Question
Hi,
My name is Justin. I live in San Diego CA, and I have a couple questions. My first is about a week ago I asked you about growing nepenthes strictly outdoors here in San Diego and you gave me a website to check out called Nepenthes around the house, and according to that grower if adapted correctly I could grow almost any highland nepenthes in full sun year round in my climate. He has pics of his nepenthes in full sun growing and pitchering quite nicely. I just wanted to run this by you and make sure that this is possible because I am growing what i believe to be and N. Alata and also a ventrata from you guys outside here in SD and they seem to be doing fine. This leads me to my next question which is I have just been having a hard time making the decision on which Nepenthes mix to use with my outdoor Nepenthes. The ingredients I have to use are Long fiber sphagnum, Perlite, orchid bark, and Peat moss. what mix would you rcomend me to use on my outdoor nepenthes. Also the vetrata I bought from you guys about a month ago doesnt seem to hold water to well but im not sure if thats normal and if I just have to water it more often or should I repot it. My last question I have is I have 3 stem cuttings from my mystery ( i think alata) nepenthe and put them in a glass of water in my Northwest window and they are starting to root I didnt use any rooting hormones or high humidity they just are vigorous growers they have 2 sideshoots each. I just want to know When I should pot them up. Phew, sorry for such a long question. Thanks for your time.
Good Growing,
Justin

Answer
Hi Justin,

The varieties you have should do just fine outside in your area.  You just need to transition them slowly if it has been in a shadier area since the plant could experience some leaf burn.  Ventrata's and alata's are such vigorous growers, however, they should adapt nicely.

Equal parts of the ingredients you mentioned would work great.  You could probably leave out the peat moss if you have sphagnum moss.  Nepenthes are tolerant of a variety of mixes as long as they hold some moisture, yet drain quickly.  Our mix drains very fast, and we chose this mix because of our watering style here at our nursery.

Many Nepenthes varieties will root in water.  The faster growing types do it easiest.  When the roots are about 1 inch long, go ahead and pot them up.  Keep them a bit shady for about a month to give the roots time to grow before moving to bright sun.

Good Growing!

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