Expert: Christopher Littrell - 7/15/2007

Question
I have the above plant and need information as to its care.
It came in a very small pot . . . . . . can I repot it without the risk of harming it . . . . and what medium do I use?

Also, I was told to keep the pitchers half full of distilled or rain water only.  Is this correct . . . . . keep it half full?  Use only distilled water?

Thank you for your help!

Richard K.

Answer
Hello Richard,

Nepenthes are quite tolerant of repotting as long as their roots are not too extensively damaged. In this case, you can get a pot large enough to give the plant some growing space and just repot it soil and all into the new pot. Use sphagnum peat moss of the Canadian premium type in the dry bales, not the bags of fertilized moss. Fertilizer in the soil will harm your plant and eventually kill it. In addition to the moss, use coconut husk and orchid bark. In all you should have a mix of 1/3 of peat moss/coconut husk/orchid bark. Some online nurseries sell this mix so there will be no fear of getting a product that has salts or fertilizers added. Do a search for "Nepenthes mix" or check out Sarracenia Northwest's site for details on their soil mixes. Just place this mix into a larger pot and make a depression for your plant with it's old soil, then add soil to top up the pot and hold the plant in place. When you remove the plant from it's old pot, you can just turn it upside down and tap the pot while holding your hand over the plant and soil to keep it from falling, or you can cut the old pot off with shears to keep the plant upright without spilling it's pitcher fluid.

Now on to the question of pitcher fluid. Nepenthes make their own pitcher fluid when they are healthy, so adding distilled water to their pitchers really serves no purpose except to cover over the symptoms of low humidity shock. Nepenthes sometimes experience humidity shock when they are placed in a house with lower humidity than the store or nursery they were bought at, losing their pitchers in the process. A better way of adapting your plant to low humidity would be to place a clear plastic bag over it and punch several 1/4 inch holes in the bag every three days until the bag no longer holds humidity. This should take a couple of weeks. Just punch about 4-6 holes in the bag each time and make sure it holds less humidity over time.After two weeks, the bag should look like Swiss cheese and can be removed. The plant should be adapted to your household humidity and will not have lost it's pitchers. It should also start producing it's own fluid. Placing distilled water in the pitchers actually would keep the plant from cathing and digesting insects as Nepenthes do not rely on water and bacterial action to digest prey, rather, they produce benzoic acid to preserve prey to keep it from decaying while the pitcher produces digestive enzymes like a human stomach to break down the prey over the course of a few hours or days. Putting water in the pitcher would inhibit preservation and digestion while allowing fungus and bacterial decay to occur. Never follow the advice of hardware stores when getting carnivorous plants. I have seen countless carnivorous plants dying in hardware stores, so it is obvious something is wrong with their instructions. I have never added water to the pitchers of my N. sanguinea and it prefers very similar conditions to N. alata. My sanguinea is constantly pitchering and producing it's own fluid with just one misting a day in rather moderate humidity of about 50% I would say.

One way to check if a plant actually uses rain water or it's own fluid for breaking down insects is to spray water over the plant like rain and see if any drops go into the pitchers. Most species of Nepenthes, like N. alata, have fully functional lids that keep water out of the pitcher, so it never made sense to me why anyone would pour water in the pitcher to begin with. If the plant is adapted to your humidity and gets partial sun in a good morning window or about 6000-12000 lumens of florescent light 5-6 inches from it's leaves, it should be producing healthy pitchers and coloration complete with fluid and nectar in and on its pitchers.

One more detail is watering. Nepenthes like water, but only enough to make their soil always moist. They hate standing water on or near their roots as that can cause root rot and kill the plant. Do not use water trays to hold water under the pot for that reason. Just water it like a houseplant every 2-4 days according to soil dryness and get rid of any excess water runoff. You can just recapture the runoff and reuse it on the Nepenthes later if you want. Mist the leaves and pitchers once a day in the morning to give a little added humidity boost. Always use distilled, fresh rain, or reverse osmosis water that has all mineral content removed. Mineral laden tap water or drinking water can alter the Ph of the soil and eventually kill the plant.

Nepenthes like light, but can do without all the direct sun that garden plants need. A good bright morning window or all day sun window is good so long as it does not burn the leaves. You might need to supply a very fine shade cloth or very gauzy curtain to partially cut back on light if leaf burn occurs. Nepenthes typically live under trees, so get partial light all day, sometimes getting direct rays from the sun, sometimes getting shade from tree leaves and branches. Just try to simulate that partial light and modify as needed if you see any problems. Leaf burn means too much light, a failure to produce pitchers or good coloration means the plant is not getting enough light (if it has been previously adapted to low humidity).

Keep up the good care and your Nepenthes will prosper.

Christopher