it economical. Stay away from Mosser Lee brand because it's low quality, and don't buy SuperMoss mountain moss - it says its Sphagnum but it isn't.

I second the suggestion to get a TDS meter - they are very cheap (I got mine for ~$8 from Amazon 2 years ago and it's still working) and useful. If your TDS is less than 50 PPM or so, you could probably get away with using that water for your Neps just about all the time. Since you've been giving it tap water from day 1 (which is 4 months ago) I'd say your tap water is likely low in TDS, but it'd still be a good idea to check it.

Neps are pretty resistent yo, but I would imagine that tap water (Depending on how high the PPM is) will not be good for your plant in the long run.

My mom took care of my plants (Mostly Nepenthes) while I went to boot camp, and I had just bought a brand new portable Reverse Osmosis system that you connect to any faucet/ hose, and for the 3 months I was in boot camp for, my mom was collecting all the waste water from the system instead of the clean one and using that to water all my carnivorous plants! The water she was using measured at about 1000 PPM, and my plants looked pretty much how they did before I left But I immediately flushed all my plants with clean water, and told her the correct water to collect

If your tap water is fine to use, then go ahead You could buy a "ZeroWater" filtering pitcher and they usually come with a free TDS meter, that way if your water isn't safe to use, you could just filter it through this and use it for your plant. The ZeroWater filter I have came with a free TDS meter and it brings the tap water from 326 PPM to about 4 PPM.

I've been told that it's safe to use upwards of 150 TDS water on Nepenthes regularly (and they can certainly handle more at least in the short term based on the fertilizer treatment some people give them) but there is one thing to remember: The higher the TDS of the water, the more quickly the soil will break down.

Also one note on Zerowater filters - while they do work, I've heard the filters last a very short amount of time when filtering high TDS water and apparently will output pretty foul-smelling water when they expire. It's probably cheaper to buy a reverse osmosis system or a countertop water distiller if your tap water TDS is too high.

nimbulan wrote:I've been told that it's safe to use upwards of 150 TDS water on Nepenthes regularly (and they can certainly handle more at least in the short term based on the fertilizer treatment some people give them) but there is one thing to remember: The higher the TDS of the water, the more quickly the soil will break down.

Also one note on Zerowater filters - while they do work, I've heard the filters last a very short amount of time when filtering high TDS water and apparently will output pretty foul-smelling water when they expire. It's probably cheaper to buy a reverse osmosis system or a countertop water distiller if your tap water TDS is too high.

Yeah I guess it depends on how much water you filter, and how often. I only used my water for my plants, so I wasn't filtering too much, and the filter lasted me about 6 months. I actually just changed it because I started noticing that there was starting to be a "fishy" smell, so I bought 2 more filters, should last me up to a year (depending on how much water I use) but other than that, I think they're pretty great. (Especially when you don't have your own house/apartment to install an R/O system (I live in the barracks, so that's definitely not an option)

-The Waka

Definitely get it out of that pot, clay pots leach minerals into the soil. A larger plastic pot is probably a good idea.

That's not a clay pot. Small pots like that are commonly dyed the same color as clay pots, and you can see that the material is far too thin to be anything but plastic.