If you cut off the tip of the leaf to prevent the pitcher from growing
Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 1:02 pm
Will nepenthes grow faster?
No. You might actually slow the growth.
If the pitcher dried up or otherwise stalled so that it wasn't going to develop, then you could cut it off if you wanted. But that tendril would likely still elongate and be able to provide a little bit more photosynthesis for the plant.
If the pitcher were to develop and catch prey, well, you just robbed the plant of the chance to get nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients that would make the plant grow faster, by cutting it off. Yes, it expends energy to create the pitcher, but the ROI is worth it to the plant.
I had a ventricosa, two growth points, about 8 inches tall when I got it, and it took about six months to recover from shipping. It didn't do much in those 6 months, but it didn't die. The following Spring, it was put outside, and caught the occasional bug in one of its half dried pitchers. It grew a couple new leaves, but those pitchers didn't develop, but the existing pitchers were still green at the bottom, so they could still "eat".
Early summer, the Japanese Beetles started to come out, and it caught a few. That burst of nutrients caused it to rapidly produce new leaves, about 1 every 10 days. Every new leaf produced a pitcher, each bigger than the last, and continued to catch the beetles. By the time the June Bugs came out, it had pitchers big enough to eat those.
By the end of summer, when I sold it, it had grown over a dozen new pitchers, and grown to almost 18 inches.