FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I just adopted a young NEPENTHES VENTRICOSA and was wondering if I need to fill each pitcher with distilled water???
Thanks for the help.

I think it makes their own liquid.

Yes, they'll make their own fluid, but if the pitchers are emptied, then they won't fill up again. If you fill them up, it's likely that they'll die. At least that's what happened to my Sanguinea when I got it. I tried to fill the pitcher and they all died. Though it could have been that they would have died anyway because of the shock of being shipped.

My Ventricosa lost all its pitchers after I got it (I don't think I refilled the pitchers). It keeps groiwng new leaves but none of the pitchers ever balloon. (I've had it for like 4 months)

It really sucks having a Nep without pitchers... its pretty boring looking, but I keep hoping one day it will get happy and pitcher for me.

twigs wrote:My Ventricosa lost all its pitchers after I got it (I don't think I refilled the pitchers). It keeps groiwng new leaves but none of the pitchers ever balloon. (I've had it for like 4 months)

It really sucks having a Nep without pitchers... its pretty boring looking, but I keep hoping one day it will get happy and pitcher for me.

Your plant not producing pitchers could be any number of things. Here's some tips that helped me when I started growing nepenthes. It's not an exact science, you just try to get as close as you can -

WATER
First, don't overwater - you need the pot to drain into a tray. Water the plant from the top slowly JUST UNTIL the water starts to leak into the tray (don't fill the tray). Don't water it again until the soil just starts getting dry. Repeat process forever, you'll get the hang of it. Reverse-osmosis or distilled water only.

HUMIDITY
Above 70% (ideal is ~85%). Lower humidity can prevent pitchering.

IDEAL TEMPS
Ventricosa is a highland Nep that can handle more variations to ideal highland conditions than any other highland (that I know of). Ideal temps are 80's (or up to low 90's) in the day, mid 50's (up to ~70) at night, but temp should ideally drop below 60 every night. Growing them under constant high-medium heat (like you would a lowland nep) or otherwise outside of this range of temps can also be a cause for slow-growing or 0 pitchers.

LIGHT
Full diffused sunlight (south-facing windowsill) or strong fluorescent light at 6500K seems to work best - I used 14-16 hour cycles with six 6500K T8 GE fluorescents.

SOIL
A good soil mix should retain some moisture and also drain well. A good soil mix is:
- 1 part vermiculite
- 1 part perlite
- 1 part peat moss (sphagnum, the same stuff you'd use for a VFT or Sarracenia).
- 1 part "fine" orchid bark (put "whole" orchid back in a baggy (a THICK baggy, ot two) and hammer the crap out of it, and then crush what's left with your fingers if you can't find "fine", that's what I did). It doesn't have to be sand-fine - very fine "sand-like" pieces mixed with many pea-sized and some thumbnail-sized pieces is good.
* Instead of the orchid bark, you use coconut husk instead.
* Some also use a 1/2-inch bottom-lair of washed sand or play sand to prevent loss of peat moss.

well you can fill the pitchers with disstilled water but not even halfway wat you can do is put a bug in the pitcher and let it run around then maybe the next day it should be have produced digestive fluids

Valydius wrote:

twigs wrote:My Ventricosa lost all its pitchers after I got it (I don't think I refilled the pitchers). It keeps groiwng new leaves but none of the pitchers ever balloon. (I've had it for like 4 months)

It really sucks having a Nep without pitchers... its pretty boring looking, but I keep hoping one day it will get happy and pitcher for me.

Your plant not producing pitchers could be any number of things. Here's some tips that helped me when I started growing nepenthes. It's not an exact science, you just try to get as close as you can -

WATER
First, don't overwater - you need the pot to drain into a tray. Water the plant from the top slowly JUST UNTIL the water starts to leak into the tray (don't fill the tray). Don't water it again until the soil just starts getting dry. Repeat process forever, you'll get the hang of it. Reverse-osmosis or distilled water only.

HUMIDITY
Above 70% (ideal is ~85%). Lower humidity can prevent pitchering.

IDEAL TEMPS
Ventricosa is a highland Nep that can handle more variations to ideal highland conditions than any other highland (that I know of). Ideal temps are 80's (or up to low 90's) in the day, mid 50's (up to ~70) at night, but temp should ideally drop below 60 every night. Growing them under constant high-medium heat (like you would a lowland nep) or otherwise outside of this range of temps can also be a cause for slow-growing or 0 pitchers.

LIGHT
Full diffused sunlight (south-facing windowsill) or strong fluorescent light at 6500K seems to work best - I used 14-16 hour cycles with six 6500K T8 GE fluorescents.

SOIL
A good soil mix should retain some moisture and also drain well. A good soil mix is:
- 1 part vermiculite
- 1 part perlite
- 1 part peat moss (sphagnum, the same stuff you'd use for a VFT or Sarracenia).
- 1 part "fine" orchid bark (put "whole" orchid back in a baggy (a THICK baggy, ot two) and hammer the crap out of it, and then crush what's left with your fingers if you can't find "fine", that's what I did). It doesn't have to be sand-fine - very fine "sand-like" pieces mixed with many pea-sized and some thumbnail-sized pieces is good.
* Instead of the orchid bark, you use coconut husk instead.
* Some also use a 1/2-inch bottom-lair of washed sand or play sand to prevent loss of peat moss.

