5 Most Common Mistakes When Growing Nepenthes

hey guys dominic here at red leaf exotics and today i wanted to talk about the five most common mistakes people make when growing nepenthes for the first time so let's talk about the biggest mistake i see all the time mistake number one over watering your plant we're growing nepenthes we are not growing drosera fly traps or penguicula these plants do not want to be sitting in water all the time in the wild they're growing as epiphytes on tree branches or lithophytes on rocks and they have really good drainage nepenthe's roots are very brittle and fine like the hairs on my head and they don't want to be sitting in water because if they do they will rot all the time we get messages and people will send photos their plants look like they're growing in a swamp they have very thin spindly leaves discolored and they just look like they're on the verge of dying and usually it's because they are in really oversized pots loaded with just sphagnum soaking wet and the plant cannot breathe in the roots and the penthes love aeration at the roots they want to be kept evenly moist slightly dry in between watering never sogging soaking wet so let's talk about mistake number two and probably the one that makes me cringe the most potting soil do not plant your nepenthes in soil they will hate you and then they will die and you will not feel good think of nepenthes like orchids they want to be grown in sphagnum pearlite maybe coconut core maybe orchid bark akadama konuma they do not want to be in soil so if you're growing your nepenthes in soil and it doesn't look good well it's because you're growing it in soil sphagnum moss is all around good substrate for nepenthes it's fluffy it holds moisture well and if you mix some perlite in there it will give you extra drainage getting it evenly moist to lightly dry in between waterings is perfect ditch the soil and get your nepenthes into a potting medium that it will love let's move on to mistake number three and that's feeding your nepenthes human food guys last time i checked nepenthes are not pulling up to the mcdonald's drive-through in the wild ordering burger king they're getting all natural nutrients from insects animal poop rainwater so do not feed your nepenthes human food they are not made to digest it i see a lot of people putting hamburger meat just weird human food that is not even good for us in their nepenthes and it might not kill the plant but you will probably notice fungal or bacteria growth inside the pitcher maybe the pitcher will rot and die and you just don't want that the whole point in growing the penties is growing beautiful pictures so you might like burger king or mcdonald's but don't feed it to your nepenthes the penties don't even need a lot of food in the pitcher to do what they do and grow like a couple little insects one cricket per pitcher um some people actually like to put an osmocote pellet in each pitcher but experiment at your own risk i like to keep it natural and use insects moving along to mistake number four and that's too little of light it always gets me when someone sends me a picture of their nepenthes why is my plant not doing good it is in a room with no windows shoved in the corner with like an office lamp shining on it guys nepenthes want a lot of light and i'm not really talking about full sun but bright indirect light bright and glowing you could see in here it's a gray day but it's still really nice and bright if you're not giving your nepenthes enough light they're probably going to decline and eventually die most people that are growing to pent these indoors today are using artificial lights leds are awesome as long as they're made for plants in their full spectrum you should be good to go so don't leave your nepenthes in the dark bring them out into the light and they'll be much happier the fifth and final mistake that i see a lot and probably the most common is too low of humidity now think about where nepenthes come from southeast asia tropical hot humid lowland jungles foggy misty sometimes rainy highland jungles nepenthes are getting a lot of moisture and humidity in their environment and that's what helps them grow and produce these beautiful pitchers hand misting an indoor humidifier a greenhouse with a fogging system anything to give your nepenthes more humidity i see a lot of people growing indoors they just have them hanging up there's a cactus right below them why is my plant not producing pictures i missed it once a day missing your nepenthes once a day just is not good enough they need constant humidity levels and we're talking about 60 and above i mean i have grown nepenthes indoors under really good light um around the 45 range and they still did pitcher but the light source was good i was watering them properly feeding them properly everything else was on point but the humidity was lower that is an extreme case mostly if your humidity is down in the 40 range you're not gonna see pictures on your nepenthes so up the humidity hand miss them a few times a day maybe invest in a in-home humidifier that just blows a nice fog over the plant all day long or get an indoor grow tent in greenhouse and that will really keep the humidity around your plants for smaller plants a terrarium is also a really awesome way to start growing the pempies and keep the humidity around them that they need to picture just keep in mind they eventually vine and get pretty big so you're eventually going to need a really big terrarium to keep them happy and growing so those are the five common mistakes i see all the time amongst nepenthes growers just remember do not keep your plants sitting in water for too long they're not bog plants they want to be evenly moist in between watering to slightly dry ditch the garden soil or potting soil nepenthes hate it they will not grow they will die number three do not over feed them and do not feed them with human food this is beyond bad for them they cannot digest it and it will lead to ugly plants with no pitchers number four bright in direct light and your nepenthes will be so happy don't put them in the dark corner where they're just going to dwindle and die nepenthes love a good strong light level so get some leds in your grow collection and i'm sure the plants will be thriving with pitchers in no time and last low humidity up the humidity invest in a humidifier your plants will be so thankful you did high humidity is so important for picture production and getting these big beautiful colorful pictures on your plants i hope this video has helped you to better grow your nepentheses plants if you have any specific questions put them down below and i'll do my best to get back to you guys as soon as i can thanks for watching guys like comment share and subscribe i'm dominic here at red leaf exotics happy growing guys

Channel: RedLeaf Exotics

Views: 128,010

Keywords: nepenthes, carnivorous plants, tropical pitcher plants, rare plants, exotic plants, house plants

Id: 1Xon4qBoIn0

Length: 6min 59sec (419 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021