Question

nepenthes   Hey im wondering if you can help me. I have myself what i beleive to be a small nepenthes alata pitcher plant that i brought from my local garden centre. I had it on a west facing window ledge and found that the leaves where starting to dry out and turn brown so i moved it to a east facing window ledge instead. I water it with rain water and spray it twice a day to keep the humidity levels high. The plant is placed in a small greenhouse on the window ledge and the humidity level sits between 65% to 80%. The problem im having is that its not producing any pitchers but is producing new bright green leaves, is there anything im not doing or doing wrong?

Nicholas from united kingdom - london

Answer
Hi Nicholas,

Since you have this indoors (I think?  You mentioned greenhouse so I'm a bit confused.) or behind glass, the plant will require a few hours of direct sun to produce pitchers.  Most likely the nursery that had this plant was keeping it very shady, so it wasn't used to brighter light yet.  Since you are in the U.K., and having a Maritime climate similar to us here in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. I'm assuming morning are cloudy often.  Because of that, the Western Exposure is best.  You may see some leaf burn at first, but when new growth starts it will be darker, and most likely you will start seeing pitchers too.  Just cut off any older leaves that burn.

Once you move it to the brighter location, leave it there.  Moving Nepenthes around too much is a leading reason for lack of pitcher production.  The constant disturbance inhibits pitcher production.

Here's more information:  http://www.growcarnivorousplants.com/Articles.asp?ID=266

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.growcarnivorousplants.com