FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So I've had this nepenthes for a while.. I bought it a few months back at place called Molbaks. Just the past two weeks I've noticed some of the pitchers shriveling up and drying.. There are still a couple pitchers that haven't dried.. doesn't look like they are going to.

I keep my nep hanging in a basket next to a south facing window where it gets indirect light all day. Sometimes sun rays from the kitchen hit it directly for maybe an hour or two. My house stays anywhere from 70-80 degrees F at all times. I've read recently that neps like getting misted.. true? I've been doing it the past week once a day.. seems like it's helping.. but one can never know with plants ..immediately. At least I can't.











I thought I may have been watering too much.. so I cut down quite a bit. I heard Neps don't like their growing medium to be really wet.. and I was definitely keeping it way too wet. Could that have been my problem?

Here are a couple of the non shriveled variety:





Today I just noticed this little growth behind the plant when I took it down to take pictures of it. Is this a new one growing off the other? Could the new growth be causing my pitchers to die? This is my first nep so I have no idea.



Here are pics of the leaves.. I'm pretty confused because I feel like it looks like a healthy plant. But I'm no expert.




There is similar browning on this leaf and one other:



Sorry for posting so many pictures, and I really appreciate your taking the time to read this to help me out.

Here's a side picture of the pitchers the first night I had it. One of those pitchers have since died, but one or two of them are currently shriveling. They were fine until a couple weeks ago..

Sounds you are doing everything correctly, constant temps, misting, is getting sunlight.

My question is, is the pot hanging or sitting in a tray? i see a pot hanging in one of the pics, neps don't like to sit in water, but they love water, so basically, they can receive water every single minute as long as the water doesn't sit, the water has to run down throught the roots and not sitting at all, humidity has to be high, so the regular misting helps.

I think your plant is doing great and is just changing pitchers, throwing the old ones, then producing new ones and bigger, cut when the pitcher is half way dark, cut from where the tendril starts with a clean scissors, and actually it appears like you have 3 pitcher plants, the new growth which is the small one you mentioned, but there looks like there are 3 pitchers in that pot!!!

Congrats, hope others come to help!
Good luck!

jht-union wrote:Sounds you are doing everything correctly, constant temps, misting, is getting sunlight.

My question is, is the pot hanging or sitting in a tray? i see a pot hanging in one of the pics, neps don't like to sit in water, but they love water, so basically, they can receive water every single minute as long as the water doesn't sit, the water has to run down throught the roots and not sitting at all, humidity has to be high, so the regular misting helps.

The plant is always like this:


The brown stuff is just some lining so you can't see the pot the plant is in. Just the pretty parts. Inside of that hanging thing, I have a tray so water doesn't go through the brown lining cause it stains the carpet. (ITS A POT WITHIN A POT )I had been being lazy the past month and not checking to see if the tray had water in it. (The plant is really high, and I'm really short) I never over watered it before, but it's possible I could have, especially if I wasn't checking the tray.

jht-union wrote:I think your plant is doing great and is just changing pitchers, throwing the old ones, then producing new ones and bigger, cut when the pitcher is half way dark, cut from where the tendril starts with a clean scissors, and actually it appears like you have 3 pitcher plants, the new growth which is the small one you mentioned, but there looks like there are 3 pitchers in that pot!!!

Congrats, hope others come to help!
Good luck!

I think you've helped me solve it! Thanks for the great advice and info!

I knew there was two.. I remember seeing it at the nursery and saying "That one has twooo " And I snatched it! But I had no idea what a teeny nep looked like so I had NO idea there was a third until today! Is there any way I could use dried peat/pumice to repot that sucker?

THANKS SO MUCH AGAIN!!!

LFSM has become a good soil for nepenthes, because it keeps humidity really high, and if the LFSM is not compress, then the water will run down the roots, and keeping the plant humid, but your plant is inside, and it sounds like it grows well in the mixture you have them in, so i would use that one, and scratch everything i said.
My neps are really small compare to yours, and are growing in the greenhouse.
Something i said before, and i'm sorry, i totally forgot about, is that neps depending on the species whether lowlander or highlander, or intermediate, it appreciates a 10 degree drop of temps at night different from the day temp, so yours grow at 80-70F during the day, it will do well with a 60F temp drop at night, however, some people grow these plants without providing the night temp drop, and they grow just fine after a certain point. Mines grow at temps of about 100F-80F in the day, with a night temp drop of somewhere around 65F. ( i also water them with a bit of cold water around 66F during the nights to provide a more cold environment during the nights! )

Sorry for the bad information given in the first post, and i'm glad i noticed that.

