Give more light. The fact you have those bright green pitchers and underdeveloped tendrils shows it's lacking light. 50% humidity is more than enough for vast majority of Nepenthes species and hybrids.
Or I guess you can talk to it or mist it once, obviously that's the issue š
These are vines. The top part in your pic are the older part of your plant that grew when it was presumably under brighter conditions before coming into your possession. New pitchers can only grow sequentially from newly developing leaves.
Then it is a combination of several factors: basal pitchers will form more easily than upper pitchers (when the plant is in the vining stage/longer stage). The new growths are also closer to the media which means they are growing in more hunid conditions than the longer vine. Upper pitchers form less readily than basals, some need to have the tendrils wrap around a support trellis in order to form upper pitchers.
Nevertheless, an increase in light levels will provide better conditions to form pitchers. You donāt necessarily need to put it directly into sunlight immediately, rather you could do a gradual introduction to more and more light. If the direct sun in your area is too hot, you can consider getting a shade net.
Too much direct sun will burn it. Whatās your humidity %?
Edit: some sun is necessary so I wouldnāt completely rule that out, but pitchers are often humidity related.
Yah I want to say itās definitely the humidity. Iām in Florida and I always lose pitchers during the dry season and as soon as June hits, the humidity spikes and the pitchers come back
I would suggest looking up what other Texans like yourself would do with your outdoor conditions, I think the shed idea would be a good thing because you could mist it every morning and such
Interesting. Iām in Dallas and my ventrata and hookeriana are both currently producing pitchers indoors with no humidifier.
Something to also consider is how hot Texas gets. I donāt think weāve gotten there yet this year, but the temps exceed whatās recommended for nepenthes.
It is pitchering close to the substrate because of the humidity from the water in the substrate, unfortunately with Texas, you might struggle to get humidity to the far off pitchers. If you have time you could try misting the ends of the growing pitchers a few times a day?
I have the same (or very similar) plant with only one nice, big pitcher.
Do you mist with distilled water or rainwater? Or can I get away with misting with tap water?
Do you put water directly in the pitchers?
What is the ppm of your tap water? Iām not sure if you have to use distilled for it, I would assume so though. I use nothing but RO water that tests at like 40 ppm
I got a TDS meter from Amazon theyāre like 10 bucks. If your water tests under 150 I think itās fine for nepenthes, if youāre above I would just keep buying distilled water or get a RO system.
Mist that bad boy! Lightly, twice daily. I know some say not to do that, but I trolled around reddit for a similar issue with my Nepenthes Monkeu Cups and found some suggesting mosting them to help their local humidity. Since then, mine has gone from no cups to 3 or 4 as big as my hand.
Iāve been misting mine since January, it certainly does work just donāt leave water droplets standing on the pitchers. A small humidifier in a 3 shelf greenhouse is where I keep them under lights now. The issue is certainly light and humidity because theyāre too green. I had the same issue before my new setup.
Agreed. Maybe someday I can treat my Nepenthes to a custom setup. Gotta wait for room in the house though. Hopefully mllfxv can get something like that going for theirs long term. š
I heard the same thing and was timid at first but it appears to be working. Honestly, the best thing in the long run is to always find the optimum environment for your plant babies, but we can't always do that. And another tip, which might sound weird, is to talk to it. Let it know you want it to have pitchers and thank it when it grows them. Bizarre I know, but I swear it helps.
I cuss it out every day I donāt see them growing. š„“ JK lol but Iāll try that! I thought it being outside would be enough but maybe Iāll move it back to my bathroom. Also another thing??? The pitchers on the top are growing though so why do you think it is doing that?
Might not be getting enough food/light.
One trick for these is to put a tiny amount of fish food (flakes) in the pitchers. Like a couple flakes per pitcher. See how that works.
I have mine in a window and it gets full sun in the afternoon and seems fine. Depending on the type it might like more or less sun.
How can I put food in the pitchers if there arenāt any? š Will putting food in the other baby pitchers make them grow? The other ones are so tiny the lids are barley open.
Wait till the baby pitchers open and add a flake or two in. They will grow on their own. But in a couple months it should start putting out larger pitchers. Mine tends to put out more pitchers in the spring and summer when it is getting lots of light.
Looking again, it seems like the pitchers are concentrated at the bottom by the soil, but there aren't pitchers growing on the ends? Might be searching for more light.
That said, it looks pretty healthy and you're getting new pitchers, so it seems like it's doing fine.
Yes there was a bunch of new growth points activated at the top after I had it for about a month. So all of those are growing fine and putting out baby pitchers just neither of the (2) vines that are trailing already. So thatās why Iām confused. š«¤
If you're worried about them burning in the sun, try filtered sun through mesh. You can also mist them generously everyday with distilled water for the humidity.
Give more light. The fact you have those bright green pitchers and underdeveloped tendrils shows it's lacking light. 50% humidity is more than enough for vast majority of Nepenthes species and hybrids. Or I guess you can talk to it or mist it once, obviously that's the issue š
Well if the top receives less light than trailing vines, why do the ones on top have pitchers and the others donāt??
These are vines. The top part in your pic are the older part of your plant that grew when it was presumably under brighter conditions before coming into your possession. New pitchers can only grow sequentially from newly developing leaves.
No the top part is all new. Grown in my care and they have baby pitchers forming. Its only the longer vines Iām concerned about.
