Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 10/1/2010

Question
Hi.
I purchased a N.Bicarlata a few months ago.It has been
making leaves but no pitchers at all!The tips of the leaves
are usually always brown.
I put it in a terrarium.(It's really small right now!)
I give it about 5 hours of light everyday with all peat moss
soil.The humidity is usually in the middle fifties but the
weathers gone extremely hot over here in California and my
humidity dropped down to 35%...
Please help!
Thanks

Answer
When growing Nepenthes, you have to be extremely patient.  Some species may take up to a year to adjust to new growing conditions, especially if they were shipped bare root.

The brown tips might be related to low humidity, but it could also be related to water high in minerals..  Since you didn't mention your water source, I can't comment on it right now.  Low humidity may be a contributing factor, but in time your plant will acclimate to lower humidity and produce pitchers.  This again takes time, sometimes up to a year.

While you mentioned your plant is getting 5 hours of light, you didn't mention the type of lighting.  Five hours seem a bit low.  This species should get a minimum of 12 hours of lighting.  Since you have it in a terrarium, you should give it artificial lights.  Avoid direct sunlight when growing plants in a terrarium.  This can cause the terrarium to overheat.

So provide more lighting with artificial lights.  Use distilled water if your water source is high in minerals.  Other than that, you need to give your plant time to recover.  In general, plants go in and out of season.  Many Nepenthes stop producing pitchers in summer, but resume in fall.  Others stop in fall and winter and resume in spring and summer.

I strongly suggest watching Volume 3 of the Grow Carnivorous Plants DVD series.
http://www.cobraplant.com/DVD

I also recommend reading our care sheet on Nepenthes.
http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets

Good growing!
Jacob Farin