Expert: Christopher Littrell - 5/26/2009

Question
QUESTION: hello i bought one of these a few weeks ago had 3 small pitchers just getting started the tendrels are turning brown and the pitchers are dieing , i have it under strong flourecsent lighting and i gets a little filtered sun light i use only distalled water growing in spaghnum moss cocco fiber  little pet moss light is about 8-10 inches from top of plant . what is happing . i heard somewhere  that the pithcers and tendrels dont like to get wet is this true can you help. thanks oh humidity is about 50-60  and temp is 70-60

ANSWER: Hello Daniel,

There are a couple things that could be happening to your plant.

Nepenthes tendrils and pitchers do fine when wet, they get rained on all the time in the wild.

The main problems usually are too little light, too drastic a change in humidity, or chemicals and fertilizers coming in contact with the tendrils.

What lumen intensity is your florescent light? Nepenthes need intense light to grow properly. Small Nepenthes do well under 12000 lumens of light at a distance of up to 6-8 inches. As the plant gets largter it will need more light. I place my Nepenthes in a south window and have 12000 lumens of florescent lights over them at the same time.

If the humidity level it was previously grown in was higher than the humidity level you grow it in now it will respond by loosing its pitchers and failing to pitcher for several weeks or months. Check with the grower about the humidity levels. You can place a clear plastic bag over the plant and punch half a dozen 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch holes in the bag every 3 days until the bag is no longer holding in humidity. Remove the bag after a couple weeks of that treatment and the plant should be better adapted to your home humidity.

If the plant was fertilized or if chemicals were sprayed on or near the plant recently it could have damaged the tendrils. Similarly, touching and knocking the tendrils around can bruise them or dry them out and cause them to fail to pitcher.

Temperature changes can also affect pitcher formation in Nepenthes if the plant gets a very different temperature than it was initially grown in and if the temperature changes drastically over the course of a few hours.

Check to ensure that there are no A/C vents near the plant or blowing on it. A/C dries the atmosphere and lowers the humidity level. While the general humidity in your home might be 50%, any vents blowing directly on the plant would lower the humidity on the plant and dry its leaves out.

I hope you find the problem and get your plant pitchering again,

Christopher

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hello again the florescent light iam using is a coral life aquarium strip brand new the light puts out 6700 k what ever that is in lumens not sure i have my plants on a rod iron stand against a mirrored wall all of my other plants are good sundews and other pitcher plants i think maybe its just trying to adjust to the new conditions i have my pitcher plants sitting in humidity trays  also i have nepenthes raffilase new leaf has small brown spots but its growing like a weed, has 5 new pitchers seems very healthy what do you think the spots might be? my sundews all are dewy and all have flowers very cool. thanks for any help

Answer
Hello Daniel,

The lumens is the intensity of light at a distance. Kelvin measures the coloration of the light in relation to true sunlight. Whan dealing with plants in general, you will want around 6400 kelvin, simulating the proper color absorbtion for the plants, and you will want the most lumens in intensity you can get for the lighting you can buy. The box or pack the light comes in should give you the intensity in lumens somewhere. In general, a cool white florescent tube from a 40 watt shop light gives off about 3000 lumens. Lumen intensity is more important than kelvin in general. You can have a light that says it is perfectly suited for the right color spectrum that is only about 9 watts that barely gives of a few hundred lumens. Barely enough for an Ivy to survive on. Carnivorous plants in general need much more light than most other plants.

The Corallife light you have is woefully inadequate for growing carnivorous plants beyond small sundews and butterworts in all likelihood. I would suggest you get a couple of cheap shop lights of the double tube 40 watt variety and hang them over your Nepenthes at a distance of about 6-8 inches. Get four tubes of the 40 watt cool white lights or true daylight (closer in kelvin to real sunlight) lights and you should be set to grow your Nepenthes indoors. That setup will give off about 12000 lumens with four tubes of florescent lights. I got my setup of two twin shop lights and a Christmas tree light timer for less than 40 dollars tubes included.

Christopher