FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I can tell this winter is already being rough on my Nepenthes Ventrata. This is how I've been taking care of it:
I kept it at my east facing bay window since September. But on Black Friday, I had to move it into the mudroom facing north because my mom wanted to decorate there for Christmas. I have it in a hanging basket, it does get light because it reflects from our garage, but not much. I've also mist it like every three or four times a day. The humidity stays around 23-48% in there, so I move it into my room for the morning at another north facing window and the humidity goes from 34-46%. The temp always stays between 67-78 in my house, especially in my room.

However, after I kept doing this, I noticed that three leaves have died, now a fourth one is dying. The oldest pitcher is dying which I expected it too because of age, but the youngest pitcher is starting to die as well. Not only that, the newest leaf and grow points are growing oddly and slowly. The basal shoot is also looking weird.

Idk what's going on, but I'm guessing it's low humidity and not enough light. I'm also wondering its getting stressed from moving all the time. I got a GE Blue Light Bulb and a 5 1/2 inch industrial lamp so it can get proper lighting, it's only on from the morning to early afternoon. I do water it regularly, so the media is not drying out, but less because of the winter and the moss is staying moist longer than in the summer.

Below I have pictures of the new setup and the plant itself. Is it suppose to look like this during winter or should I make good improvements? Any help or advice is appreciated. I'm not worried but getting concerned that it might die before spring arrives.

I agree with Panman. It doesn't look to bad. It's probably just annoyed from being moved around so much. If you continue to see a problem, try to raise the humidity with a humidifier or diffuser. More light would be ideal, but your main problem is probably from humidity or all the moving around. I'm not an expert, but that is my assumption.

Sundews69 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 21, 2021 8:46 pm I agree with Panman. It doesn't look to bad. It's probably just annoyed from being moved around so much. If you continue to see a problem, try to raise the humidity with a humidifier or diffuser. More light would be ideal, but your main problem is probably from humidity or all the moving around. I'm not an expert, but that is my assumption.

Hopefully that is and if so, I'll keep it where it is right now. I also think it is the humidity because in the mudroom is not that humid, there's a heater vent on the floor that makes the room warm but the air dry. If it is also the humidity, what kind of plant humidifiers would you recommend? I've tried looking into buying one but a lot requires tap water and I hadn't found any that needs distilled. I'll be going to Walmart today so maybe I might have better luck there.

Panman wrote: ↑Tue Dec 21, 2021 10:01 pm I agree with the humidity issue. If the area is drafty, it might also be the temperature change. I'd watch it carefully, but I fully expect that it will just pout until it gets put back in a position where it is happy.

It ight be drafty, my family and I always go in and out of the door of our mudroom. For now, I'll keep it at its new setup and try to look for a humidifier when I can.

@septembersapphire21 I use this diffuser https://www.amazon.com/ASAKUKI-Essentia ... 72&sr=8-46 . I use it only in a terrarium where glass walls hold he humidity in so I don't know how it would do in an open space next to a heater.

I recently read that humidity isn’t as much of a problem as light. North window is absolutely the worst window (assuming you live in the North hemisphere of the planet). Is there a way to supplement the light with some quality LED lights? Again, if you’re in the Northern hemisphere, a south facing window might be best as the Sun is low in the sky to the south during our winters.

Panman wrote: ↑Wed Dec 22, 2021 2:09 pm You might just try putting a bowl of water next to the heater vent.

Unfortunately I can't do that. Everyone including myself always goes into the room and we have two pugs that would drink the water.

Supercazzola wrote: ↑Sun Dec 26, 2021 1:17 pm I recently read that humidity isn’t as much of a problem as light. North window is absolutely the worst window (assuming you live in the North hemisphere of the planet). Is there a way to supplement the light with some quality LED lights? Again, if you’re in the Northern hemisphere, a south facing window might be best as the Sun is low in the sky to the south during our winters.

