What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

What's Under My Nepenthes ventricosa Leaves - Also Weird Growth [PICS]

In the past couple months, I repotted my Nepenthes ventricosa and moved it from a glass block window to under some lights. It started making more leaves pretty fast, but the pitchers wouldn't form. One just turned black after it reached the soil, and another has been small and not growing for maybe a month. I have five or six new leaves, none of which have touched the soil (yet?), and one grew all wrinkly and tucked under itself.

Inspecting the plant today, I saw some weird things, I'm guessing eggs of some sort, under the leaves.

I found a carpet beetle on a sundew and two dead under my grow rack, but I don't think they lay their eggs under leaves.

Picture+79.png


Picture+80.png


Here's a weird leaf:
Picture+81.png


And one of the new leaves looks a little bit eaten away at with brown edging the eaten part.
IMG_9632.JPG



IMG_9627.JPG

As you can see, it looks like it likes its new pot and new lights, putting out so many new pitchers, but they don't grow, and I suspect it has to do with whatever's under the leaves.

Any help is appreciated!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
nectar..
 
First those gooey droplets look like nectar, if you're adventurous you can taste it (touch a finger to it and then to your tongue), it should be very sticky and sweet if it's nectar.

Next it looks like the temps are too warm for that plant. The goofy looking new growth indicates to me that the plant is trying to grow too fast - which is happens when intermediate/HL plants are in warmer conditions than they need/want. They "burn out" by trying to push out new leaves and they come out far too fast and never develop correctly. Try to find someplace cooler for the plant (days no warmer than 85*F and 75-80*F is better) and cool the nights to at around 60*F or so and it should straighten out it's new growth for you. If not try for even cooler nights.
 
Wow, if it's nectar, that's great. It may be too warm there, as it's closer to the heater. The heater blows near it but doesn't hit it directly. (The heater's for the room, not for the plants.) I'll rearrange the rack so it's on the side of the shelf the heater doesn't blow toward. If that's still a problem, I'll put it back up in the window. But by the time I can tell if it's a problem, it won't be heater season anymore.

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure if I'm adventurous enough to taste it.

I bet the real problem is my sleep schedule. I spend my days in the same room as this plant, and I've been waking up around 4pm and going to sleep after the sun comes up, and I have the heat on when I'm down here. So the nights have been warmer than the days. :-(

Heck with it, I'll just keep the heat off from now on, it uses too much electricity anyway.

Thanks so much, I'm glad I (hopefully) don't have a pest.

---------- Post added at 11:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:04 PM ----------

Next it looks like the temps are too warm for that plant. The goofy looking new growth indicates to me that the plant is trying to grow too fast - which is happens when intermediate/HL plants are in warmer conditions than they need/want.

Is this only caused by heat? Could it be the increase in light ever since I moved them to my grow rack from the window? Longer photoperiod on the rack, but I'm not sure that the light's as intense as it was at the brightest in the glass block window.
 
Rather than taste it, since it might be something else, you should be able to just feel it to see if it's nectar. The first picture looks cloudy. I never had cloudy nectar on any of my plants. The second pic doesn't look so cloudy though. Swords is right though. I wondered what it tasted like once so I went ahead and sampled some. It is sickening sweet. Like pure maple syrup, or agave nectar.
 
The increase in light is likely causing an increase in heat as well. Generally more light will make the new leaf growth smaller and more compact but with larger more colorful pitchers - provided temps and humidity and water is all under control. Bright light won't cause the leaves to partially form like this and then start making another and then another and another... A continued growth like this won't continue for very long it will most likely eventually die at the growing tip with each new leaf smaller and smaller.

They often list Nepenthes ventricosa as a lowlander but it has never grown that way for me. I had a cutting of one in my original collection sent to me from some fellow hobbyist and it suffered in LL conditions because I had no more room in my highland chamber. Now I have one that I bought on a whim at Lowes housed in intermediate conditions and it's really not very happy but it's still surviving. Once I get my new HL chamber up and running in a couple weeks it should start to straighten out.
 
Back
Top