FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi, i'm relatively new to carnivorous plants and actually have a problem with 3 different types. I'll start here tho: I bought a seedling nep. in the spring and it has been doing wonderfully. It has been repotted twice and every new leaf sprouts a larger pitcher than before. Two days ago i noticed a small black spot on the lid of the smallest pitcher (and oldest pitcher) on the plant. It has since progressed. The leaves of the plant are all green and healthy and nothing has changed in its care or location. So i'm asking A. Is this a normal progression of the plant? (Are they like flowers and normally die off at a certain point?) B. What do I do about it? I've read posts, but most concerned leaves turning brown or pitchers on New plants turning black due to shock. None of which really applied in this situation. ((Please disregard the "pot" it's in. The plant was desperately needing repotting and the only container i had the right size was a plastic cup that previously housed my Amaranthus caudatus sprouts))

Ayla wrote:Hi, i'm relatively new to carnivorous plants and actually have a problem with 3 different types. I'll start here tho: I bought a seedling nep. in the spring and it has been doing wonderfully. It has been repotted twice and every new leaf sprouts a larger pitcher than before. Two days ago i noticed a small black spot on the lid of the smallest pitcher (and oldest pitcher) on the plant. It has since progressed. The leaves of the plant are all green and healthy and nothing has changed in its care or location. So i'm asking A. Is this a normal progression of the plant? (Are they like flowers and normally die off at a certain point?) B. What do I do about it? I've read posts, but most concerned leaves turning brown or pitchers on New plants turning black due to shock. None of which really applied in this situation. ((Please disregard the "pot" it's in. The plant was desperately needing repotting and the only container i had the right size was a plastic cup that previously housed my Amaranthus caudatus sprouts))

Hi Ayla,
That pitcher turning black is perfectly normal, it is at the end of its life cycle. You can simply cut it off whenever you are tired of seeing it. From what I can see the plant looks very healthy, I would say you are doing a great job of taking care of it!

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Thank you! I'm a biologist by trade and questioning by nature.. So for the sake of information - if I didn't cut it off would the decay progress and spread to the rest of the plant? Would it fall off by itself? Would that whole leaf turn black? I'm truly interested and must know. Also, where do i snip the pitcher off at?

Ayla wrote:Thank you! I'm a biologist by trade and questioning by nature.. So for the sake of information - if I didn't cut it off would the decay progress and spread to the rest of the plant? Would it fall off by itself? Would that whole leaf turn black? I'm truly interested and must know. Also, where do i snip the pitcher off at?

In my experience, the pitchers will eventually just dry out until they have the consistency of a brown paper bag. No harm done if you never cut it off. The leaves will usually stay green. If you do choose to cut off a dead pitcher, just snip it off right about where the tendril connects to the leaf..... easy!

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Fantastic! You rock. Thank you so much. Also, if you know anything about sundews please look at my post in that section. My plant is having some issues and I don't know what I'm doing wrong

Ayla wrote:Fantastic! You rock. Thank you so much. Also, if you know anything about sundews please look at my post in that section. My plant is having some issues and I don't know what I'm doing wrong

You're welcome. And yes, I do know about sundews, mostly how to kill them! LOL. I'll let a more qualified person take that one.

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while i was repotting my newly acquired nepenthes, for some reason a seemingly healthy pitcher fell off. so now only its stalk remains on the leaf. so what i'm wondering is if it'll grow another pitcher on that particular leaf soon

cilantro wrote:while i was repotting my newly acquired nepenthes, for some reason a seemingly healthy pitcher fell off. so now only its stalk remains on the leaf. so what i'm wondering is if it'll grow another pitcher on that particular leaf soon

No, only one pitcher forms per leaf on Nepenthes. And not necessarily every leaf will form one, but usually they will if the plant likes its growing conditions.

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^ its color is vibrant and the leaves seem "fat" so hopefully they're doing good.

there's a new leaf w/c has just sprouted. it's about 2 weeks old but so far i see no signs of it pitchering.