Yes, I live in Pennsylvania. I did went to Lowes and got a grow light bulb on Sunday, however, it blew out just two days using it and I got a new one today that's better and stronger. Well, I have south facing windows, but they're covered with the porch roof. Two more south facing windows are one in my parents room and the other in my brother's room. They don't want my plants their rooms and I don't blame them. So basically, I have no windows for my Nep , unless I have it at my east facing bay window.

Sundews69 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 25, 2021 9:48 pm @septembersapphire21 I use this diffuser https://www.amazon.com/ASAKUKI-Essentia ... 72&sr=8-46 . I use it only in a terrarium where glass walls hold he humidity in so I don't know how it would do in an open space next to a heater.

This diffuser looks so cool! I'm going to look into more of it. Hopefully I can try this out and see how my Nep respond to it. Thank u!

I'll go against the grain here and second what supercazolla said about humidity not really mattering as much as you'd think. I had to hang my specimen-size one from a dim lamp in the living room with no extra humidity when it started cooling off outside, and all it did was pout for a couple months by switching to a new growth tip and killing the tops of a few pitchers. It's not quite back to full go yet, but it shot up a couple huge basals (with pitchers) in the meantime and is halfway through its first leaf of the new tip on the main stem (issues which I expect more light would've helped mitigate). Compare that to one of my (albeit unhealthy) small ones, which killed off all but about 3 leaves when I put it in higher light and likely just slightly higher humidity, or the other healthy one right next to it, which literally could not have possibly cared less that it got moved. So while I'd say adding some extra humidity probably wouldn't hurt, IME it seems like each individual plant just does what it wants and if it decides to pout about being moved then so be it - it'll get over it before long.
Actually I forgot all about my Miranda and Gaya lol. They both initially were moved into very low light and room humidity and did fine as well (aside from killing off pitchers) until the Miranda killed half of a new leaf from overwatering since there was barely any evaporation happening where they were. I moved them into higher light alongside the small Vents afterward just because I had space, and they didn't seem to care about that either, but they are pitchering better now under it. Anyway sorry for the extremely wordy response, but that's my experience with 5 plants in a similar situation to you, so do with this information what you will.

NightRaider wrote: ↑Sun Dec 26, 2021 10:20 pm I'll go against the grain here and second what supercazolla said about humidity not really mattering as much as you'd think. I had to hang my specimen-size one from a dim lamp in the living room with no extra humidity when it started cooling off outside, and all it did was pout for a couple months by switching to a new growth tip and killing the tops of a few pitchers. It's not quite back to full go yet, but it shot up a couple huge basals (with pitchers) in the meantime and is halfway through its first leaf of the new tip on the main stem (issues which I expect more light would've helped mitigate). Compare that to one of my (albeit unhealthy) small ones, which killed off all but about 3 leaves when I put it in higher light and likely just slightly higher humidity, or the other healthy one right next to it, which literally could not have possibly cared less that it got moved. So while I'd say adding some extra humidity probably wouldn't hurt, IME it seems like each individual plant just does what it wants and if it decides to pout about being moved then so be it - it'll get over it before long.
Actually I forgot all about my Miranda and Gaya lol. They both initially were moved into very low light and room humidity and did fine as well (aside from killing off pitchers) until the Miranda killed half of a new leaf from overwatering since there was barely any evaporation happening where they were. I moved them into higher light alongside the small Vents afterward just because I had space, and they didn't seem to care about that either, but they are pitchering better now under it. Anyway sorry for the extremely wordy response, but that's my experience with 5 plants in a similar situation to you, so do with this information what you will.

I don't mind at all with your response being wordy, its very informative! I'll remember that humidity is not always the case. My Ventrata right now is doing fine now that I got a grow light and its staying in one spot, but of course I'll have to wait a few weeks to see any actual improvement. Since I have it in its new spot in the mudroom the humidity has been decent, but I'm glad it's at lease getting light.