Care recommendations for Nepenthes.

[pir]

Hi,

I'm a newer member on this forum, and I'm pretty new to carnivorous plants. I have a pretty small collection, but I am hoping to expand it. Today I am going to order the following Nepenthes:

N. fusca
N. spathulata x glaba
N. truncata

My current Nep experience only includes N. 'Ventrata' and N. ampullaria. The ventrata is pretty successful; it lost most of its pitchers but it's starting to form new ones. I divided it up and both halves are producing basals. I also have 3 or 4 rooted cuttings from the plant. The ventratas sit on my grow rack in a very sunny window with 3-4 hours of bright direct sunlight and several hours of filtered per day. I suspect that the plant is less successful just because of the winter sunlight. It really only started losing pitchers in mid-October when the days were really getting short.

The amp is much more successful. It grows somewhat slowly in the terrarium (under 2 26W CFL bulbs) but it continues to grow and put out new pitchers. Its most recent pitcher is about twice the size of the last one and it's working on a new one currently. I really love that plant.

Anyhoo, I would really appreciate some general advice on the species I listed. I have done some research, but I always appreciate personal advice, too.

Thanks for helping out a newcomer!

 

[Whimgrinder]

Question:
Are your new plants going to live on the rack in front of a window? Do you supply any supplemental lighting, or do the plants only get natural daylight? Any idea what the household humidity is? What is the temperature range in the location you keep the rack? (Ie: night lows and day highs?) this information will allow us to give specific recommendations to enhance your growing conditions. My impression, based on what you have said, is that your results will be less than excellent without supplemental winter lighting.

 

[pir]

Question:
Are your new plants going to live on the rack in front of a window? Do you supply any supplemental lighting, or do the plants only get natural daylight? Any idea what the household humidity is? What is the temperature range in the location you keep the rack? (Ie: night lows and day highs?) this information will allow us to give specific recommendations to enhance your growing conditions. My impression, based on what you have said, is that your results will be less than excellent without supplemental winter lighting.

At this point, I don't have any supplemental lighting, but I'm going to add one or two CFL bulbs over everything soon. The ventratas have only been on the rack for about a week (new rack), before they were on a bookshelf where they got much less direct light. Although it's probably too soon to tell definitively, the plants seem to have been doing better ever since I put them on the rack, where they get probably an hour or two more time in direct sunlight from being higher than where the tree outside of the window blocks a lot of light during the day. Before, they were getting about 2 hours per day. Even right now, the sun is extremely bright on them.
The temperature range for this time of year is about 70-75F from noon-3pm and 55-60F at night. The humidity is 35-40%, and I mist the plants with a spray bottle 2-3 times per day.