nepenthes & sarracenia wilting

[Rachel]

Hi,

I hope this is not too basic a question. I am new to carnivorous plant keeping and have order The Savage Garden but, until it arrives, I thought I might ask some questions.

I have three carnivorous plants that aren't doing too well.

I have two nepenthes. The first is an unknown hybrid which I bought at the end of March. It had lots of pitchers when I bought it. Now it only has eight and several of those have brown bits. New pitchers seem to be growing but shrivelling before they gain any size. Top growth looks good and healthy. My second nepenthes (Rebecca Soper) seems to be going the same way. I bought it in June and, although it has plenty of pitchers and healthy top growth, some of the new pitchers are going brown and shrivelling before they gain any size. This is a worrying sign. I should mention that I did use tap water on them at one stage but have stopped now. I mist them now and again (maybe I should do it more frequently). They are in the kitchen on a west facing window. Can I cut off the shrivelled pitchers from the tip of the leaf?

My sarracenia (Juthatip Soper) has brown patches. I think the problem here is that I was using tap water. I thought this would be okay as our water isn't hard but I believe chlorine and other additives can be detrimental to sarracenia. So I'm using rain water now. I also wasn't giving it enough light as I thought the brown patches were burn marks (from too much light). I guess I am cataloguing common rookie mistakes here. I now have the plant outside during the day but keep the water topped up. Do you think my analysis of the sarracenia problem is correct?

Sorry to bang on but would appreciate some advice as I don't want to loose all my plants before my mail order book arrives.

[jimscott]

In general, tropical pitcher plants are basically equatorial. They need ~12 hours of light per day. They also like somewhat humid conditions and well-drained soil media.

American pitcher plants are temperate. They don't do well indoors.

Tap water, generally speaking, tends to have toxic properties, like minerals and possibly Chlorine. It's a slow death for CP's.

I would suggest distilled / RO / Deionized water for the plants. The Nep should do well indoors, under artificial lighting. The Sarracenia should go outside and have rain water.

[andyinsuffolk]

Hi Rachel,

Do you have access to any live sphagnum moss?

If you can get hold of some, try dressing the top soil surface with this live moss. It is amazing how much extra humidity this will provide your Nepenthes. What mix have you got the Nepenthes potted up in as well?

Try and mist your Nep at least daily if you can.

Andy

Hi,

I hope this is not too basic a question. I am new to carnivorous plant keeping and have order The Savage Garden but, until it arrives, I thought I might ask some questions.

I have three carnivorous plants that aren't doing too well.

I have two nepenthes. The first is an unknown hybrid which I bought at the end of March. It had lots of pitchers when I bought it. Now it only has eight and several of those have brown bits. New pitchers seem to be growing but shrivelling before they gain any size. Top growth looks good and healthy. My second nepenthes (Rebecca Soper) seems to be going the same way. I bought it in June and, although it has plenty of pitchers and healthy top growth, some of the new pitchers are going brown and shrivelling before they gain any size. This is a worrying sign. I should mention that I did use tap water on them at one stage but have stopped now. I mist them now and again (maybe I should do it more frequently). They are in the kitchen on a west facing window. Can I cut off the shrivelled pitchers from the tip of the leaf?

My sarracenia (Juthatip Soper) has brown patches. I think the problem here is that I was using tap water. I thought this would be okay as our water isn't hard but I believe chlorine and other additives can be detrimental to sarracenia. So I'm using rain water now. I also wasn't giving it enough light as I thought the brown patches were burn marks (from too much light). I guess I am cataloguing common rookie mistakes here. I now have the plant outside during the day but keep the water topped up. Do you think my analysis of the sarracenia problem is correct?

Sorry to bang on but would appreciate some advice as I don't want to loose all my plants before my mail order book arrives.

Edited July 7, 2009 by andyinsuffolk

[Rachel]

Thank you Jim and Andy. I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions but I do have a few more.

I am a bit unclear regarding the difference between rainwater and distilled water. I live in the middle of the Irish countryside, miles from any town or industry, so it seems to me that the rainwater should be the same as distilled. Am I missing something here?

