Pics

Final Miranda Colors

Night temperature drops

I have been growing my plants on a reverse night/day schedule because my lights were blinding me during the day. I realized that this created the reverse temperature conditions, it was cooler during the "day" and warmer during the "night". I wasn't sure how big of an issue this was so I posed the question to the experts over at Sarracenia Northwest:

"Hi Adam,

You bring up a very good point.  We generally recommend nighttime temperature drops for highland Nepenthes because that's what they often experience in the wild.  However, it doesn't necessarily mean that the plants absolutely needs it to grow properly.  Overall, it depends on the species you're growing.  Ultra highland species tend to produce more pitchers with nighttime drops.  Other highland species, such as N. sanguinea, do fine without them.  

The point about growing these plants is always observing their growth and making necessary adjustments to the microclimate to achieve the growth you want.  So if you notice that the plants are not producing pitchers, then you may need to go back to daytime lighting to allow the temperature to drop at night.  That's what it essentially comes down to.  There's no hard and fast rule about growing in cultivation.  Our recommendations are starting points.  After that, it's a matter of fine tuning your growing conditions so your plants look their best."

My super happy ones

Not sure if you can see it in this picture but there is so much nectar on that peristome that it dripped onto my desk :)

This little guy has 5 pitchers opening/inflating at once :)

New information sections!

Take a look to your right ------->

There are new sections with some general information. If you have any questions or suggestions let me know and I will be more than glad to help answer/research a question. I also made a poll on the top of the page for people to share if they use terrariums or not as I am very interested about the topic.

color change

This is one of my highly traumatized plants that I am trying to revive. Where the leaves bend they are turning white, and they are turning white from the base. Any ideas? They were darkening from being under better light but now they are doing this.

N.boschiana X densiflora

N.truncata queen of hearts X king of spades

So this is the order I got from cpjungle. The plants seem to be doing alright and both the pitchers show a lot of potential in color already.

CPJungle review

Ok I commented earlier that cpjungle was pretty slow to respond. I think they were just overly busy at the time I was trying to reach them. Recently they have been replying to emails within 48 hours. I have two N.truncata (queen of hearts X king of spades) arriving in the mail from them today. I'll take pictures when the plants arrive and show how they were packed and what condition they came in. After they started replying to emails I feel more comfortable with them as a vendor now. They also have a "Nepenthes University" full of information.

Regarding Terrariums

Early I mentioned my stance on no terrariums. For most neps (highland nepenthes, see below for lowland) you can adjust them to lower humidity and due without them. However, this doesn't mean you CAN'T use one and many people do. If you do choose to use one you just have to make sure you regularly clean it to keep mold and other bacteria down. I choose not to have a terrarium and to acclimate my plants to reasonable lower humidity. I made this decision because I feel there are enough issues to worry about when you first start with nepenthes without having to also keep up on mold and bacteria.

There is a difference between lowland and highland neps in regards to this. Lowlanders for the most part need higher humidity, and some may require a terrarium if your local humidity isn't high enough. I have chosen to avoid lowland nepenthes for now due to the reasons stated in the first paragraph. I also chose to avoid them so that I can only have one growing environment for my highlanders and intermediates without having to create a different environment for lowlanders. Again this is in an effort to make my fist growing attempts as easy as possible.

If you are uncertain, use google! If what you have falls into the lowland class you are more likely going to need higher humidty. If what you have is intermediate or highland than you should be ok, use google to find information about your specific plants and what growing conditions it may need. You can also read the information at Cobra Plant in their Care Sheets or search forums such as Terra Forums.

lights

yellow and red :(

It's getting red... but its also getting yellow? any opinions?

Its not quite as yellow as it appears. The picture is a little off.

This is also being discussed at terraforums

Edit: Other growers said that their miranda did this, and then transitioned from a deeper yellow into a better green and red than before. So hopefully this is just a transition faze. 

Soil fixed

So after scrounging around all my local stored I found some long fiber sphagnum moss. I couldn't find enough to do the 1 part sphagnum + 1 part perlite so I ended up doing 1 part sphagnum + 1 part bark + 1 part coconut fiber. There might be a bit less than 1 part coconut fiber. I'll post pictured for reference. There are a lot of different mixes out there, just make sure there is enough drainage. My previous mix with the sphagnum peat was to dense and did not provide enough aeration to the roots.

long fiber vs not long fiber

Ok so when they say 1 part sphagnum moss and 1 part perlite they mean long fiber sphagnum not the short chopped up black powdery stuff. You can see what I am talking about in the pictures I posted. That mix is being remixed tomorrow. Apparently this type of peat moss will keep the roots too wet and cause root rot :( Learn from my mistake!

