No! the "minerals added for taste" are salts. You need RO water, or distilled water. Or really, use your tap. Nepenthes are pretty tough plants, and less picky than other CPs about the water quality.

To me, I'd think any sudden pitcher loss your experiencing is due to changing growing conditions. I have one of this hybrid, and it dropped all its pitchers when I moved it. They grow back on new leaves.

also, don't cut until they brown all the way to the base of the pitcher. Until then, the plant is absorbing nutrients from the pitcher.

finally, make sure there is water in the bottom of each pitcher. Nurseries have to dump them out so they don't spread insects, but most species will abort any pitcher that is dry.

okay awesome! thanks for the information! i wasn't going to cut them off until they completely browned anyway i felt there was food and energy still going on.. are you sure about the tap water? im scared the water here has stuff in it worst than that infant water... i thought to make a spray bottle of the distilled and water the soil with tap? i figured it was a natural process just wanted some advice!

IMO they are just browning from the top. The pitcher still functions to digest insects for the plant. I normally leave it until it is almost all brown or deflated in some way.

However, as for the question of harming the plant by removing too soon -- no you won't harm it necessarily. The plant still gets food from photosynthesis.

If you are unsure of the water, you can either buy a TDS meter or buy water that you are sure of. Last year, I found a nearby place that gives those refill water at a vending machine outside the store. Those are reverse osmosis water 35-cents per gallon refill, compared to previously buying 1 gallon for 88-cents. That means I can buy more water for the plants, yay!

a new lil baby opened today

It looks awfully hungry... :)

I agree w/ purselanegarden about the TDS meter. I bought one off of eBay for less than $10. Then I bought the Zero Water filter (less than $30) and they give you one as well. Zero water if you haven't seen the commercial takes water with a TDS of... pick a number -- and brings it to zero. They tell you to replace the filter when the TDS rises to *6*.

Being a subscriber to Brad's Greenhouse on YouTube (he's also on Face Book) he discussed watering in one of his vids. He does exclusively carnivorous and orchids. Anyway, he mentions tap water with a TDS of less than 120 is good for your carnivorous plants (he also mentions watching for any additives like chlorine etc). Thankfully my tap water has a TDS of only 28. so I'm good to go after I add a few drops of chlorine remover which I get at the tropical fish store. And I haven't had any problems. So for only a few $$ you could have peace of mind about the water you're using.

Fortunately, for my plants anyways, I live in the South. Where it's hot and humid. During the springtime, aka tornado season, severe thunderstorms dump tons of water on us, haha. Just like it did last week. I collect it in large flexible containers and then use that to fill it up into one gallon bottles that I store, six bottles per crate, in my garage. I originally started doing this for my carnivorous plants, but since there's so much water, I now use it for all of my plants. It's much better than tap. I have filled up every gallon container that I have in my own personal storage and still have plenty of water sitting outside. I really do need to invest in one of those rain barrels. But more thunderstorms always roll through long before I even have a chance to put a dent in my bottled reservoir.

I only collect rainwater when it's a heavy downpour, and it's had more than enough time to flush out any contaminants from the air and off of my roof. The WeatherBug app on my phone comes in handy for tracking the thunderstorms and deciding when to set up my large containers at the most opportune moment. With this method, I've never had to concern myself with the TDS levels in my rainwater. Though I still plan on buying a TDS meter anyways. It never hurts to keep track.

photo synthesis i live in south texas and that is exactly what i did! this reason rain water i just collected and used for the soil mostly

I live in central Arkansas. I've been collecting and storing rainwater for many years now. Now that I've got the hang of it, it doesn't take that much effort, but perhaps a little planning ahead. Another reason why I love using the WeatherBug app and its highly accurate 10 day forecasts.

Another little baby pitcher !

I also have a little one of these got last summer or early fall and all the pitchers dried up after I got it, and there are no new ones. I use distilled water but I wasn't feeding them and now I can't because there aren't any. How do I get it to grow new ones and what do I put in them? Also what about fertilizer? Thanks.

P.S. The plant itself looks healthy.

Great, thank you! Any specific orchid food to use or avoid? I think I have some from miracle gro which I suspect may not be what you had in mind!