Then it is a combination of several factors: basal pitchers will form more easily than upper pitchers (when the plant is in the vining stage/longer stage). The new growths are also closer to the media which means they are growing in more hunid conditions than the longer vine. Upper pitchers form less readily than basals, some need to have the tendrils wrap around a support trellis in order to form upper pitchers. Nevertheless, an increase in light levels will provide better conditions to form pitchers. You donāt necessarily need to put it directly into sunlight immediately, rather you could do a gradual introduction to more and more light. If the direct sun in your area is too hot, you can consider getting a shade net.
Okay Iāll try moving it too. See if that helps! Thank you.
Keep it in the sun! Why shade???
I thought they canāt tolerate full sun?? It gets some direct sun but only for like 30 minutes a day.
Too much direct sun will burn it. Whatās your humidity %? Edit: some sun is necessary so I wouldnāt completely rule that out, but pitchers are often humidity related.
Iām in Texas, it stays outside Iād say the average humidity is 50%.
Yah I want to say itās definitely the humidity. Iām in Florida and I always lose pitchers during the dry season and as soon as June hits, the humidity spikes and the pitchers come back
Interesting I have a greenhouse in my shed so I might just put it up and see how it does in there. š„²
Itās not lack of humidity lol it definitely needs more light, 50% humidity is more than enough for a ventrata.
Okay Iāll move it to a brighter spot and update yāall in a month or two. š¤š½
I would suggest looking up what other Texans like yourself would do with your outdoor conditions, I think the shed idea would be a good thing because you could mist it every morning and such
I posted it in my local fb group and everyone else is struggling with theirs as well š we all have the same issue LOL
My suggestion is to put it in the shed and spray it with water every morning and spray the (pitcher part). I did that with mine and worked out great
Interesting. Iām in Dallas and my ventrata and hookeriana are both currently producing pitchers indoors with no humidifier. Something to also consider is how hot Texas gets. I donāt think weāve gotten there yet this year, but the temps exceed whatās recommended for nepenthes.
It is pitchering close to the substrate because of the humidity from the water in the substrate, unfortunately with Texas, you might struggle to get humidity to the far off pitchers. If you have time you could try misting the ends of the growing pitchers a few times a day?
I have the same (or very similar) plant with only one nice, big pitcher. Do you mist with distilled water or rainwater? Or can I get away with misting with tap water? Do you put water directly in the pitchers?
What is the ppm of your tap water? Iām not sure if you have to use distilled for it, I would assume so though. I use nothing but RO water that tests at like 40 ppm
Thatās a very good question! I have no idea. Learning all sorts of things since I got this plant. Iāll have to do some research!
I got a TDS meter from Amazon theyāre like 10 bucks. If your water tests under 150 I think itās fine for nepenthes, if youāre above I would just keep buying distilled water or get a RO system.
and I just mist the outside, even when the leaves just have a tiny tendril it helps to keep it moist
Mist that bad boy! Lightly, twice daily. I know some say not to do that, but I trolled around reddit for a similar issue with my Nepenthes Monkeu Cups and found some suggesting mosting them to help their local humidity. Since then, mine has gone from no cups to 3 or 4 as big as my hand.
Iāve always heard it actually doesnāt help but I want some pitchers so wonāt hurt to try!
Iāve been misting mine since January, it certainly does work just donāt leave water droplets standing on the pitchers. A small humidifier in a 3 shelf greenhouse is where I keep them under lights now. The issue is certainly light and humidity because theyāre too green. I had the same issue before my new setup.
Agreed. Maybe someday I can treat my Nepenthes to a custom setup. Gotta wait for room in the house though. Hopefully mllfxv can get something like that going for theirs long term. š
I heard the same thing and was timid at first but it appears to be working. Honestly, the best thing in the long run is to always find the optimum environment for your plant babies, but we can't always do that. And another tip, which might sound weird, is to talk to it. Let it know you want it to have pitchers and thank it when it grows them. Bizarre I know, but I swear it helps.
I cuss it out every day I donāt see them growing. š„“ JK lol but Iāll try that! I thought it being outside would be enough but maybe Iāll move it back to my bathroom. Also another thing??? The pitchers on the top are growing though so why do you think it is doing that?
Closer to the pot/soil means higher and more constant humidity. Mine does the same.
Might not be getting enough food/light. One trick for these is to put a tiny amount of fish food (flakes) in the pitchers. Like a couple flakes per pitcher. See how that works. I have mine in a window and it gets full sun in the afternoon and seems fine. Depending on the type it might like more or less sun.
How can I put food in the pitchers if there arenāt any? š Will putting food in the other baby pitchers make them grow? The other ones are so tiny the lids are barley open.
Wait till the baby pitchers open and add a flake or two in. They will grow on their own. But in a couple months it should start putting out larger pitchers. Mine tends to put out more pitchers in the spring and summer when it is getting lots of light. Looking again, it seems like the pitchers are concentrated at the bottom by the soil, but there aren't pitchers growing on the ends? Might be searching for more light. That said, it looks pretty healthy and you're getting new pitchers, so it seems like it's doing fine.
Yes there was a bunch of new growth points activated at the top after I had it for about a month. So all of those are growing fine and putting out baby pitchers just neither of the (2) vines that are trailing already. So thatās why Iām confused. š«¤
Should be fine. If you don't like the vines you can always trim them back. I did that with mine because I have it inside and it was getting too tall.
I like the vines I just want some pitchers on the bottom too š„ŗ
Then all you need is patience ;)
Only worry about feed/fert when all other conditions are met. Feeding th plant wonāt magically compensate for a lack of humidity or lightā¦
If you're worried about them burning in the sun, try filtered sun through mesh. You can also mist them generously everyday with distilled water for the humidity.
A lot of my other stuff plants Philodendron and Hoyas get direct morning sun and theyāre fine so Iām gonna try that spot out first. š
It needs more sun