FlyTrapCare Forums

What is a good soil media for Nepenthes? I only have sand, perlite and peat moss with me right now.

My ventrata has gotten so tall that it has toppled over. It’s even growing it’s own flower. The current media right now is some orchard bark that has become dry and a bit mouldy

You should get some long fibered sphagnum moss and mix it with some perlite. You can buy LFSM from a local Homedepot/Lowes.
If you can't find any sphagnum there, you can use the link below to purchase some from Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Z71IHS?re ... prefix=sph
The preferred soil mix for nepenthes is 3/4 LFSM and 1/4 perlite.

I use the following recipe:

3 parts shredded long fiber sphagnum moss (chopped approx. 3/4 to 1 inch long)
1 part sphagnum peat moss
1 part perlite

Yes a mixture of long fiber Sphagnum moss and perlite is generally the best all-around mix to use. I aim for 50/50 but it's basically impossible to mix those two ingredients in reliable proportions so you just have to eyeball it.

I like to add a little orchid bark or coco chunks, in addition to LFSM and perlite.

x2 orchid bark also makes a great additive. I use a rough mix of 1/2 long-fibered sphaghnum, 1/4 perlite, 1/4 orchid bark, and a handful of charcoal thrown in. Sometimes I add some peat or coco coir if I have it laying around. Drains well but stays damp a long time.

Definitely get some long-fibered sphagnum if you can; everything else is kind of secondary. You can do without it but it takes a lot more work to get a good mix.

1:1 LFSM : perlite is a great mix for an easy intermediate grower such as ventrata. Some pickier/ultramafic species will appreciate kanuma and/or akadama in their media mixtures.

Good news:
Nepenthes will grow in LOTS of suitable medias.
Bad News: what you will get the best results with depends upon the individual plant, pot size, watering habits, fertilizing, humidity, temperatures, and where you grow.

LFS/Perlite is the choice media of the majority of growers. The majority of growers are growing in a controlled space, such a greenhouse, terrarium, grow tent, or otherwise protected place.

I grow primarily exposed to the sun and rain of South Florida. I also foliar feed and wet the substrate with the solution. In my conditions, LFS grows too many ferns, slime algae, and it decomposes rapidly under Summer conditions.

I’ve moved to a less organic mixture of washed coconut husk chips, washed perlite, washed lava stone, orchiata bark, and bonsai mix ( premium, tropical, or boons mix from superflybonsai.com ). This isn’t inexpensive or simple, BUT it last for virtually ever, and plants people have historically struggled with are thriving. I grow mostly lowland species, with a few intermediates and have about 20 species.
They come indoors from Nov-March to wait out the chills and low humidity of Winter, but are outdoors on my screen lanai, in a lattice house March-Nov. They thrive outdoors and the intermediates do better indoors, with some sooty mold causing some cosmetic concerns while they are in indoor conditions, since I don’t have ideal ventilation in my temporary holding area.

Here are some photos of my mix, with Nepenthes bellii, among others.
The mix in the grey bucket is my coarse base, before bonsai mix was added. The pots with smaller gravel-like substrate is the bonsai mix. I’d have preferred more orchiata bark than coco husks, but I use what I have and make the best of it and the plants are fine.
Nepenthes bellii is supposedly susceptible to transplant shock. As are northiana and several others I grow. None of the plants suffer repotting shock when using pure bonsai media or bonsai media augmented with additional coco chunks, lava rock, bark, and perlite. If I had charcoal, I like to use it, but it got too expensive. The bonsai mix is too expensive to use alone in all but the smaller pots.