Question
QUESTION: Hey guys, hope your doing well. I'm planning to repot my Nepenthes rajah pretty soon and was wondering whether I should use a green pot or a white one. My plant is about 12 inches in diameter in a white pot that is also 12 inches in diameter. I was going to repot it into a larger pot(16 inches) and plan to leave it alone for a couple years. It is in my greenhouse which receives 4 hours of morning sun and about 2 hours of late afternoon sun with bright light throughout the day. It has been growing well for me. I might add a fluorescent shop light, but dont think one is necessary just yet. So would the color of the pot matter?

ANSWER: Hi Manny,

I would lean towards the green pot.  It doesn't make that much of a difference, especially in a greenhouse.  There's always some talk about using light colored pots for outdoor plants that prefer cooler roots, and it can help some, but in a greenhouse it is of little consequence.  The reason I would prefer the green pot is that they tend to be more resistant to UV light and cracking, and they just stay nicer looking.  White pots tend to crack easier, and get nasty looking from algae and soil residue.

Your Nepenthes rajah sounds like a beautiful plant.  We have yet to get one up to that size.  How big are the pitchers?

Good Growing!

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

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you. It was a beautiful plant until a little accident it had a couple months ago. I use clear plastic sheet to make my greenhouse so I keep it elevated to keep away from my dogs and cats(they like to rip everything they see). Somehow one of my cats managed to get on to the greenhouse and made several huge holes on it. It was a really dry, windy and rather hot day so the humidity went from 85% down to 15% in what I think was minutes. I was at work at the time so I dont know how long it was kept in the low humidity. It was frightening when I saw the damage. My rajah was the only one affected by the humidity drop, even my villosa seemed fine. The rajah looked wilted, the two pitchers it had were all dry looking, the lower leaves also dried out, and the 3 new tendrils it had turned black. I wasn't sure if it would make it, i cut off all the dying stuff and kept it in high humidity above 90%. Lucky me, it started to grow again and even has a new pitcher forming right now with another 2 leaves shooting down their tendrils. The biggest pitcher that it had with me was around 5-6 inches in hight(not counting the lid) and around 3-4 inches wide. It was a sight. I cant believe I never took a picture. Right now its has like 6 inches of stem above the soil level, which is why I want to repot. It'll be a shame if it aborts the new pitcher forming, but hopefully the incident with my cat wont happen again and come next year, it'll have a couple pitchers on it.

Sorry, i know this is a lot more than what you asked for. On a side not though. I have been experimenting with a small(3 inch in diameter) rajah without a terrarium or greenhouse. Took me 2 weeks to acclimate it, but finally got it to not die in its current location. It is southern California, zone 9. It is kept where the humidity stays below 50%(the average is 20%-30%),sometimes when it rains it will go above 70% but thats a bit on the rare side here in SoCal. I keep it in a 6 inch pot with pure long fiber sphagnum as the soil and it receives around 5-6 hours of direct light. I water it every 2-3 days and it just seems to grow like nothings wrong. It's been in these conditions for over a month and a half. The temperatures have been to their liking, 70s in the day and low 50s at night. We'll see if it changes as they get older. It has lost its previous pitchers, but is forming another with 2 new leaves growing out.  

Answer
Hi Manny,

Despite the mishaps it still sounds like you are doing well with this plant.  It also sounds like it's more adaptable than often thought, which is often the case.

Good Growing!

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