Expert: Sarracenia Northwest - 3/10/2011

Question
Hey guys! I have a quick question as to why my nepenthes sanguinea is not producing pitchers as fast as it once was. I have the sanguinea growing in a small plastic pot under a compact florecent, "soft white" bulb that is a replacement of 100w(as states on box) incandescent bulb. I am watering it with distilled water and use your "nepenthes soil mix" as its soil. I mist it frequently throughout the day as well with distilled water. My question is, why is my nepenthes growing it's pitchers so slow now? It has been weeks, maybe a month, since its last pitcher fully developed. I have reseached a bit online and found that this may be due to lighting but I feel that it has enough light as it sits near a south-facing window and is given artificial lighting(ever since I've had it since last oct-nov). I am just wondering what your thoughts are as I am getting concerned that the pitchers are taking this long to develop when it used to produce them once every 1-2weeks. Thank you for your time reading this and I look forward to a reply soon!
Thanks,
Brandon

****Also, I included two photos of my plant

twitpic.com/480gwo
twitpic.com/480gwr

Answer
Hi Brandon,

Two things may be at play here that is slowing down pitchering.  First is just the day length.  We are still coming out of winter and short days, and even with artificial light they sometimes respond to day length.  We find this even in the greenhouse when the plants have artificial light.  It may have to do with the wavelength and intensity.  If I were to make a hypothesis, I would say it's a response to lack of blue/UV in the short days.  As the days get longer this situation will reverse.

The other issue may be your misting.  I've read a few articles from houseplant experts and this is one of those urban legends about houseplant care that seems to hang on as hard as terrarium growing does for carnivorous plant growing.  What misting does is cause the humidity to see-saw up and down all the time.  The plant is constantly trying to adjust, so it slows down growth.  Nepenthes need steady, unchanging conditions to pitcher.  They need to adapt to the micro-climate of the particular location.  Misting interferes with this.  It's ok once in awhile to give your plants a shower to rinse off dust, but the constant misting may be inhibiting pitchering.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com