Expert: Christopher Littrell - 10/6/2007

Question
I have a Nepenthes x efflugent koto.  It continues to grow straight and tall.  I have it in a hanging pot.  Will it ever branch out?  How do I handle the continued height, if it does not.  Should the pitchers be pruned after they are quite dried up or before.

Answer
Hello Bruce,

Some Nepenthes species do tend to grow stout vines that can grow upright on their own for a while. I had one that grew six feet tall without support that I had to pot in a large planter on a patio. You might need to do the same, treating it as a floor-based potted plant.

Nepenthes will vine out in different directions as they age, vining from the base of the plant. It might take a couple of years for a particular plant to grow old enough to decide it wants to vine out. If the plant is several feet long, you could try pruning it, but only if you are sure that you can get a foot or so of cutting so you can try rooting the cutting as a separate plant, like with an ivy (make sure the cutting and the parent plant have several good leaves to photosynthesize with). That would keep the plant short enough for your hanging pot and force it to vine out sooner to replace the lost growth point. Do that only if the plant is well established and healthy and is large enough to handle pruning. Personally, I would just let it grow a while and see how it turns out, pruning only as a last ditch effort to get it under control if it gets too tall for any kind of setup.

The pitchers can be pruned after they completely dry out all the way to the tendril. You might notice the bottom half of the pitcher tends to hang around longer after the rest has dried out weeks ago. That bottom green section still has fluid in it that is being absorbed by the plant, so just let the plant completely absorb that fluid so that it gets the last bit of nitrogen out of it and then snip it off. When it does finally brown all the way to the tendril, very little if any fluid will remain in the pitcher and just dessicated insect exoskeletons will be clumped in the bottom of the pitcher.

Hope this helps you with some ideas,

Christopher