FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey all,

I'm relatively new to keeping Nepenthes and am looking for some help as to what might be going on with my plant / what I may be doing wrong. I ordered this plant and received it about 5 months ago. Unfortunately, I do not remember the exact species, though I will try to find it for you guys if needed. When I first received it, it seemed to go through typical shipping shock and it dropped its one pitcher shortly after arriving. Within a month a new pitcher had opened and after about another month a second pitcher opened. Both pitchers were happy and healthy and were around 3" tall. I had fed them occasional bugs that I would find running around the house hoping that this would help it put out traps more quickly since one trap per month seemed slow, especially when my friend's new Nepenthes was putting out traps at twice the rate of mine!

One day I came across a particularly juicy looking house centipede that I somewhat barbarically stripped of its legs and fed to the second pitcher thinking that this would be a great source of nutrients for the plant. (If you've ever seen one of these before, you know they're pretty meaty bugs.) In this case, the body of the centipede was around 1" long (about 1/3 the length of the pitcher.) I'm aware that carnivorous plants can be overfed; however, I suspected that this would be an acceptable size since it was still much smaller than the trap. Alas, after some time of digesting the centipede, that pitcher did begin to blacken as I've seen before when I'd grossly overfed previous plants.

Unfortunately, it also seems that my ploy to encourage my plant to produce traps more quickly has instead backfired. Any pitchers that were forming at the time the trap began to blacken have since stopped. And on top of that the crown of my plant has turned into this tangled mess. It's almost like the plant got so much nutrients it tried to grow 8 leaves all at once. I'm not sure how well you can see it from the photos, but one leaf (less than 1/4" long) has actually formed a very tiny pitcher on the end which has already split open.

The first pitcher to form is still healthy and seems unaffected.

Some information about the plant's care:

- Watered with distilled water twice a week
-- The pot does not have drainage holes - I water based on weight as measured with a digital scale
-- I've verified that no water drips from the soil or pools in the pot when watered to its maximum weight
- Plant is indoors, temperatures have ranged from 70-85 degrees since receiving the plant
- Plant previously received around 45 mol/m^2*day of light with full-spectrum LED lighting (12 hour photoperiod)
-- I noticed the original leaves on the plant got severe sunburn due to this amount of light, but new growth seemed to handle it well. It was exposed to this light for ~4 months. Nonetheless, after the problem I'm having now developed, I decided to move it to somewhere much less intense. The plant now receives around 10 mol/m^2*day, still on a 12 hour photoperiod.
- I live in Boston which is typically very humid, though I do occasionally spray the plant and soil
- The soil the plant is growing in is the original soil it was shipped in
- The plant has not been 'repotted,' but it was pulled from its original container and placed in the pot it is currently in. I say repotted in quotes since the roots and the soil weren't really disturbed.

That's everything I can think of at the moment, but please feel free to ask questions if I've left anything out! I appreciate any ideas or recommendations you guys have.

Thanks!!

One of mine did this not too long ago. I fertilized it often. I noticed the new leaves coming in burnt and I also ended up moving it. The original leaves began dying back. It was confusing because the plant didn't seem to initially care about its placement. Honestly I sprayed it with pesticide/fungicide and did exactly what you did. So far it appears to have improved the situation.

My guess is some kind of pest, possibly aphids

That will almost certainly be a pest problem of some sort. It can also happen due to excess tissue culture hormones, but that would have been apparent from the very beginning.

nimbulan wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 3:27 pm That will almost certainly be a pest problem of some sort. It can also happen due to excess tissue culture hormones, but that would have been apparent from the very beginning.

I was actually reading up on that on TF not too long ago. Mine personally was an uncommon hybrid that came from a guy taking cuttings. Instincts were telling me a pest of some kind but it was just attacking the one. From what I read it tends to happen on vining plants as well?

Apollyon wrote:

nimbulan wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 3:27 pm That will almost certainly be a pest problem of some sort. It can also happen due to excess tissue culture hormones, but that would have been apparent from the very beginning.

I was actually reading up on that on TF not too long ago. Mine personally was an uncommon hybrid that came from a guy taking cuttings. Instincts were telling me a pest of some kind but it was just attacking the one. From what I read it tends to happen on vining plants as well?

So you think it may have been a hormonal issue even though it was a cutting?

No I was saying after reading up on it I was landing on pest so I treated the plant. I mightve worded it weird. I was drawing on my own experiences with this situation.the position of that particular plant had it getting light that was likely too intense so I moved it away from the place it was at. I was just trying to verify if it's true they tend to do that more when they're Vining or not because at that point it had a large vine as well. Neps are that species I should really try investing more time on learning so they'd grow better.

Oh I understand. And you have seen positive results after pesticide application?

It's really hard to pinpoint it because I changed a few variables but overall the plant is healthier now.

Thanks for the ideas, guys. What is the best way to inspect for pests? I have inspected the stem and leaves and there are no critters crawling on any exposed surfaces above the soil level.

I've pulled the plant out of the pot temporarily in the past to check moisture levels but didn't notice anything obvious crawling around. (To be fair, I wasn't looking for pests, so I certainly could've missed something.)

I've also not noticed any flying bugs in the vicinity of the plant, so that's a strike as well.

Secondly, is there any pesticide you would recommend to help?

Thanks!