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Any cause for worry? Nepenthes bottom 2 leaves turning black from tip.

I have a small N. Burbidgeae which I received in the beginning of December and just recently the 2 most bottom set of leaves are turning black from the tip.
I know it's normal for bottom leaves to die off, but usually they die off as brown, don't they?

During the day the temperature is ~90F, and night ~80F. And humidity is ~80%. I live in Thailand.
Soil mixture is 2:1 sphagnum moss - perlite.

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I'm worried because I'm expecting some N. Edwardsiana plants in April and a lot of people say if you can keep an N. Burbidgeae, you can keep an N. Edwardsiana.
 
Your temps are far too warm for highland plants. Your days should be in the 70's with nights dropping into the 50's.
 
Ok wait actually considering I keep this indoors, the temperature is ~80 and nights about ~70. Still high, but not as high as the outside temperatures listed above. Would it be safe in hoping it would adapt?
 
N. burbidgeae is sympatric with N. edwardsiana in the wild, which is probably why you were told that anyone who can keep a burbidgeae can keep an edwardsiana. They both expect a significant drop in temperature at night, as Cthulhu318 said - ~75F daytime and ~50F at night is optimal. Without the cooler temps and nighttime drop, the plant will exhaust itself, and will either struggle to live or just die. However, it's been noted that many highland plants are tolerant of higher temperatures (~80 - ~85F) as long as the nightly drop is steep enough. It isn't perfect, but the plant will grow at least.I use ice bottles to drop the temperature around my highlanders - maybe this will work for you too. As a last resort, you might want to consider sticking the plant in the refrigerator at night. It won't like it as much as a villosa, but it'll certainly like it much more than 70F nights.
 
Also, has the plant grown at all since you got it? If it hasn't, that's probably a reason to worry.
 
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From the image it appears the plant is growing smaller and smaller instead of larger. This is another sign that temperatures are too warm.

Highland Nepenthes will do this (reduce in size) until the point the growth point is simply a nub of undifferentiated tissues, death willl follow after that. So you must get proper temps setup if you want to save your plant.
 
Besides putting it into the fridge, how else can I lower temperature? Is the water bottle method good to ensure adequate cooling? But certainly only for a few hours?

But I'm certainly up for putting it in the fridge if there's no better solution. I can set the fridge to the highest setting and put it in during the night and take it out during the day.

Thank you guys
 
You could also set up an airconditioned environment, but that is bound to be expensive. In a pinch, the refrigerator will be your best bet. Perhaps you could have an ice-chest that you keep in the freezer all day and then you take it out at night and put the plant in it until morning, where you then take the ice-chest and put it back in your freezer.
 
  • #10
Highland (cool growing) Nepenthes really are a chore to keep unless you are willing to pay for the environmental controls.

I must use Air Conditioning in the summer months even though I live in an area which is generally mostly too cold for them much of the year (Minnesota in the USA).
 
  • #11
Besides the heat (which you can reduce the effects of by feeding the plant), your media looks like it's too wet. The premature loss of older leaves is often a direct result of a lack of oxygen at the root zone.
 
  • #12
Besides the heat (which you can reduce the effects of by feeding the plant), your media looks like it's too wet. The premature loss of older leaves is often a direct result of a lack of oxygen at the root zone.

It looks wet, but trust me it's not. It was the result of using flash that made it look extra wet. I water it every 2 days. Sometimes 3 days.

I've decided on using a fridge. You can buy rather inexpensive fridges here in Thailand. So I'll buy a small one and keep it partially open with the plants inside to prevent humidity getting too low
 
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