FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Small white spots on leaves and also a pitcher. Leaves starting to curl more and more lately. Rust like spots on leaves. They are 3 different plants and all the issues seem to be getting worse so I would like some advise/help. Thank you all in advance!

Chipi3s wrote:What are your growing conditions for these plants?
Day time temps and night time (roughly)
What water do you use?
What soil do you use?
Do you use a mister or fogger for humidity?
It could be a lot of things. These questions will help narrow it down.

I keep em outside under a shade cloth but I do not know how much light the cloth allows. Here it is all the standard black cloth.

Day: 31 celcius Night: 24 celcius
Water: Tap water no idea the ppm
Soil: coco peat with perlite.
No mister/fogger but I mist whenever I am outside so maybe twice a day.

The water and soil is based on advice given by the nep nursery owner. Pots are all placed on the ground with cloth beneath em which is watered in the morning to help humidity during the day (no tray). Pots that are hung will dry out too fast in my weather. All these are done according to nursery specifications.

I am located in Malaysia.

The ones with the problems are Miranda, Ventrata and Bicalcarata. I am more concerned for the bical since the other 2 are growing like weeds.

Chipi3s wrote:

rusology wrote:The ones with the problems are Miranda, Ventrata and Bicalcarata. I am more concerned for the bical since the other 2 are growing like weeds.

Miranda and ventrata are very strong plants and can handle a beating. If your having problems with those two I would say it's probably the soil or water. My bet is the water. If your not using the correct water then any Nepenthes will be sad looking and slowly die.

Try using distilled water for the time being

Okie dokie. Thanks!

How long have you gotten the plants? Will take a while for them to acclimate.
Our sunlight is very intense. Put them in shade.
Malaysian tap water and humidity should be fine for most neps, include the 3 you have.
Are new leaves of the bical healthy?

tzestan wrote:How long have you gotten the plants? Will take a while for them to acclimate.
Our sunlight is very intense. Put them in shade.
Malaysian tap water and humidity should be fine for most neps, include the 3 you have.
Are new leaves of the bical healthy?

Plants are about a month now so they should be fine. I am also waiting to repot them but not so soon. They are all in shade with maybe an hour of morning sun. Bical new leaves are fine but the oldest 2 leaves rust spots are spreading, slowly but consistently. The bical is kinda small with 6 leaves total and only 1 inch long pitcher so I am concerned. I will be picking up some fungicide tomorrow to be safe.

The white spot is on my ventrata and curling leaves on miranda but these 2 plants I am not too concerned as they are huge and about 1yr+ already. I have ordered the pesticide Orthene for these 2 but it will be a few weeks before it arrives.

Bical loves lowland environment. It is a tough plant. I would say it is still acclimating being only one month with you. There is no rush to repot as long as the medium does not dry up too fast. Can also use a water tray to defer repot. Bical tolerates wet medium. 6 leaves seem normal. Bical does not retain many leaves in each branch like some other neps.

Ventrata tends to attract a type of white scale insects when the surrounding is moist. Can't see clearly in the photo. Not sure whether that is what you get. But I only get minor non-fatal infestation from time to time. Scrape it off or cut away the branch seems sufficient to contain it. Mite (not spider mite) is another problem. It is very small and hard to see. Gently rub the affected leaves against a wet cotton bud. If you see small slow moving brown dots on the cotton bud, then it could be that.

tzestan wrote:Bical loves lowland environment. It is a tough plant. I would say it is still acclimating being only one month with you. There is no rush to repot as long as the medium does not dry up too fast. Can also use a water tray to defer repot. Bical tolerates wet medium. 6 leaves seem normal. Bical does not retain many leaves in each branch like some other neps.

Ventrata tends to attract a type of white scale insects when the surrounding is moist. Can't see clearly in the photo. Not sure whether that is what you get. But I only get minor non-fatal infestation from time to time. Scrape it off or cut away the branch seems sufficient to contain it. Mite (not spider mite) is another problem. It is very small and hard to see. Gently rub the affected leaves against a wet cotton bud. If you see small slow moving brown dots on the cotton bud, then it could be that.

Ah yes, Mealy bugs and scale insects I am very familiar with but I will check for mites. I plan to do a systemic pesticide and fungicide this weekend to be sure. How do you get rid of the mites?

Just in case anyone is following this, I found the problem to be thrips. After watching the plants for a week and saw no signs of thrips, today I was looking at a new shoot that was affected and saw a bunch of thrips. I am familiar with how a thrip infestation looks like on normal plants but never thought it would look like that on neps. So a spray of orthene and it should be solved, hopefully lol.