Wow, thanks a bunch for the tips!

I will see what I can do to adjust my conditions.

Hello! This is my second year with Nepenthes, and so far I have had good luck growing them here in southern CA. N. ventricosa is one that i grow also. I grow mine outside under my porch. It receives 4-6 hours of direct sun, in 50% long fiber sphagnum, 30% fine orchid bark and 20% perlite. I top water every 2-3 days with reverse osmosis water and just let the water run out. Most of my Nepenthes are in hanging pots so i keep other non-carnivorous plants underneath so they get watered at the same time. Normally our temperatures drop below 65 degrees fahrenheit, but for the last 2-3 weeks they have stayed above 70. Really hot right now. As far as i know, and from a few other growers i have spoken with, although N. ventricosa grows best in humid highland conditions, it will keep growing well as an intermediate with lower humidity as long as it is given time to adapt. My weather is more favorable for highlanders, but my humidity isnt. For the most part in summer and fall, my humidity is usually no higher than 35%. Still, all my highlanders seem to grow really well. One thing that i did read from cobraplant.com, in their ask the experts section, is that sometimes if the plant doesnt have enough energy, it will not produce new pitchers, just new leaves. So if it keeps not producing pitchers, you might have to fertilize it, very carefully though. Ironic though, plant need pitchers to feed, but needs to feed to produce pitchers. Sorry for writing so much, I have a tendency to do that. That's why i don't write very often in forums.

doku wrote:Hello! This is my second year with Nepenthes, and so far I have had good luck growing them here in southern CA. N. ventricosa is one that i grow also. I grow mine outside under my porch. It receives 4-6 hours of direct sun, in 50% long fiber sphagnum, 30% fine orchid bark and 20% perlite. I top water every 2-3 days with reverse osmosis water and just let the water run out. Most of my Nepenthes are in hanging pots so i keep other non-carnivorous plants underneath so they get watered at the same time. Normally our temperatures drop below 65 degrees fahrenheit, but for the last 2-3 weeks they have stayed above 70. Really hot right now. As far as i know, and from a few other growers i have spoken with, although N. ventricosa grows best in humid highland conditions, it will keep growing well as an intermediate with lower humidity as long as it is given time to adapt. My weather is more favorable for highlanders, but my humidity isnt. For the most part in summer and fall, my humidity is usually no higher than 35%. Still, all my highlanders seem to grow really well. One thing that i did read from cobraplant.com, in their ask the experts section, is that sometimes if the plant doesnt have enough energy, it will not produce new pitchers, just new leaves. So if it keeps not producing pitchers, you might have to fertilize it, very carefully though. Ironic though, plant need pitchers to feed, but needs to feed to produce pitchers. Sorry for writing so much, I have a tendency to do that. That's why i don't write very often in forums.

This is actually a good call, but most recommend only doing this if your nep doesn't catch a lot of food on its own.

If you do want to fertilize your nep, let it adjust first to whatever new conditions you give it, and make sure it's OK (you see new growth) before adding in fertilizer. Too much change at once will send it reeling.

Use orchid fertilizer either 20-14-13 or 30-10-10 (NO UREA) and mix it at 1/4 strength - water it into the soil (water it as though it's regular water - just until it leaks into the pot then water again when the soil just starts drying out) about once every month in off-season, twice a month during summer/high growth season.

The watering just after you fertilize should be a good soak to flush out excess fertilizer, but again don't leave the nep sitting in any water in the tray after you flush the soil.

I've used this stuff successfully and so have many others: http://www.amazon.com/Orchid-Plus-Urea- ... B00110K6M0

When I googled my fertilizer, I found testimony from another Nepenthes grower who uses the same method (I'm almost certain I've read this article before, I think this is the one that got me started on doing this): http://www.sunbelleexotics.com/Sunbelle ... ecrets.htm

So, is it possible to make the plant fill it's own cup again?

Hi, I also got aquestion belongin to my nepenthes,
I putted the plant into a plastic-box for a good humanity.

Is a plastic-box good for a nepenthes

Hello and welcome to flytrapcare!

I'm not a Nepenthes expert, but I think ventricosa is one of the Nepenthes that adapt well to lower humidity. You probably don't need the plastic box for it. Hopefully someone else with more knowledge will chime in here to back up my guess or give you better information.

It depends on what type of nep you have. Highlanders adapt better in low humidity. Their leaves have a special coating that prevents water in the stomata to evaporate. Lowlanders on the other hand needs high humidity. A terrarium of any kind will do, you just need to provide good circulation. Hope this helps.

hb

Yeah, I grow some of my highlanders on a windowsill, but they also do well in a terrarium but its not necessary.

This is my N. ventricosa. When i first got it it had no pitchers and was a lot smaller, maybe around 2-3 inches across. I bought it at the end of winter from a Lowes. Now it has pitchers ranging from 3 to 6 inches tall and is about 6-7 inches across. I keep it outside, it gets 3 hours of morning sun and bright light the rest of the day, humidity no higher than 40%, day and night, and has experienced temperatures of 110 degrees fahrenheit for a couple of days straight. Most highland Nepenthes will acclimate to different growing conditions. The key is to give it time and leave it in one place. They dont recover as fast as other cps from being moved around so much.