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Pitcher size

i didn't want to bring up a really old topic again, but it just hit me. ppl say higher humididy brings larger pitchers. has anyone tried submerging the whole pitcher in water? just curious. Zongyi
 
After reading the moss trick for a bigger pitcher size, I tried letting the pitcher sit in about an inch of standing water at the bottom of my terrarium. It started to look like bad after about a week, so I stopped the experiment.
 
i dont know. im tempted to try it. maybe somone has better luck? have you tried submerging the whole pitcher? Dave, did you let it sit in your water tray or dirty water? it may have caused some problems. i mean really fresh water. Zongyi
 
It was rainwater that included algae,moss and some peat. I think that even pure water would have cause the same problem. It started to look really weak and water-logged.
 
maybe more light will make it stronger. Zongyi
 
I think it is like a math problem. Light + humidity + soil + bugs + room to grow = healthy nep if you got three out of five right, at least. Light and humidity have to be two.

Whatever plant you have will grow best in an environment similar to what it is found in. If you do your homework, or have other people on this website do your homework
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, you should be able to find out exactly what conditions your plant needs to thrive and make big pitchers.

For example, where I live we've been in a freak wet and mild period (even for Florida) for a while. It's been like a rainforest, really. But, between the rains, we get sunshine. I've got 10" N x Mixta pitchers, 6" ventrata pitchers, 3" amp pitchers, 5" coccinea pitchers, and so on. It's just good lowland conditions, room to grow, and all the free bugs we get living here.

The weather is bound to change, but for now I'm taking advantage of it.

I think if you submerge a pitcher it will rot. Just guessing.
 
Bright light is extremely important for the formation of large pitchers on almost all Nepenthes species. especially if you are growing with artificial lights. The catch 22 is that more light makes it warmer and also evaporates water, reducing humidity.
If you can artificially keep humidity up, increase the lighting, make sure you're growing in the correct temperatures for that species, only use pure water for watering, feeding sparingly but often and basically leave the plant alone. You will, in time, have nice big Nepenthes pitchers.
There really isn't a way to skirt around this very basic list of minimal requirements and still get them to grow like you see in books and on the internet. You really do have to go through "all the trouble". Failure to meet their specific needs is what causes many Nepenthes in cultivation to grow half heartedly and eventually pine away and die.
 
I'd say in my expierence light,humidity and water are the most important if you want healthy thriving plants with large pitchers. Indoors, my N. truncata was doing "ok" with 6-8 inch tall pitchers under 2 4ft flourescent lights. Moving outside to the greenhouse, it has increased in leaf and pitcher size under direct sun (with 60% shading in summer). But light was the factor limiting it's growth of pitcher size it seems to me, becuse my greenhouse has MUCH harder conditions that the growchamber. Humdity is decent (50% and higher) but the light did the trick. N. glabrata has purplish leaves right now, I can psot a picture later tonight perhaps.
 
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