FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey all,

I haven't really given too much thought to my Ventrata since I got it 8 months ago, but something I've been wondering is if it's normal for my nepenthes to only really be growing bigger leaves in one direction, and the leaves in general aren't that big or long compared to most other people's nepenthes I've seen. The plant used to grow upwards, but started tipping over the side of the pot and now grows outwards, and the plant doesn't really grow any leaves facing "backwards".

Normally I have the plant under a super bright Yescom 225 growlight directly above it, so I wonder if that's the reason why it doesn't grow very big leaves, because it gets more than enough lighting from above.

I recently had a shelf next to a south facing window open up, so I just moved it there (There's some gentler growlights there for the previous plants that were growing there), and I wonder if that will cause it to grow larger leaves?

Also, will moving it cause the plant to have to go through acclimation again?

It's not necessarily that the leaves are growing that way, but the plant grows a vine. Since the structure of the plant cannot generally support the weight of the vine, it tips that way, and it looks like the leaves are only growing on that side. My ventricosa did it, my Lady Lucks are doing it, and I suspect my smilesii will do it.

ChefDean wrote:It's not necessarily that the leaves are growing that way, but the plant grows a vine. Since the structure of the plant cannot generally support the weight of the vine, it tips that way, and it looks like the leaves are only growing on that side. My ventricosa did it, my Lady Lucks are doing it, and I suspect my smilesii will do it.

Sounds all good then, thank Dean, always a great help! I hope moving it to the new sunny window location doesn't cause too many acclimation issues over being under the Yescom 225 growlight. There's still a growlight over it just in case, but it's still inside the house with the same temperature and humidity, should be ok right?

Should be. I treat mine worse and they do fine. Once the temps drop to below 50 at night, I start bringing them in. They move in and out, changing temps and humidity often. I want them to get as much unfiltered light, direct and indirect, as possible.
In the spring, I do the same until they stay outside for the summer.

ChefDean wrote:Should be. I treat mine worse and they do fine. Once the temps drop to below 50 at night, I start bringing them in. They move in and out, changing temps and humidity often. I want them to get as much unfiltered light, direct and indirect, as possible.
In the spring, I do the same until they stay outside for the summer.

Haha damn, you got a whole routine going! I was thinking about moving mine outside during the summer as well. Should I hang it under my deck or something from a hanging planter, or do I just put it in direct sunlight? Maybe put it under the table on my deck?

Neps don't like a lot of direct light. I'm lucky enough to have an east facing backyard with a spot I can hang them to where they only get a total of about two hours of direct sunlight. The older leaves get a little sunburned, but nothing major, and they plug along.
If the pitchers are big enough this year, I'll help them along by stuffing in Japanese Beetles after crushing their little skulls.