Question
I have a young nepenthes plant that I received about a week ago at a Lowe's. I'm not sure what species it is, but right now, it sits by my bedroom window. At first, I had it in my living room. I sometimes use rain water or water that I leave out for a few days to water it. It and the sphagnum it came in is planted in peat moss in a small plastic pot. I live in Brunswick, Georgia.
When I got the plant, it already had several dead leaves both on the plant and on the medium, and only one pitcher. I trimmed these off, but the next day when I woke up, It looked like the sun had gotten to it in my living room. The leaves were withered and brown, and the leaf edges seemed to curl under. The only pitcher it had had browned and dried up. I moved it back from the window, but I wasn't sure what to do with the damaged leaves. I left them alone for a few days, then trimmed them off. Now, It only has one really good leaf left and one that's half. It's still curled under a little, and the the very top of the stem base is browning. The leaves have yet to recover a shiny covering.
What I want to ask is should I do anything else for this plant, such as remove the medium it came in away from the roots or give it some weakened fertilizer to help it grow? I've heard of others giving theirs this, but mine is still small. So far, I haven't seen any new results with it other than the leaves have stopped deteriorating.

Answer
Hello J,

The only thing you can do now is wait for the plant to recover. Nepenthes are partial sun plants that generally cannot take full sun or very strong, direct window sunlight (was the plant being sold from full shade inside the store or from the slightly shady outside nursery?). They still need strong light, but need some shade from the full heat and ultraviolet light of noon time sunlight.

It sounds like the plant dehydrated as well from a change in humidity levels. Did the plant come in a dome and was the dome immediately removed? Removal of a humidity dome suddenly can cause humidity shock as the humidity levels drastically drop. Nepenthes of most species can adapt to low humidity, but need to do so slowly over several weeks with slightly lower humidity levels dropping gradually over time.

If the growth crown of the vine is damaged, the plant will be unable to grow from that particular point. It will take it a few weeks, possibly a month, to generate a new vine from an alternate growth point along the old vine or near the base of the plant.

Never substitute fertilizer for sunlight, clean water, and proper soil. Plants cannot make much use of fertilizer without first being healthy in what they consider a normal environment. Fertilizer would be akin to vitamins for a human. No amount of vitamins will help a person survive extreme temperatures, starvation, dehydration, and drastic environmental stresses. The same goes for plants and fertilizers. Only when the plant is healthy will the issue of fertilizer be of interest, but by then the Nepenthes will take control of that issue on its own by capturing ants, flies, and roaches in your house. Needless to say, I never fertilize my carnivorous plants, ever (and my Nepenthes are getting too big).

This brings me to the issue of your water supply. You may need to call your water supplier or buy a small do it yourself water quality kit from a fish store. Test your water and find out how hard the water is. If the water is over 50 parts per million in hardness, it has too many mineral salts dissolved in it and can harm carnivorous plants. Nepenthes can survive slightly harder water than most other carnivorous plants, but it is better to go with the lowest hardness you can. Only use rain water, reverse osmosis water, or distilled water if your tap water is too hard or if you are unsure of the hardness of the water. Contrary to popular belief, sitting the water out for a day or so does not purify it in any way. It only allows some of the chlorine gas to dissipate. If the city uses non-gas chlorines, they may well remain locked in the water your giving the plant anyway. The main problem areas would be particulate solids in the water as those cannot be removed by sitting the water out. They can only be removed by steam distillation or reverse osmosis filtration. The mineral solids, like lime, calcium, magnesium, and such are fine for human consumption, but these plants come from areas in which the soil typically does not have much of a mineral content as that would disrupt the Ph level of the soil, killing the plants.

It sounds like time will be the only cure for this plant as of now. Just keep the plant hydrated, not too much, just enough to keep the soil moist at all times. If you have a try under the plant pot, make sure it does not keep standing water in it for very long or very high up the pot as Nepenthes can suffer root rot in standing water for too long near their roots. Just water it every three or four days a little at a time until you see some water seep out the bottom of the pot then stop watering.

Nepenthes are tough plants in general. Many of the common species sold in stores are resilient and can take quite a beating and pop right back up when conditions are right again. To give you an example of this toughness, I planted a simple cutting from a Nepenthes sanguinea (one of the tougher species of Nepenthes) vine straight into moist Nepenthes soil as a kind of experiment. It had no roots and several good leaves for photosynthesis. I watered it the same as the parent plant. It drooped, it curled its leaves, it looked pitiful for a couple months, then one day it perked up and started growing new leaves and pitchers again. When I repotted it, it had grown its own root system. Your plant should perk up and start growing again when it adapts to your home and starts a new growth crown.

Christopher