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Repotting Lowii x Spectabilis

Nepenthesis

Formerly known as Pineapple
I bought a N. lowii x spectabilis in June and it has been growing well, however the sphagnum topping on the top continues drying out and even though I have been trying to keep it wet, it is turning white. Like it has been wet for the past like two weeks, but because it dried out one day (a few weeks ago) it turned a bit lighter in color and now the growing tips are turning white.

One thing I noticed about the N. lowii x spectabilis is that the medium drains extremely fast. I have kebab skewers in all of my pots to monitor moisture levels in the soil, and usually when I pull them out you can get water off of them, but the one in my N. lowii x spectabilis post is just a tiny bit moist. The medium doesn't have much sphagnum in it, if any, and it is composed of primarily things like lava rock/pumice/perlite, rocky stuff. Maybe some sand and peat too. Does N. lowii x spectabilis do best in these conditions, or did the grower just pot it with what they had? I would like to repot it to hold more moisture and keep the sphagnum on top from turning white, but I don't want to drown a nep that does best in very rocky conditions.

(It can be more humid in there, but all of the sphagnum in the other pots is bright green and growing well with no issues. I have about 50% daytime humidity with my swamp cooler running and about 80% humidity from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM and 90% until like 12:00 PM the next day. For Christmas I'll be attempting to get a fogger, humidistat and thermostat.)
 
The grower probably potted it in a media that suited his or her method of watering. If the media isn't conducive to your watering regime, then naturally you'd want to repot it. Just add some chopped sphagnum to the mix so that it retains more moisture and it'll be fine.

As for whether or not it does best in rocky conditions, this isn't really relevant, save pH levels, if you can't keep the moisture up. There are several species that can be found growing not only terrestrially, but as epiphytes and lithophytes, too. I think Tony posted something a few weeks ago mentioning that Nepenthes do not tolerate truly dry soil, so if nothing else, that could be a starting point on how to repot the plant.
 
The grower probably potted it in a media that suited his or her method of watering. If the media isn't conducive to your watering regime, then naturally you'd want to repot it. Just add some chopped sphagnum to the mix so that it retains more moisture and it'll be fine.

As for whether or not it does best in rocky conditions, this isn't really relevant, save pH levels, if you can't keep the moisture up. There are several species that can be found growing not only terrestrially, but as epiphytes and lithophytes, too. I think Tony posted something a few weeks ago mentioning that Nepenthes do not tolerate truly dry soil, so if nothing else, that could be a starting point on how to repot the plant.

Thank you! I took about 1"-2" of medium out of the top of the pot and replaced it with dead sphag and I then put the live sphag over that. If it doesn't work out, I'll just repot the whole thing. I just didn't want to repot because I didn't want it to abort its two upcoming pitchers since it is my favorite and nicest plant. :)
 
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