Expert: Christopher Littrell - 6/5/2008

Question
Hello Christ,

  My Venus Flytrap is doing fine these days. But,like you said, my nepenthe alata's lower leaves started to die off, including the pitchers. I have been worry about it because my nepenthe only has 8 pitchers and like 5 of them will be gone, since they are all at the bottom. I was wondering if it is ok to cut them off, since it is hurting my heart to see my plant suffering like this. And i have been hearing from my teachers at school that pruning would be nice for many plants since it speeds up the plant's growth. Should I cut the lower leaves? I think they are goinng fall off sooner or later, so why not cut it. Besides, it would be more pleasant to look at...

Answer
Hello Nicol,

Your plant is not really suffering from yellowing and dying leaves. This is a natural process like clipping your fingernails. The plant has no more use for those lower leaves and pitchers and is getting rid of them. Some Nepenthes keep their old pitcher half dead for months at a time as they absorb all the liquid and nitrogen from the bottom of the trap. Just give your plant time to absorb all of those goodies and then it will allow the entire pitcher to die back to the tendril, then clip it off there... the leaves often live for many months longer than the pitchers.

It would not harm the plant to clip off still living pitchers and leaves and it might spur the plant into additional growth, however; Nepenthes do grow somewhat more slowly than most non-carnivorous plants, so do not take too many of its leaves at once. Eventually, as the plant grows out a few feet, you will be able to prune the vine itself and make more plants like you would with an Ivy.

The choice to prune or not is up to you really as it is not going to actually damage your plant to keep those leaves a while longer nor will it harm your plant to clip a few now.

Christopher