i dont no much about any picher plants but bfrom what i do know you dont need to stress it really doesn't matter because they can find other ways to feed themselvs

CHEERS

Hi, you are doing fine with feeding it. However, if you do not want to mess with that anymore, it is okay to spray them about once a month or twice a month at most with a VERY WEAK spray. You can use your orchid fertilizer, a lot of people do. but mix it about 1/3 the strength you would for orchids. There was someone else who said they mix it even weaker than that but spray once a week. Its your choice. I spray mine every once in a while, whenever I think about it.

In addition to the fertilizer mentioned above, some people also use small amounts of equal balls of Osmocote.

Just to show an alternative approach, Neps don't really need feeding all that often. Mine are beautiful and grow pretty fast without any kind of food throughout the Winter and only a few small bugs that I find dead on windowsills during the Summer.

Don't worry too much about it, just feed it whenever you find a dead insect in your home. Drop it in a pitcher and give it a little shake.

Cheers

Kyle

Thanks everyone. These are some good suggestions. I wonder how they get by on so little food?

Lainey

Dont Put the bag over it, IT will do fine w/ out it.

Cheers

Aside from their carnivorous nature, CP's are just plants. They need light, water, and air circulation - like any other plant. It's our species that play up their carnivorosity.

Another nepenthes question-my nepenthes had pitchers on it when I bought it and the plant looks healthy enough but the pitchers on all the new leaves never developed. I gave it a 1/2 strength liquid fertilizer but still no pitchers. It gets strong bright light and is watered regularly (not so much in winter). What am I doing wrong?

Possibly the humidity aint high enough?

Thanks Kakozord, that's probably it, I live in semi-desert. I'll stick him in a tank and see how it goes.

julie, it also takes a little while for them to adjust to new changes in environment. With any new change it may seem to be fairly dormant for a while until you see it start doing anything. I have had mine to that on occasion when I have changed nothing about the way I care for them, then all of a sudden they will start pushing out pitchers again.

Julie, when did you purchase the plant? As indicated by B28 above, Nepenthes reacts inchanges to their environment and it could take weeks before it resumes pitchering. How are you growing it? Is it outside or on a window sill or in a hanging basket or a terrarium or...?

Hi there! Nepenthes are one of the few carnivorous plants that do appreciate a bit of fertilizer. Epiphytic fertilizers are the best kind, since, like all carnivorous plants, they absorb nutrients through their leaves. Orchid fertilizer is great. I'm using 30-10-10 at 1/4 strength sprayed on the leaves on mine every other week. Both californiacarnivores.com (who published the book The Savage Garden) and also cobraplant.com recommend this method.

Try to get it on the leaves, and as long as you aren't using the tray method, getting a little in the soil is okay (it washes away when you let the water drain freely, which is why they're more tolerant of hard water than other carnivorous plants).

As for getting it to grow new pitchers? I just found a source, cpjungle.com, that says it pitchers best at 75% humidity. Do you have a humidity gauge? It won't harm the plant if it doesn't grow pitchers. 8 moths a week is a LOT of food.

Hi everyone, thanks for the suggestions. This plant has been like it for months now, plenty of time to adjust and I have given it a liquid fertilizer. Its in a nice black mix suitable for ferns. I really think that's its a humidity problem. Its going into to winter now so I'll bring it in from the fern house and put it in an old fish bowl for added moisture and see what happens, I won't know til spring now!

Its in a nice black mix suitable for ferns.

I don't like the sound of that. A mix suitable for ferns probably contains some fertilizer. Nepenthes should be grown in nutrient free soil (i.e. Dried/live sphagnum moss or a mix of peat moss and perlite).

This could be your problem - too much fertilizer causing root burn.

Kyle