I take on board your advice, Andy, regarding my neps and will mist them daily. Just trying to ascertain that rainwater is alright for them! Should I put any water in the pitchers? The sarracenia are already outdoors, in full light, and sitting in 1 inch of rainwater so I think they're okay and hope they will recover from my previous mistreatment.

Regarding compost, the plants are in whatever compost they came in. They were healthy when they arrived so I assume the mix is okay. There is no sphagnum on the nepenthes but there is some kind of moss (I assume sphagnum) on the sarracenia. I'm not sure where to get sphagnum.

Should I repot my plants? I have a sarracenia compost mix on order (with the book and some new plants) and could make up a neps compost from peat, orchid compost and perlite (I believe).

Again, your help is much appreciated. I am a keen horticulturist but feel like I have to learn from scratch again with these odd plants.

[LJ]

Distilled / RO water will be purer than rain water but most of us stick with collecting rainwater as its readily available, cheaper and is more than adequate.

No need to put water in the nepenthes pitchers, when new pitchers are formed they will produce their own liquid. Any brown shrivelled pitchers can be cut off if you want. Not easy to say why the pitchers arent forming as they should - could be lack of humidity, not enough light, wrong temps etc. How are you watering the nepenthes and how much? Best not to give them too much water, I keep mine just damp and water from the top, they never sit in water like sarras. They can take a while to adjust to new conditions too. The nep mix you mention sounds fine, they dont have big root systems so be gentle when repotting them, again they might take a while to recover. Might be worth seeing if you can get them growing again happily before repotting?? If they've been happily growing in the medium until now then it should be ok, if your plants are from a garden centre though it would be worth a repot at some point in the future as they're normally potted in quite a heavy mix with a high percentage of peat.

Hopefully the sarra will recover in time, using tap water for a short period shouldnt have done too much harm. The brown patches may not be anything serious but if the problem continues then post a few pictures so we can have a look.

You can buy live moss online or can sometimes find it in garden centres but make sure its live sphagnum moss that hasnt been dyed.

Also have to admit I dont mist any of my neps, humidity is ok but not that high but they do get a decent amount of light (under an envirolite), I do tend to put moss on the top of most of my pots like Andy though I have a few without it and they do fine too. You can buy quite cheap temp and humidity monitors these days - might be worth investing in one to see if either of these factors are the contributing to the problem....

I'm certainly no expert but I find neps can be a bit finicky sometimes - if the conditions arent right they wont pitcher so a bit of perserverence and patience will be needed!!

[Phil Green]

Hi Rachel,

Your Sarra should be fine now. So long as the new growth looks OK, then nothing to worry about and you can cut off any old dead growth if you want to.

Nepenthes are basically of two types :- Highland, which need a drop in temperature at night and will tollerate temperatures down to about 8C. They like good light, but most people give some shade from direct sunlight especially around mid day. Most will adjust to humidity around 50-60%. I rarely mist mine, which pitcher fine in the open air - I suspect Ireland is a little more humid than SE England.

Lowland Neps need temps around 20-30C and most require higher humidity.

Both can be sold in Garden Centres, usually all sold as N. alata.

One of the biggest killers of Neps is constantly changing the growing conditions. If the new growth looks healthy then don't worry too much about a lack of pitchers, some will adjust to the new conditions quickly others take ages - one of mine to about 18 months to produce it's first pitcher for me. As Heather said "a bit of perserverence and patience will be needed!!"

The compost should be very free draining. Different people use different mixes - some use just sphagnum moss, others a mix using a lot are orchid bark - it all depends on your conditions and how you water. Perlite in the mix is fine and good for keeping the mix open and free draining, aim for moist/damp rather than soaking wet. They can occassional get too dry with little problem, too wet can kill the roots. If yours came from a garden centre and the compost looks to be mainly peat, then I'd recommend repotting, otherwise leave it alone for now.

If the pitchers have no fluid in them then filling 1/3 - 1/2 with rain water will be benefitial and help them last longer. Older pitchers and leaves will gradually die and you can cut off the dead leaves.

A picture will help to identify your other Nep to know the conditions it needs, as well as to see the general health of the plants.

Good luck with them and hope this helps a little.

[Rachel]

Thank you, Heather & Phil.

Your replies help enormously.

Really appreciate you taking the trouble.

Will put on a picture of my unidentified nepenthes later for possible identification. I do hope it's the highland type.