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Hello all! I’m new to the group as of (checks watch) 39 seconds ago.… | Carnivorous Corner 🇺🇸 | Planta-community

Dani

Hello all! I’m new to the group as of (checks watch) 39 seconds ago. I went back to my local nursery on payday to grab a sweet looking monkey pitcher plant I had been eyeballing and the worker said “I’m so mad at myself. I forgot to water, but I’ll give it to you for half off.” I thought about it, but I’m new to carnivorous plants, they need special water, no fertilizer, very specific conditions, and was worried about buying a plant that’s already half-dead looking. So they had this smaller one that was pretty similar looking but only labeled nepenthes, and it looked a lot healthier. I’m bummed but I wanted a new friend to hopefully help with little gnats. I googled the photo and it said this was a “nepenthes x ventrata” variety. I’m in Washington, I have 5 pets, and a drafty or hot 126 year old house depending on the season. It has to go in my kitty-free-room, and I struggle with heating and cooling. I thought about the more humid bathroom but the door closes more of the day than not to keep the tropical divas happier. But I went ahead and bought a small space heater and humidifier. I have Harold (😂) hanging near my window, with a sheer curtain between. The heater is set to 65°, but it was at 40° in my room before - so an improvement. Come summer I’ll have to break out the A/C unit but I can likely set that to 65° too. 🤣 I did give it a good watering as it looked dry as a bone. The nursery said it was potted with moss etc. so that should be good. I kept it in that pot, with a little plastic catcher underneath. With that background: 1) Is that species identification correct? 2) Any advice is appreciated. I did some googling but I like to talk to real people. 3) Google said: - Not to cut off the pitchers unless they were completely black or brown, but you can see the tops are brown and crispy. So …. Is it still catching bugs, or no? - That you can fill the pitchers with distilled water, but I don’t know if I’m supposed to do that? Or how dire it needs to be before I do. - That it’s a pretty easy plant to care for, just let it be and keep it moist ish and the right humidity. Is a humidifier underneath and my space heater enough? Thanks all!

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7 kommentarer

  1. Pik

    No do not fill the pitchers with distilled water it doesn't do anything for the plant if the juices are gone then that pitcher is done but don't worry it's already making new ones. Rain water is your best pal if you have something to capture it in use that to water them. To help keep humidity for these guys you can have a tray with small rocks for it to sit on to help with retention. There's other more complex methods you can look up to help them keep humidity. As for the type not 100% sure but the major thing is knowing if it's lowland or a higher land one cause care changes. If you can get it from your library or just own it the savage garden revised is great hope this was helpful I'm new to nepenthes myself but this is what I've learned so far

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    • Dani

      Thanks! Yeah I usually try to confirm things several times that I see online. Filling it up seemed odd. I don’t know that I can collect water just because there’s so many birds and stray animals around that it’ll get dirty but I do have those distilled water bottles. I can look into a tiny humidity tray or even put water or rocks in the plastic catcher seen in the photo. No idea about low or high land. Maybe I can call the store back and see if they know, but it was too late last night. 😁

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  2. Pik

    Yeah its really hard to ID them on looks alone. When I bought mine it just came with a this is a nepenthes and nothing else lol. I had also read about the filling the cups so I found a few different youtubers who spoke on it and how it doesn't do anything. All post a pic of mine on there tray.

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  3. Wolfen 🐺

    1) no real way to identify a just nepenthes labeled pitcher plant, unless it has extremely distinct pitchers. There are two main varieties Lowland and Highland. Lowland will prefer warner and more humidity, Highland will prefer cooler and slightly less humid. Most are fairly adaptable, especially if puelrchased from a store, vs like a specialist greenhouse. 2) i have both variety and i dont heat my apartment past 55 in winter (also in WA). I am a bit atrocious at watering frequent water needs plants, so I actually use the tray method with my nepenthes 😅 the only difference from my actual water tray needing carnivorous plants is i fill the tray 1/4 up the pot and allow it to dry out for a day before I rewater. Distilled water is really the best option, though you can do rain, if you want to collect it. You can also fertilize carnivorous plants, its just extremely limited. I use MaxSea which is the go to in the carni community. And I do it like 2-3x a year vs "normal" plants that are more like every 2-3 months. If the pitcher itself is still green it can still be beneficial to the plant. If you hate the crispy top look and there are other pitchers, feel free to snip. The pitchers not having liquid is more than likely due to it being dehydrated, which also very common from box stores. I have personally filled dry pitchers ive gotten from the store with like a teaspoon of distilled. But if say I get a shipped plant, where the pitchers are empty because of movement in shipping, I just allow the plant to refill them naturally. Id suggested getting a cheap hygrometer to check your humidity, its generally not an issue in WA unless you blast heat in winter. I have several Govee ones that connect to my phone and send me an alert if the heat or humidity is too high/low.

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    • Dani

      Oh I actually haven’t even attempted to look inside the pitchers. I just thought it was interesting that Google said they could be refilled 😂 I am trying to leave it alone for a bit since it came home & got watered & hung up. Yeah my one other plant I tried, I’m keeping in a little terrarium type set up sitting in the water and hoping it’s dormant, not dead. I think I left it in the window far too long and it got cold. It may be dead 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ You live and learn. But I wanted one without winter dormancy because I still have bugs lol

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    • Wolfen 🐺

      Oh no, yea that is fair. Sundews and pings are another great option for bugs, and don't go dormant. I find they are better at catching the small bugs too.

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    • Wolfen 🐺

      Caveat.... sundews indoors dont go dormant 🤣 I have a few outside with my American pitchers that die back in winter.

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