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Hello all,

My N. ventricosa has been consistently producing 6+ inch long leaves for the past few months. They have been narrow, flat, and grow straight out and hang down over the sides of the pot. A few weeks ago, it started producing these short (3"), very curled leaves, some with tips that grow at a 180 degree angle from the base, and the tendrils also seem to be a lot more wavy. The plant continues to produce pitchers on the long straight leaves (the latest one hasn't opened yet and is nearly 5" tall), the curly leaves do have soon-to-be-pitcher buds on the tips, and the growing conditions haven't changed (other than warmer temperatures heading into spring). This was my first Nepenthes, so I'm not sure if something is wrong, if this is normal, or if this is a sign of upcoming upper pitcher production, etc.

Someone mentioned that it might be thrips, so I took a magnifying glass and took a look at both sides of all of the curly leaves and did not see anything obvious. Should they be fairly easy to see at, say, 2x magnification? Also, pests shouldn't cause a plant to suddenly produce significantly shorter leaves, would it?

Here is a picture of the plant:

ventricosa01.jpg


Any advice would be great.

Thanks!

Derrick
 
well, thrip damage can cause curling leaves as the leaf trys to grow around the damged areas but by looking at your pic. i cant see anything obvious. Thrip damge looking like a bunch of yellow or bleached areas with a bunch of little black spots on it (the thrips excremet). To see thrips clearly i would advise useing at least a 10x magnicfication lense. It looks like you have the plant in a tank, so the only way it could have gotten thrips is from another plant, thrips are poor flyers and spread from plant to plant by wind currents. I hope you find whatever the problem is and make sure to keep us posted.

-Jon Mungeam
 
Thanks for the info. The leaves didn't look anything like the pictures of thrips-damaged plants I've seen online, but it's good to make sure. I also looked for the black excrement spots, but didn't see any. The plants are actually in my kitchen window which extends about a foot past the outside wall of the house, kind of like half of a greenhouse.
 
Another sure way to check for thrips is to slowly blow on the suspect area, usually dark flowers or leaf crevices. The CO2 in your breath makes them scurry about and will be easy to spot.
 
thats true, but ive never heard of any trips in a house before, aphids ans spider mites yes.
 
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