Question
My wife gave me a Miranda Pitcher Plant for my birthday last spring.  It is a young plant; several inches tall.  The top of the plant is green and healthy looking.  The stem, however, is very thin and spindly and looks dried up.  As the top grows bigger the stem can not support it and it's gradually leaning more and more.  The plant is in a east window and receives sunlight for half the day. I mist the plants daily and keep the soil moist but well drained.  The pot is on a moisture tray.  The plant looks odd;  the top is lush and green-the bottom looks like a dried twig.  As the plant grows bigger the stem remains thin.  It does not give the appearance of reaching for the light as  plants will do when the lighting is too weak.  Can you give me an idea of what's going on?  Should I repot the plant and place it deeper in the soil?  Thank you.

Answer

Leilani Hapu'u Nepenth   Hi Daniel,

Your Nepenthes is doing what Nepenthes do.  In nature they are a vine, not really a shrub or herbaceous plant.  As they age they get longer and longer.  The lower stem becomes brown and woody as the end continues to grow.  Depending on the species, and N. x miranda gets very big, they vine can be several feet long.

If you want the plant to say more short and bushy you need to cut it back.  You an root the cuttings, and the base of the plant will develop new shoots from dormant nodes.

For much more in-detail, hands-on information about taking cuttings or general care, our volume #3 DVD can be very helpful.  http://www.growcarnivorousplants.com/Grow-Carnivorous-Plants-DVD-3-p/01113.htm

Good Growing!

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