The place I got it from has a sticker that says N. Alata. From what I've read most neps labeled as alata usually are mislabeled.. but I think Molbaks is pretty knowledgeable (I hope). I remember they were making sure I knew how to care for the nep before they rang me up. I know I could identify by the petioles to determine whether it's ventrata, alata, or ventricosa.. but it's pretty hard to do from pictures on the internet.

The plant is currently in peat/bark/perlite mixture.. all I have right now is a TON on dried peat, perlite, and pumice. (I hate leaving the house )

I pretty much leave the heat on all night for the nep.. but it drops to 60-65F in the house without the heater on at night. I'll start doing that.

its actually called N. ventrata its a cross between alata and ventricosa , the dyeing off of the pitchers natural , as one dies off another should be forming its how it grows , the pitchers at optimum conditions should last for 12 to 15 months , if they dont your conditions are all wrong , and should be adjusted to suit ! the tropical plant !
J

snapperhead51 wrote:its actually called N. ventrata its a cross between alata and ventricosa , the dyeing off of the pitchers natural , as one dies off another should be forming its how it grows , the pitchers at optimum conditions should last for 12 to 15 months , if they dont your conditions are all wrong , and should be adjusted to suit ! the tropical plant !
J

Yeah.. I know ventrata is a cross between the two.

Is there any easy way to tell exactly which of those it is? Thanks. ^^

Shes Crofty wrote:Yeah.. I know ventrata is a cross between the two.

Is there any easy way to tell exactly which of those it is? Thanks. ^^

hhhmmm that dont make sense , the hybrid cross is ventricosa and alata that's it its why its call ventrata !!!! no other explanation that there can be , no sure what you mean is there any easy way to tell ?? do you meant to tell is ventrata ??
J

snapperhead51 wrote:
the hybrid cross is ventricosa and alata that's it its why its call ventrata !!!!

I know.. were both saying the same thing. What I said previously is I knew Ventricosa was a cross between the two. What I'm wondering is if there is any way to tell what kind of nepenthes my plant is. Or is that impossible?

From what I've read, you should be able to tell by the pitchers or petioles. The problem with that is all I have is pictures from the internet to compare..

snapperhead51 wrote: do you meant to tell is ventrata ??
J

Yes. Is there any way I can specify whether my plant is ventrata or alata, because I know it's not ventricosa. The pitchers are way too different. Right now I only have a few pitchers on mine, but before there were different kinds of pitchers, different colors.. some of the pitchers looked like they came off a different plant. Some of them were red, orange, hairier than others.. different shapes. Or is that normal of a nepenthes? I'm pretty sure it's ventrata.. but my sticker says alata... this whole mislabeling thing bothers my label OCD!!!!


Sorry for so many questions guys.. ! I really appreciate the responses.

Hi ok Think i get what you getting at now , ok its ventarta ok not alata , alata looks similar but slightly different shapes, its usually smaller all red and the base is less bulbous will put a pic up of a N.alata for you ok but you can get alata in green and other colours buy its main stream is red!! , the reason it is ventrata is because of the shape of the pitchers and the colouration of them too, the red / green with a bulbous base and narrowing top half and the shape of the peristome being rounded lets me know that it is .
the reason for colour of a pitcher is the amount of sun light the plant gets , more sun greater the true colouration you will get , plus higher humidity with good ventilation all combined with bring wonderful natural nep colouration to the pitcher , less light and humidity and will make the pitcher more green and smaller , but the humidity should be 60% or higher all the times and temps around 20c to 30 c day time and cooler at night to 15 c or less if possible for ideal growing conditions , but around that or close will be ok , use rain water or RO water and fertilise or feed pitchers regularly !!
Ok i have some comparison pic's for you with these you will se the difference that you are looking for it very obvious once you see the pic's ok ,I have also put some verntata pic's up that are low in light so you can see that there can be colour changes just with less sun light ok
hope this will help
J

Nicw!