Nurseries

I have two plants that I have ordered from cpjungle.com, N.truncata highland version and N.truncata "Queen of Hearts" X "King of Spades" from seed. So far I haven't been able to reach this seller through email. I've sent my money and we'll see if there is anyone on the other side! I'll update with how the rest of my experience with cpjungle goes. I'm hoping they are just super busy and cant respond to emails very fast (it has been three days).

My other four plants came from cobraplant.com. These people are incredibly helpful, fast to respond, have relatively low prices, and ship their plants very fast and secure. I would advise buying from them if you need anything they have!

My Plants

N.boschania X densiflora, arrived in August 2010. The leaves that are turned away have a similar red coloring to the pitchers shown. Two pitchers with a third starting on the other side.

N.singalana, arrived august 2010. This plant has two pitchers and it has three (possibly a fourth) growing on it.

N.miranda (possibly a X I've lost the tag :( ) This plant and the next one are the ones that survived three weeks without water. The sanguinea shows much more wear from the experience than the miranda. You can see here now that I have it in proper lighting the leaves are darkening and there is a red tint starting to show through. They should continue to redden. It has two potential pitchers starting up. Arrived around Feb. 2010

N.sanguinea , arrived around feb. 2010. You can see the deformed leaves and the spotting from when it basically died off. It shot that new leaf straight up right after I started watering it and then started another new leaf before it stopped completely. It isn't growing very much at all now but at least it isn't dieing yet!

I have two 55 watt compact fluorescent lights (300 watt equiv each) that I have on between 10-12 hours a day. I have no windows that would provide enough light so I have these on at night and I keep the plants in this corner of the room where they receive little to no light to simulate a "night" time. I taped black duct tape on two sheets of foil to create a sturdy reflective wall so I'm not blinded by these lights while I am still awake. I take it down during the day so it isn't too ugly... it also serves to reflect more of the light back onto the plants. My first version didn't have the duct tape and the foil wore out pretty quick. This version can be folded up and put in a corner without too much degradation of the foil.

I put the shorter plants on extra pots to raise them up to the level of the other plants so they all receive approximately the same amount of light. The tips of the lights are between 5-7 inches above the highest part of the plant.  

Terrariums... no...no...no. Oh... and let your plants adjust

Small spaces....sealed walls....heat...light.....  = mold  = sick plants. For a large portion of nepenthes (some lowlanders excluded) they can be acclimated to low humidity areas, a lot make great house plants. A lot of places in the US you can actually have these plants outside in hanging pots or planted directly in the ground!! Just make sure they have the correct light and soil. When you put these plants in terrariums you add a lot of negative potentials for an unnecessary benefit.

When you get your plant in the mail it will most likely be in some form of container. Depending on how you get your plant shipped to you you have a few options for acclimating your plant. If your plant came potted it probably has some form of clear plastic container over the plant itself (if not you can make one out of a clear plastic disposable cup). A good/easy way to allow your plant to adjust is two punch 4-6 holes in the clear container, and every week add another few holes until the cup isn't needed anymore. Depending on how big of a change your plant is having you can extend the process by adding less holes and/or extending the time between adding new holes.

If your plant is shipped to you bare root you will probably want to pot it in an appropriately sized pot and the correct soil mix. Some people use only long fiber sphagnum moss. You can duplicate the process with the plastic cup by putting the potted plant (or if your plant came with moss wrapped around the roots you can just put the whole thing into a bag) and close the plastic bag over the pot and plant. Similar to punching holes in the cup you can slowly open the bag until the plant is completely uncovered/adjusted. Make sure to get your plant the right amount of light even when it is still adjusting!


Nepenthes have fragile root systems. Particularly young plants. When potting a bare root plant be very careful with the roots or you could lose your plant. This is why in some cases if your plant shows up with moss wrapped around the roots it is best to just leave the moss there and either bag the whole plant + moss for the adjustment period, or plant the root with the moss still intact so you don't accidentally break off any fragile roots.