Question
I have a nepenthe from Lowes that's of an unknown species. When I bought the plant, it came in sealed cube and was growing a new leaf. After buying it, I took it out of its container and put it on a sunny windowsill with sun shining through it for 7 hours a day  in a room that's about 70 degrees all day and night. I've been checking through the course of 2 weeks ,and the plant seems fine ,but the new leaf hasn't opened yet. Is the humidity or light doing this ,or does it just take awhile for leaves on a nepenthe to unfurl? Should I place the plant back in its cube? Since the only thing the instructions state is to keep soil moist, keep the temperature around it above 40 Fahrenheit, and to place it within 1 to 4 feet from a window or fluorescent light.

Answer
Hello Brian,

Unfortunately, those instructions could also be used for an Ivy. A Nepenthes is a plant quite unlike an Ivy. They require quite a bit more light than most houseplants. You can throw those instructions away.

These are the conditions I grow my Nepenthes in:

Room temperatures between 70-85 degrees is fine.

Watering should always keep the soil moist, however; there are two points to consider. One, the water should be low in mineral content. I use distilled or reverse osmosis water, rain water would be good too as minerals over 50-100 parts per million would harm them. The minerals in question are calcium, magnesium and other particulate solids found in tap water. Two, Nepenthes need frequent watering every three or four days to keep their soil moist, but be careful not to leave standing water under the pot for over a day at a time. Standing water near the roots of Nepenthes can cause root rot.

Never fertilize carnivorous plants as the soils they live in are nutrient poor. Plants that evolve to live in nutrient poor soils tend to be harmed or killed by fertilizers in their soil. Use only sphagnum peat moss and orchid bark as potting material in 1:1 ratio. You can even mix some coconut husk in for even greater drainage and make it a 1:1:1 ratio. Just water very frequently and remove any runoff water within a day. Make sure none of the materials you use are fertilized previously as many companies tend to just premix fertilizers in their products without thought for plants that might not require them. Hopefully your plant is in sphagnum moss and orchid bark or at least perlite.

Nepenthes react rather poorly to humidity changes. Being removed from a dome and placed in suddenly lower humidity can dehydrate the plant and cause it to stop pitchering for a while. It may take it a few weeks or even a couple of months before it is back to normal. Nepenthes are tough plants, hard to kill if they at least get most of the right environmental requirements at the right times, even drying and humidity changes might be survived over time as long as the plant is cared for well in the interim. You can replace the dome for now and just punch about 6 1/4 inch holes in it every three days for the next few weeks. After two or three weeks of this gradual humidity lessening, the plant will be acclimated to your home humidity and the dome can be removed. Many species of Nepenthes are quite easily adapted to household humidity levels.

Nepenthes do not require nearly as much light as Venus Flytraps and other garden plants, but do require plenty of light, far more so than Ivy does. Nepenthes tend to live under large trees in the wild and receive partial sunlight between the branches all day long. You can keep the plant in the window for now, however; you may need to add some florescent light over the plant to ensure that it gets enough. I have mine in a North facing window with three banks of florescent shop lights with 40 watt cool white tubes over them (the 3000 lumen variety). This equates to 18000 lumens of light with the plants about 4-6 inches from the lights, plus whatever light comes in the windows. Nepenthes that do not get enough light tend to stop pitchering and lose their coloration and can slow down in growth. In your case, it is hard to tell if light is the problem for now since there are many other environmental considerations to take care of. For tropica species like Nepenthes, leave the lights on for at least 14 to 16 hours a day with a normal 8 hour night cycle if you opt for 16 hours of light. I keep mine on for 16 hours a day.

Remember, Nepenthes are slow growing plants in general. They may take a week or two for one leaf to unfurl, then another 3-8 weeks for a pitcher to form depending on species. Just observe the growth each day and make note of the how fast the plant develops in present, and then later conditions as you tweak each environmental detail as needed.

You can go to sites that sell carnivorous plants, like cobraplant.com and californiacarnivores.com and see if you can try to identify your plant. You might have a hybrid species so it might be difficult to determine exact species, but you may be able to come close. In general, Nepenthes sold in such stores are the easier to obtain and are tougher, easier to grow species.

Christopher