Miracle grow will be fine. But mix it at 1/4 of what the instructions say.

So today cut off the brown from my pitcher plant .. :/ idk if I should have and what about repotting it? It's so big when do I know to re pot it?

Repot it next year. I use a peat moss/Perlite mix with a little orchid bark mixed in.

Next year around April ? Sounds good!

Tommy, when spraying with that orchid feed at 1/4 strength, should one avoid getting it on the substrate? I am taking notes over here for my own Nepenthes, it is much smaller than Samantha's big beauty!

Yes, avoid the soil top. Just LIGHTLY spray the leaves. You don't want any runoff. You don't have to be REALLY careful about getting it on the soil if you do it lightly.

Ok, my orchid fertilizer mix has copper in it which I read on here is bad for pitcher plants. Is it still safe to spray in the leaves or do I need a different fertilizer? Also what about a fish emulsion fertilizer? Anyone tried that?

You can use it. Remember, only a LIGHT spraying around the leaves. Don't spray until it starts running off the leaves.

Thanks

Hey! My pitcher plant isn't looking so well :/ I haven't had the chance to buy the orchid fertilizer... Now that I have trimmed the brown off it doesn't hold water as easily.. And there is very little soil.. There is also a strange black on the leaves and suggestions or advice :(

this is where I have him hanging in the early morning it gets just a little direct sun and thru out the day it has indirect light my newest pitchers on the far right and left top and all the other cut pitchers this is one of my newest ones and the top is folded over looks a little weak here is a little one but I don't think it's suppose to be brown.. And a lot of them are like this :( this is the strange black stuff around the leaves what about trimming this brown on the bottom and should I get more moss to top it off its so big and a little loose here I just wanted to get a good view of my pot and how big the plant is.. I hope these photos could help or benefit with someone else thanks!

I fertilize mine once a month. 1/4 teaspoon to a gallon of water, and I flush the soil next day. They respond well.

Looks very healthy to me, but it does look like it may have been too dry in the past, or that the humidity is too low. What is your humidity usually? Direct sun MAY be to much for it... Or it could just be adapting. These plants can take a month or three to adapt to changing conditions.

Pitcher growth points on this type are usually brown.

I live in south Texas Corpus Christi & it's humid a lot like today I walked out to a hot sticky mess so I hope today they will enjoy the weather.. I think it's just adapting

I don't want to move it inside my temp in my apt is always 73 70 maybe as the sun moves I'll figure out if I can move it back so it doesn't get direct sunlight

thanks for the advice and help! :)

89. %

Nice weather! It should love it there.

I agree - just leave it there, and make sure to keep the soil wet. It should be fine. If you notice any big brown patches appear on the leaves facing the sun, you've got sunburn and it needs more shade. Otherwise, in a couple of weeks you should see a burst of growth, and the pitchers may start growing out and reddening up. Keep us updated, please!

Hi Samantha, since you cut the top of the pitcher, you affected its balancing act of having water in the pitcher but the pitcher is still upright. I don't know if the pitcher still will dissolve bugs in that state, but since part of the feature of the pitcher is to make the bug tired and give up and then drown and die, what you might have is just a pool of water for the bugs to swim in before they crawl out.

I can't explain the black dots and stuff on the plant other than it might be fecal matter of some bugs, but as long as they are not eating the leaves or pitchers, they might be harmless to the plant.

The browning tips of the baby pitchers could mean that those tips are drying out and won't be able to become pitchers.

As it gets taller, you may want to have some kind of support for it, so that it won't topple over from its own weight or from a strong gust of wind.

Not too sure about the black spots. But check for aphids. Aphids will suck the sap of the plant and "defecate" a substance in droplets that ants love. If there are no ants around the droplets may just stick there and grow mold (or could it just be dust). I would at least take a hose and see if it washes off. If it does whats probably whats going on. If not you'll need to look up fungus etc... problems that the plant may catch. HTH

Hey guys it's slowly coming together but here are some pictures I took recently

little baby hiding

So cool looking. I need to find one of these in so california.

