FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey guys, so a little while ago I made a post a couple of months ago about my ventricosa x aristolochioides and it seemingly not growing any pitchers. Well nearing about 2 months later, the parent plant still hasn't grown any pitchers but it does keep growing leaves.

For awhile I was worried there was root rot or some fungus, so I would spray around the base with some BioAdvanced 3-in-1 every now and then. There's about 2 or 3 new plants that grew from the parent plant, and none of those have pitchers either but they have grown leaves.

In the previous post, some of the leaves on the parent plant were attacked by scale or something that made a few of the leaves black, but it didn't spread to any other part of the plant.

Currently it's in with the rest of the indoor plants in my IKEA grow cabinet, where it's about 72-77 degrees Fahrenheit, there's CPU fans that give good airflow and the humidity with the humidifier ranges from 67-80% during the day, and almost 99% at night. The rest of the highlanders (naga x mira, ramispina and what I think is a regular ventricosa) are all doing fine, growing at the rate nepenthes usually do and they're making new pitchers. They all get the same amount of light, which I'll admit borders on almost being too bright, and with the high humidity I don't have to water them that often. The pot the hybrid is in is about 6 inches deep, about 4.5-5 inches in diameter so there's lots of space for it to grow in the LFS, perlite, orchid bark and vermiculite mixture.

I can take pictures, but looking over the plant there's nothing really notable. No browning or blackening, no mold, no fungus, no algae, no scale, nothing weird around the base of the plant nor any weird smell. It's just a pitcher plant without any pitchers.

One potential explanation is that it doesn't need to grow any.
Carnivorous plants developed carnivory to supplement their nutrient uptake due to the poor soils they evolved in. That it's still growing and producing new leaves, without displaying signs that it may be in distress, is a good sign that it's getting everything it needs.

Here's some pictures to help. It's weird, this was my first Nepenthes and it's the one that's giving me the most trouble. My guess is that I've overwatered it, given the yellowing of some leaves. I checked around the bases of the plants and some of the roots without pulling the plant up and it seems fine. Nothing mushy or browning. It gets lots of light in my grow cabinet on the second shelf, it borders on almost being too bright.

It's definitely thinking about it. For my plants, misting usually promotes pitchering, but your environment sounds like humidity is not the problem. I would try moving it to a different location in your set up. Perhaps the fans are blowing on it too much or something weird like that.

Panman wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 3:03 pm I would try moving it to a different location in your set up. Perhaps the fans are blowing on it too much or something weird like that.

At this point, sure. Why not? I did have it on the bottom shelf where the light gets filtered and there's not fan blowing and only moved it to the second shelf a little over a week ago, where there's a fan and more light. I'll take some wider pictures and what the cabinet looks like when I get home, too.

Maybe it's also because there's like 3 basal shoots at this point, although only one of those had pitchers at one point. Then I repotted the whole mess of plants into a bigger pot and the tiny plant didn't like that and shriveled it's pitchers.

When did you repot? It could take a couple of months for it to stop being mad at you.

I think in May or March.

Like Optique, mine typically don't pitcher over the winter. This, from what I have determined, is not due to a lack of humidity. (RH in my apt over the winter is typically around 15% and my neps do not get the luxury of terrarium life or a humidifier.) Most of my neps (not that I have that many ... don't have room for space hogs) sit in front of my sliding glass doors for the winter, making due with whatever meager sun a MI winter can provide. They won't pitcher until summer when they go outside and get better light. However, I have had some lil fellers that I have allowed to take up some space on my plantstand. Humidity is pretty much the same as the rest of my apt. However, being on the plant stand, they do get MUCH better light than the ones by the sliding doors and they pitcher just fine.

DragonsEye wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 6:30 pm Like Optique, mine typically don't pitcher over the winter.

Well it's summer where I am, so I'm confused. Are we saying "winter" as in how it's winter in the Southern Hemisphere? It's also around 75 degrees, give or take, on the 2nd shelf of the cabinet.

It's also confusing because the other highlanders are making pitchers. 2 are slightly older than seedlings and another is a young to young adult. The 2 lowlanders I have, N. ampullaria "Black Miracle", are still bag acclimating since they only got here last week and were a little rough when I got them.

alecStewart1 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 8:09 pm Well it's summer where I am, so I'm confused. Are we saying "winter" as in how it's winter in the Southern Hemisphere?

No. It's summer for me, right now. And my neps are currently pitchering. However, once fall temps necessitate bringing them inside until the following summer, I will not expect to see any new pitchers unless I have a plant on my lighted plantstand (which isn't very likely).