FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi, my dog knocked over my Purple Pitcher Plant and it lost all of its water. Should I put more water in it now, or just leave it alone. It is a new plant (about 4" tall) from a Lowes store.
Also, I have a problem with spider mites around my garden. Should I be worried that they might attack and eat my VFT and Sundew as well as my Pitcher plant? What can I do to keep my plants healthy and free from insects?

The amount of times dogs knock over plants =O

I wouldnt worry about it myself, theyre always growing new ones even if the water does effect it.

I wouldn't worry. People always freak out about this, at least nothing broke. It doesn't NEED insects and, either way, it'll grow new pitchers.

Purple pitcher plants have their openings facing the sky so they can collect rain water. I would say you would be safe to add (distilled or rain) water to the pitchers, If this were a standard form Sarr - such as Flava - it would be a different case.

As for the spider mites - search around on these forums or try the CPUK forums or Terra Forums. You are sure to find plenty of different CP-Safe brands of miticide. I have successfully used Ortho Orthenex on Dionea before but have no experience with Sarrs. Orthonex is some pretty nasty stuff and I would only recommend it after you have verified from others that it is safe. Even then, I'd try it out on a disposable plant first.

Thanks, everyone, for your good advice.
After reading many of the other forum posts, I feel much more confident in taking care of my new plants!

I thought I read somewhere that water actually negates the effect of digestive juices. It's pretty useless, I would think, to add water.

roey benjamin marcus wrote:I thought I read somewhere that water actually negates the effect of digestive juices. It's pretty useless, I would think, to add water.

The purpurea basically use bacteria to help break down the food, but usually the first year it creates its own digestive juices and the 2nd year use bacterium to break down the food, so i guess if it doesn't have digestive juices then the bacterium will just do the rest. I read about that somewhere, but can't remember where though