California Carnivores = https://www.californiacarnivores.com/index.aspx 

HTH

What I am curious about now is how long I will have to wait for petioles and pitchers this size. I have my N. sanguinea, each petiole and pitcher are larger than the last, and it seems to be a fast grower. Noje so large as your beauty thoughm Working on its 3rd pitcher in 2 months, and then my little N. fusca flared peristome. That one lost all its pitchers in shipping. Sanguinea did not lose any but the youngest and least developed. N. fusca is growing a pitcher, but sooooo slowly! May need to pick up a ventricosa later in the season. Keeping my eyes peeled for another big healthy Nep and kicking myself for not jumping. On one last year. Lady luck and Deroose alata are calling my name. ;)

The Dry Garden in Oakland,norcalguy, has largish N.alata. I bit. Now I want to see how it does in Hayward summers..and wintering on the porch where it gets warm winter sun. I hope warm enough.

Nothing looks like them. One is enough!

Could be worse, Kim. I have an over abundance of ventricosa seedlings that are perhaps the size of a quarter. My understanding is that they will take a long time to reach any appreciable size. They do have cute tiny pitchers, though.

I was on this thread awhile back complaining about no pitchers on my small plant. Thanks to Tommy's advice about increasing light and spraying leaves with weakened orchid fertilizer it is doing good now. Lots of small pitchers forming and bigger brighter leaves. Thank you Tommy. Hope yours is doing great too Samantha.

I bought this one yesterday at Home Depot

and I am hoping it will do okay outdoors here. I'm about 2-1/2 miles from the beach in Los Angeles, and so it almost never gets below 43° in the winter, but I will have to mist it often. I do not know if I have enough bugs to keep it happy, however.

I'll try to follow the fertilizer feeding instructions.

Don't bother misting, it does nothing. You mist and 5-10 minutes later it'll be dry most likely.

Can someone tell me what might be wrong with my pitcher plant? We live in north Florida, we brought it in all winter to keep it from freezing. It's not putting on any new pitchers, the older ones are dying off. The leaves have red dots/streaks in them. Tia

That's stress on the leaves. Old pitchers turn brown. It grew well for you last summer it looks like. Its just waiting for warm summer to kick in. Mine too..has that off green color. Just waiting for high 70's and into the 80's to grow.

One other possibility? Indoors,the water never drained..you might have a salt buildup. So now that its outdoors give it a good leaching ...then back to what you did last summer.

HEY GUYS!!

Soooooo my picture plant has been repotted for the summer and I used orchard bark.. and man have they been growing like crazy! I have at least 10 new baby's and more on the way! Over the months of some coldness.. I mean south Texas can only get down to like 40 but I kept him in our restroom above the shower & when spring came around I cut back the ugly black and put him in a little bit bigger of a pot and I feel he's doing great! Any advice?

I don't really use any fertilizer and i sprayed the leaves down with rainwater i can collect and when I don't I use just tap water. Also I feel like spraying them down helps excecially living in such a humid place like I do!

Spraying does nothing as it evaporates within minutes. Just keep it moist at all time. I use a 50/50 mix or peat moss and perlite with a handful of orchid bark. The peat most helps to retain moisture. Bark mix alone isn't a good idea. It dries out too fast for these plants.

Check out what my little dude been eating!!!

Excellent!

Any idea why my leaves are turning brown/red spots? I was keeping it in the kitchen window which gets 4 hrs of am sunliget.

Too much Sun. They like indirect Sun (bright shade).

Makes sense, thanks for the reply.

I have had my maxima in full sun for more than 4hrs with no harm though the leaves did develop a bit of a tan. Tolerance will depend somewhat on the species or hybrid as well as whether the sun in Q is early morning or late morn into early afternoon. If in a windy locale, more sun can often be handled as the wind will help cool off the leaves. Also, an abrupt change in light intensity can cause issues with most any type of plant ... which is why it is best to "harden" plants off. I have found that, in my area, even in a window, the transition from winter sun (weak and rarely seen) to spring sun (much more intense) happens quickly enough that some plants which have been in my SE exposure indoors year round will get sunburned if I am not careful during that seasonal transition..