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Carnivorous Plants/Cooling a Nepenthes

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Expert: - 1/5/2010


Question
Hello, I've been growing carnivores outdoors and in a sunny windowsill for around 18 months with largely successful results.  I have a nice collection of intermediate nepenthes species, but recently I've been tempted to try some of the fancier highland species. Humidity isn't really a problem in our house; the only issue would be cooling the plant at night. I don't have the space or money for a fancy terrarium setup, so is there any way I can provide cooling at night without hurting my wallet terribly? Thank you for your help.

Answer
Hello Corey,

There are a couple of methods you could try. One is the expensive route and would require a small room air conditioner to lower the temperature in just the room the Nepenthes will be in down to the desired levels. The cheap route would be more labor intensive and would require several plastic bottles or jugs about 3/4 full of ice. Just fill them partly with water and freeze them in your freezer, then place several around the plants you need to cool. By morning they will have melted and will need to placed back in the freezer. You will need to go by trial and error with the number, size and disposition of the bottles by using a temperature gauge near the plants. You would just need to remember to place the bottles each night. The bottle method might work out well enough if you only have one or a few species of small plants to cool, but as they grow in size and number, you would likely have to resort to an air conditioner. The problem then would be keeping your humidity high while cooling your plants as A/C tends to dry out the air.

Christopher

Carnivorous Plants

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Christopher Littrell

Expertise

I am capable of answering questions about the most common carnivorous plants found in cultivation. I have no personal experience with Byblis, Drosophyllum, Aldrovanda, and Heliamphora. I have not cultivated gemmae forming pygmy sundews nor tuberous sundews. For information regarding those aforementioned species, I would suggest contacting other experts. I can answer questions regarding most species of Nepenthes, tropical and temperate Drosera, Mexican Pinguicula, Sarracenias, and Dionaea. I have some limited experience with growing Utricularia, Cephalotus, and Darlingtonia.

Experience

I have grown carnivorous plants off and on for about 27 years. I have made the same mistakes and suffered the same mishaps that many growers make as they attempt to separate the myths from the realities of growing these plants. Currently, I am successfully growing a variety of tropical sundews, a Nepenthes, several Venus Flytraps of varying ages, and Sarracenias. I have been successful in stratifying Sarracenia seeds and providing artificial dormancy requirements for my temperate plants when needed.

Education/Credentials
I hold a Master's degree in Educational Psychology. Over my lifetime, I have constantly read books involving the growing conditions of carnivorous plants. I hope to incorporate the educational aspects involved in psychology with teaching other people how to cultivate carnivorous plants.

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