FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Nepenthes Basic Care
Nepenthes is a large group of carnivorous plants, they are mainly found in Southeast Asia, this includes Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea. They use basic pitfall traps that smell sweet and attract insects, the insect then slips into the trap into fluid which it then drowns in, sinks, and gets digested. I will be giving additional lowland and highland care at the end.

1. SOIL
Nepenthes soil can vary from species to species, but I recommend using a 3:1 or 1:1 mix of Burnt Rice Husks and Coir (Cocopeat/Coco peat), burnt rice husks may be hard to find. This soil works for Sarracenia too (Which is why I call it Pitcher Mix). If there are no burnt rice husks where you live, you can use these alternative mixes:

• Full Sphagnum (Lazy mix)
• 1:1 LFS,Perlite (Standard mix)

2. WATER
Nepenthes can tolerate up to 250ppm and therefore can be or can't be watered with tap water depending on where you live. If your tap water is higher than 250ppm then water using RO, distilled, or rain water. Keep the soil wet but not too wet so that the plant is sitting in water.

3. LIGHT
Light can be given to Nepenthes using sunlight or artificial light, if you are using artificial light, use Tube Fluorescent Lights (TFL) or Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) with color temp. around 6500K.
TFL:
Over 40 Watts
CFL:
Over 100 Watts
If you are growing in the sun check the species to see how much sun it should get.

4. FOOD
If you are growing outside, let it catch food by itself and if you are growing it inside either find some bugs or feed it DBW (Dried Bloodworms). Feeding is actually optional but it is better to feed it.

-----ADDITIONAL INFO-----

TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY
Standard Humidity: ~50%
Highland: Cool temperatures (But not too cold!) around 70-80 F at daytime, 50-60 F at night and humid .
Lowland: Warm temperatures (But not too hot!) around 80-90 F at daytime, 65-70 F at night and somewhat drier.

PITCHER FLUID
If the pitchers dry out fill them (or not) with water. I have successfully done this with tap water but rainwater, RO, or distilled water is safer.

ADDITIONAL TIPS
-Nepenthes growing to big? Stem cut it!
-Dip or spray developing/unopened pitchers in water, it will make them grow faster
-Cut off dead pitchers and leaves only when it is ALL brown

Questions? Ask them by replying! Pictures coming soon!
Thanks to:
Nimbulan

I use 1:1 LFS:perlite for my Neps and haven't had any issues with it so far. It's a pretty standard starting mix, especially when clean coir is hard to come by in the US (and I've never seen burnt rice husks for sale before.)

I've found humidity requirements to be a bit exaggerated. I don't have a large collection, but every Nep I've tried to grow so far has no issues with 50% humidity (maybe 60% at night,) sometimes dropping down into the 30's.

Well, almost every nep can be acclimated to low humidity