We are now offering Nepenthes! This Nepenthes ventricosa is a great beginner Nepenthes. It is slower growing vine with hour glass shaped pitchers. The last photo shows what a mature pitcher will look like. We recommend to grow it in Highland conditions, meaning the plant wants a temperature of 82 degrees F during the day with at least a 10 degree F drop in temperature at night.

Nepenthes are a tropical carnivorous vine with over 150 species and more are being discovered every year. The vine develops pitchers at the end of its leaves. These pitchers produce digestive fluid that trap and digest insects for nutrition.

Lighting: Nepenthes require high filtered light growing conditions. They want to be set in a southern window. If they get too much light it can burn the leaves. but too little light the plant will not produce pitchers. We grow ours under LED grow lights that we leave on for at least 13 hours a day.

Watering: Nepenthes thrive in humid conditions. If they are grown in low humidity the plant may not grow pitchers. Nepenthes do not want to sit in water, they prefer damp substrate like a damp sponge.

Potting mix: Nepenthes grow in airy nutrient poor soil. We use a mix of long fibered sphagnum moss, coco chips and perlite substrate. Nepenthes do not like to have their roots disturbed once they are a few years old so when we repot we will leave the roots in the original substrate and add new substrate around the root ball when placed into a new container.

Temperatures: Nepenthes thrive as an indoor plant. In some warmer southern states Nepenthes may be grown outdoors year round as long as the temperatures ranges between 85 degrees F during the day and not dipping below 50 degrees F at night.

Fertilizing: We use a combination of 17-5-17 with a liquid silica added to 70ppm of total dissolved solids. We over head water three times weekly and fertilize once a week making sure some of the fertilized water enters the traps.

We will ship this plant potted (4 inch pot) via USPS priority mail. Since Nepenthes are a tropical plant we recommend a 72 hour heat pack be added to the order for shipping. We cannot guarantee the pitchers will be intact during shipping but the plant will recover and adapt to its new environment and develop new pitchers over time. We typically ship orders out on Tuesdays. We offer heat packs for shipping during the colder months.