The Pitcher Plant Project

When I came home just this recent Friday, I was excited to see a big ol’ box waiting for me. A box full of NEPENTHES! Yay! A HUGE thank you to Kinjie Coe for sending all of these wonderful gems. The plants arrived in great condition and I took the them to the greenhouse the next day.  I spent my Saturday moving some plants around and potting up the new babies! Now, I’m still doing a lot of tinkering and experimenting with them and seeing how they’ll grow best in my area. I used to grow them under the dome, but there wasn’t enough light getting through because of the shade cloth. The shade cloth was important as it would keep the heat down in the dome, and I thought that it would be bright enough. Well, the plants were still growing, but I was noticing a lack of pitcher production, as well as a slight lack of color. After doing some reading here and there and getting input from a phenomenal Nepenthes grower, I decided to move the plants out from under the dome and into the main growing area. I temporarily placed them at the shadier end of the greenhouse for a couple of weeks just to acclimate them to stronger light. I could tell that some plants were already reacting positively to that shift. Even in the shady spot of the main greenhouse, it was just a bit brighter than the under the shade cloth. Today I was working on setting up an area for them to grow where the light is bright yet not too direct. It’s under a side of the greenhouse that has some light whitewash, as well as by a window so it’s a little cooler than the rest of the greenhouse. I moved some Sarracenia around and made some room behind the anthocyanin free Sarracenia section. I put some crates on top of the water table so the Nepenthes wouldn’t be sitting in the water, yet they’d have the humidity from the water evaporating. Now that I had a larger Nepenthes space set up, it was time to get everything potted and moved!

Above left: Potting up Nepenthes “Pandora”
Above Right: Potting up Nepenthes “Song of Melancholy”

Above are two Nepenthes from the bunch that Kinjie sent over that I was quite fond of. In actuality, I really like them all! Thanks again Kinjie! Nepenthes are so fascinating. I’ll post updates periodically now that they are in their new spot. For now, I hope that the plants enjoy their new location.

Nepenthes, relocated