Slow-growing N. ventricosa

[TheFury]

Salutations!

I'll jump straight in to my question here. I picked this Nepenthes ventricosa up in early October:

Almost 5 months later, here's the same Nep:

How long is this juvenile phase supposed to last? I know that within the first year, a plant like this should "level up" so to speak and start putting out mature pitchers and larger leaves. This thing is definitely putting out pitchers constantly, but the leaves have hardly gotten bigger.

Is there anything I can do for this plant to get it to pick up the pace a little? Every 3 weeks or so I give it a light misting of dilute orchid fertilizer; every two weeks I squirt some "porridge" made of betta pellet food and water into its pitchers.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Zero]

ventricosa is slow for me.
I have killed one and the others barely vine before the growth tip dies.
I think this is somewhat common.

 

[Dexenthes]

If it's a household plant you can try either increasing the night-time drop, the relative humidity or the amount of light that it receives.

Without all the specific information it's hard to say. I agree with zero, though, the N. ventricosas that I have tortured in the past have all lead slow and excrutiating lives.

 

[Tony Paroubek]

The plant looks much healthier now so I think you are doing all you can do at this point. 5 months is nothing to get a Nepenthes to turn around and begin growing properly. So keep doing what you are doing with the periodic feedings etc

 

[nightsky]

My ventricosa is very slow also. I've had it four years, and it's gone from 2 inches tall to 6 inches tall in that time.

 

[TheFury]

Thanks for the replies! To give more specifics about the conditions:

When I first got the plant, I stuck it in my grow rack. It doesn't look so happy in the first pic because it's still adjusting. About a month ago, I took the plant out of my grow rack and put it in a south facing window. It took a while to acclimate to this place, too - it lost most of its pitchers, but now it's putting out new pitchers, albeit slower than it was doing in my rack.

It gets about 4-5 hours of direct or dappled sun every day, and bright indirect light the rest of the day. Being that I'm in NYC, the air is pretty dry this time of year. Temperature at the window right now (9:13 PM) reads 69 degrees and humidity is at 48% or so. Perhaps a bit dry, I admit.

I'm misting this plant daily. I've watered it with coffee once and am feeding and fertilizing it as described above.

---------- Post added at 09:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 PM ----------

Wow, glad to know that I'm not doing something horribly wrong. For some reason I thought N. ventricosa's hardiness somehow equated to vigorous growth, but I was mistaken.

 

[Soopaman]

---------- Post added at 09:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:13 PM ----------

Wow, glad to know that I'm not doing something horribly wrong. For some reason I thought N. ventricosa's hardiness somehow equated to vigorous growth, but I was mistaken.

The N. ventricosa I have is growing really fast, and puts out a new leaf a week, and currently is inflating 3 pitchers. I got it as a baby 3incher back in July. It's sibling, just to the side of it, in the same tank, is about 3.5-4in in diameter now. Both in the same soil, and same media, albeit for the first month the smaller one was kept in different growing conditions, and almost always dried out. The larger plant is probably 9inches in diameter right now.

The conditions are about 75-80 in the day, with maybe a 10F drop at night. Humidity has fluctuated in the past, but stays about 60-70%, and it's growing under two 65W compact fluorescent bulbs, at 6700 and 10,000K respectively.

Here is a picture of mine (large one on the left, small one on the right, it's hard to pick him out, he almost looks like a little basal)

 

[TheFury]

I went on a six-day vacation and came back and my N. ventricosa had thrown out a HUGE new leaf (well, relatively speaking at least)

It might be time for my Nep to grow up

And while I'm here... a close-up of its nicest pitcher:

 

[justjack]

Meadow View had one over growing their pot and sending out mad root shoots. I wonder their conditions and soil mix?