Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 10/24/2011

Question
Hello my name is Matt and I have a question about my n sanguinea orange plant. I received this plant about 2 months ago from a carnivorous plant website. It arrived looking very fresh and healthy and had about 3 baby pitchers growing from it. It also came potted in a soil mix of peat moss / perlite. I later repotted my plant in lfs with a mix of orchid bark inside of a larger 8 inch pot. I then put the plant in a near a window sill, where it received very strong direct sunlight from around 1-4 pm . A few days after I noticed the pitchers had either burned or wilted. So I pruned them ll off , leaving my plant without any pitchers. And now it has been two months and not even a sign of pitcher development has occured? Since that experience I have experimented with different locations that might be best for my plant. I have also wondered whether my humidity was not enough for the plant. I live in Northridge , CA in southern california and it is late october and the daytime temps range from low 80's - high 90s. Currently my n sanguinea orange plant has moved to my balcony outside my apartment. I have put my plant inside a plastic storage container hoping to create more humidity. I mist my plant at least once a day and since being moved outside , my n sanguinea receives strong direct morning sun for about 3 hrs and then bright indirect sun for the rest of the day. Another reason I moved my plant outside to my balcony is because another plant expert told me that nepenthes need warm days and COOL nights to produce pitchers. Since my plant had been inside at night for so long and it still stays in the 80s indoors I decided to move it outside. One more thing about misting my plant I used to use this metal mister filled with distilled water , until I heard that sometimes metal or copper misters can stop pitcher growth. Since then I have switched to a regular plastic mister? Well I have tried to paint the most accurate picture for you guys and with all this information my big question isn't my plant getting larger growing leaves, or porducing PITCHERS ?


I would really appreciate all your help I have seen pictures of this beautiful plant online and have been waiting so long to see my own plant grow and blossom also :(  

         
         thanks so much

         Matt

Answer
First and foremost, select one location for your plant and leave it there.  Avoid moving your plant around.  It takes time for plants to acclimate to the microclimate of its new location.  If you move the plant every week or so, you're actually delaying the process in which your plant needs to fully acclimate.  So just select a location where you want to grow your plant in the long term, and keep it there.  

Secondly, you need a large dose of patience.  Nepenthes grow relatively slowly compared to other types of tropical plants, and they can take months (yes, months) to acclimate to their new home before they produce a new set of pitchers.  This is especially true if your plant was originally grown in a warm, humid greenhouse before arriving at your home.  The larger the change in growing conditions, the more time it takes for your plant to acclimate.  This is further compounded if your plant was shipped bareroot since it'll take time for the plant to repair any root damage from the shipping process.  Even for us, when we receive Nepenthes from our supplies, we might not see new pitchers for a full year.  So you will need a large dose of patience if you want to grow Nepenthes.

As for N. sanguinea, while it is classified as a highland Nepenthes, it is very adaptable to a wider range of growing conditions than other highland Nepenthes.  I had one growing in my west window for a couple years.  It produce lots of large pitchers.  I didn't mist it, and the summertime humidity was rarely above 30%.  The plant eventually got too large, so I had to move it to the greenhouse.

I strongly recommend that you watch Volume 3 of the Grow Carnivorous Plants DVD series, or at the very least read our care sheet on our main website.
http://www.cobraplant.com/DVD
http://www.cobraplant.com/caresheets

The DVD covers issues of lighting and humidity.  The explanation is too extensive to cover in the the AllExperts format.  Suffice to say that these issues are greatly simplified in the DVD.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin