FlyTrapCare Forums

So...Back in high school I used to have a little terrarium of carnivorous plants. I moved away to college and grad school, leaving them in the care of my mom (bless her and her acceptance of my hobbies) for 10+ years.

Now that's a long time and a lot of them weren't good terrarium plants (I was young and in New Mexico and thought humidity was Very Important) so they're pretty much all gone now when I'm finally getting back into growing.

Except for one! One 12ish year old, stunted, Lowe's deathcube Nepenthes possibly-ventrata has survived in there this whole time, thanks to my mom's faithful distilled-only watering and grow light maintenance.

It has never been repotted.

I would like to bring it in to my new collection and rehabilitate it, but I live across the country now and neither of us has ever shipped a live plant before. Does anyone have any advice on how best to do that?

Also, once I get it here, should I put it in the kind of great big massive pot it deserves or should I increase the container size more gradually?

A) you can bare root it, but nepenthes have very fine black roots which makes getting the roots clean quite a daunting task. Then put a wet paper towel in a bag and seal the bag around the stem good, so the water doesn't evaporate. Being the media is so old this is probably the way I would go. It's cheaper too.

B) you can send it potted. I place gauze pads over the whole top of the pot and around the stem. Then tape them down to the pot so none of the media will fall out. Then tape the pot to the inside of the box to ensure it doesn't flop around and damage the plant.

I personally prefer smaller pots until the plant outgrows it, and if the media is still good I like the plug and plop method of up sizing pots. Take the whole ball of media out of the small pot and place it in a bigger pot.

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