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New Nepenthes

I just bought a small N. ventrata and I have been reading up on how best to take care of them. There is a lot of conflicting information on the internet and I was wondering if anyone had any tips on the best environment for him. I live in Houston, Texas so there is a high humidity level and lots of sun, though I have read that it is alright to keep the plant inside. If I were to keep him inside, is it necessary to keep him in a terrarium? Any tips would be helpful, thank you.
 
Hello, and welcome,

First of all, N. Ventrata is pretty forgiving and a good starter nepenthes. For this one, humidity isn't a huge concern. No Direct sunlight, but bright indirect light, Keep the medium moist, not wet, not dry, dn't let the media dry out. Remember to use distilled, rain, or reverse osmosis water, as tap water usally contains high amounts of harmful minerlas for CP's
 
Your conditions sound nice, just put it on a window and it'd bee fineee. :3 And just use RO or distilled water. Nepenthes have been known to be able to take higher ppm levels in the water
 
I give my Nepenthes Ventrata about 4-5 hours of direct sunlight a day. It gives the pitchers a nice red color and the leaves turn almost yellow
 
Do you mean bronzy red? Yellow isn't to much of a good sign, I must say that direct lighgt is fine when its not to strong.
 
Yes I have mine in the window and it gets direct morning sunlight for about 4 hrs and the rest is just light coming from other places in the room. I get nice red pitchers and the vine itself even turned bronzy red.
 
Yeah, mine got a bronzy reddish. Not yellow, yellow would be a sign of declining health.
 
What kind of temperature range do you guys think these can handle? I just got a HUGE one as a gift, and want to hang it outside, and am trying to decide if its getting too cold (in the mid 50s) at night time.
 
I think 50's is too cold. anything below 55 atleast. 60 is what I would keep temps above. If you hardend it off perhaps. I keep mine at about 65 F and it gets hotter in the window. Humidity is very low probably below 40 in my window. I water tray it every few days and let it dry.
 
  • #10
You also need to avoid excessive heat. Mine was very unhappy and weakened it enough to get killed by mites during the summer. The most it can handle seems to be in the upper 90s.
 
  • #11
I have many ventrata's (due to making oodles of cuttings) so I have experimented a bit.
One I left out side that survived first frost (accidentally). It had been acclimated to outdoor weather conditions for the whole of the season here in s. Oregon zone 8a. 50f should be no problem, just acclimate as a gradual process.
 
  • #12
SOregon - about your watering: do you mean you sit it in a water tray for a bit, or just water and let the excess drain into a tray?
 
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