CPsinSC

If you're using the original soil from the lowes cube, root rot is probably right. Those things seem to be doomed for failure unless you repot them in a proper pot/mixture.

It's hard to say what the problem could be without knowing some more specifics. Were these recently acquired plants or ones that just recently have gone downhill? What kind of soil mixture & environmental conditions are they in? How old are the plants also? What does the growing point look like?

I think it's cool when people subject their plants to less than ideal conditions because it is nice to find out what their limits are - I just don't want to subject my own plants to it :) What causes your drastic drop in humidity at night? For some of the more picky highlanders, like rajah, I've heard success stories without the lower temperatures. The temperature drop each night does seem to be more important than the actual temperatures (15-20 F drop). You probably have received some grief from some people in the CP community because they are somewhat abnormal conditions. My view on it is, as long as your conditions aren't too far outside of potential natural conditions, then the plant can likely adapt. Most people probably believe you would receive better results with more proper conditions, which may be true, but it still doesn't mean you can't grow them how you do. The truth of the matter is that pretty much everybody has somewhat different growing conditions and what works for one person may not work for another.

Are you simply placing the potted plant in the fridge each night? Take a humidity reading in your fridge - you might be suprised. I've heard moving plants very frequently can have a negative effect. You may try placing it in the same spot/same direction each day and then putting it in an enclosure inside of your fridge (small tank, big plastic bag, etc .. anything to give it better humidity). Regardless, you may or may not get good results. I'm just trying to think of ways to improve your chances under your current conditions. Good Luck

I've never subjected highland Nepenthes to less than adequate conditions. From what I understand, they need the temperature drop to perform some essential biological processes. How long have you been keeping the neps in your room conditions? I'm sure they can continue to grow in those conditions, but you may notice a decline after a while. Your summer outdoor temps are likely too much for highlanders. If you have them in a tank/enclosure inside, you may simply try putting a jug of ice in there at the start of each night (really only effective for smaller enclosures). The larger the jug of ice, the better (will stay frozen over the course of the night better). My highland conditions are 80 F (~26.6 C) / 60-70% humidity during the day and 58 - 60 F at night (~ 14.5 - 15.5 C) / 80-95% humidity.

A (good) answer to this question will definitely depend on the conditions of your highland tank/chamber. Some others not mentioned before would be N. sanguinea & N. maxima. If you're talking about some more serious highland conditions, then there's probably more but then you run into whether that kind of highland tank would really be for a beginner. If you can maintain some steady temperature drops down to roughly 60 F at night (high humidity) with days around 80 F (60%+ humidity), then you will find you can grow quite a wide variety of highland species with relative ease (assuming that you're familar with how to properly care for them).

I would have to guess N. talangensis x mira as well for #1.

Not sure where you heard this from, but it's not true. I live about 4 hours west of vft's natural habitat and I have numerous (all growing outside) and have never experienced anything you're talking about. Why would they die when it rains? My vft's have been through rains that caused flooding and even marble sized hail - Not a single one has died and the traps usually only close for prey (if they don't have prey, they'll reopen).

Bad, creepy spidey!

I checked back with the guy yet again to try and get a better answer. He said it is a hybrid of 2 purps, one of them being purp ssp purp heterophylla. He is pretty sure the other parent is burkei/rosea. Does this sound like it could be right? Would the other parent have to be all-green to obtain this plant? The plant is not showing to be truly all-green - growing points are showing some pink tint, but the pitchers/veins are green (gets close to all day sun also). Nice pitcher finally opened :)

I won't be impatient, just wanted to know what to be on the lookout for :) Thanks for the help.

Thanks Aidan. I was thinking it might have been damaged a bit in shipping .. I guess all it would take is that little connecting piece to get bent/squished a good time. It will definately be interesting to see which flowers yield some seed. I know harvest should be around mid September, but do certain species take longer/shorter? I know not everything flowers at the same time, so I was curious about that. Anybody know the typical flowering order of the basic species?

I've come across something with one of my s. minor flowers. This plant was just recently shipped to me and the flower looked to be pollinated. In the last couple of days, part of it started to die off, although the seed pods look to be healthy. Is this normal or something I should be worried about or maybe it's just not pollinated? This is my first year with CPs, so I've never really dealt with many flowers before. Any help would be appreciated. Of all my sarr flowers (a whole 3, lol) I was looking foward to this one and flava red tube making seeds :)

This is my flava red tube, which is actually in a bit of shock at the moment (after the first, large pitcher and before the two smaller pitchers, this was dug up from a grower's personal bog garden). The smaller pitchers are showing a lot less color, but still some even though they only get about 6-7 hrs of direct sun each day. Unless that second plant has just really been deprived of light/in horrible shock, I'd say it's the same as the first one .. although I'm by no means an expert. I just don't see any color or veination in either plant, except in the throat.

Would it be possible for the one on the right to be catesbaei x minor, or would that most likely cause it to have a ruffled hood?

Received this from a nursery that collects open-pollinated seed from their bog garden, then sells the seed raised sarrs. A decent variety is in that bog garden, but not everything. That I know of, they had catesbaei, flava, alata, alata x rubra ssp jonesii, minor, leuco tarnok & dixie lace. I picked the particular pot, because it looked to have 2 different plants in the same pot (growing right next to each other too .. if not for the pitchers looking different, I would have guessed it to be another growth point). After seperating the pot, it ended up being 3 seperate plants. One of them is not showing many traits yet. My best guess is alata x flava for the pitcher on the left and alata x minor or (alata x rubra ssp jonesii) x minor for the one on the right. Any help, confirmations or other guesses would be much appreciated.

The easiest way to reduce your picture size is actually on your camera. There should be some kind of image size/resolution setting you can change (I have a fairly crappy digital camera and mine has it, so I would assume yours should).

Offshoots of my other s. kitti specimen just a week or so ago, lol

I have not seen all of his videos .. took a look at one back when I first started with CPs and even found it a little cheesy then. When i said we've all heard how 'reliable' he is, i was making a reference to his customer service practices (have heard it takes forever to get plants, etc)

I wouldn't be suprised if the 'expert' guy actually said 'leaf pulling' but was actually talking about the stem... pretty sure this youtube guy is the equilibrio guy and we've all heard how 'reliable' he can be, lol.

The first pic is about a week old .. just shows the overall plant. The rest of the pictures are of the pitcher that is just about to open in this first pic. The flies love this thing .. already 2/3 full with live flies, lol. Any help on parentage would be much appreciated. This was an unlabeled plant from a local nursery supplied by a local grower.

might be rafflesiana .. the newer growth is showing speckles .. looks very similar to one i have that i know is rafflesiana :)

I found out a bit of information concerning the plant. The guy I recently purchased it from said it was a rare variety... he called it "Yellow Jacket", although I really dont think this is a real name. I don't recall the original conversation I had with him, but I seem to recall the words burkii and heterophylla, althogh I'm not sure if this is an original form or a hybrid of 2 purps (perhaps 1 or both antho-free?). As far as I'm aware, this is a mature plant. Any other ideas would be appreciated. Will be sure to post another picture when the other pitchers open. Pretty sure the one older pitcher came up before the april frost (in the US)... Outside and inside of pitcher is rather fuzzy.

rofl

Newest addition to my rather small collection, and quite by suprise... S. kittii lol