Nepenthes - leave coloration, sun burn?

[leeslikkers]

Greetings all!

I am fairly new here and have mostly just been reading and lurking but I have a few species of Nepenthes currently. I have read what I can find concerning humidity, lighting, soil and watering and beleive I am following those recommendations to the best of my ability. I have noticed in the last few weeks some discoloration and reddening of some leaves of my plants and was curious if this was normal or possibly "sun burn" effects from my lighting. I have included some pics of the plants and one of the currently housing of them...it is an 12x12x18 Exo tank with syran wrap over the screen to keep up the humidity.

The lighting is a T8, 4 bulbs which are the 6500k. It is mounted approx. 12-14" from the plants...I have noticed a fair amount of new growth on most, if not all the plants since the addition of the new lighting setup.

I water (distilled water, no sodium version) with a spray bottle once a day to make sure they are not drying out...could the sprayed water landing on the leaves produce the discoloration?

Thanks for any help or insight.

(a shot of my "moss" tank, all locally collected...just for fun)

 

[mass]

Can't imagine T8's burning much of anything. My buddy uses T8's and his plants grow right into the lights without issue.
My first instinct says that's frost burn, or cold shock. And seeing your location, it's not too far fetched.
You mentioned every aspect except temps. What kind of temps are they getting, and have they been exposed to any temps in the 30*s lately?

 

[leeslikkers]

Hi Mass, thanks for the reply. I doubted the lighting was the issue but I am new to this...temps are roughly 70-75 day time with 45-50 night time temps. The 1st photo of the Nep with the worst discolorations was recently shipped here so it may be shipping temps/acclimation. Actually all but 1 of them are recent arrivals being shipped here over the last 3-5 weeks.

I assume this plant will be fine, but will the leaf recover or will it be a loss?

I see you are a Michigander as well...care to share from which parts you hail?

Thanks!

 

[mass]

The leaves won't recover, but no worries.. the growth point health is your main concern. If the growth point still looks strong and is moving, then you're gravy. The plant can/will outgrow the shock.
And it's tough to tell from the pic, but that maxima x burkei looks as though that's a natural hue. A lot of Nepenthes take on some great colorations when they're happy.
For example, here's a pic I took yesterday of one of my N. veitchii seedlings: http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n575/mass2256/IMG_4493_zpscae7e220.jpg

I'm about 30min. northeast of Michigan State University.

 

[leeslikkers]

Thanks for the info Mass...I was wondering if some of the hybrids didn't end up with slightly different hued leaves (great looking N. veitchii, thanks for the ref. pic)

Sounds like you are about 2.5 hrs from here...nice to know there are some enthusiasts fairly close.

 

[Plant Planter]

The coloring definitely looks normal for the Nepenthes maxima x burkei and Nepenthes alba, but I think your N. x ventrata is suffering from cold shock.

 

[Nepenthesis]

Are you, by any chance, the one who messaged me on YouTube asking about brown leaves?

I agree with mass, on first instinct the one with the brown patch looks like it got too cold. I left a Nepenthes in the mailbox on a 30F night and it got that. It will live, but you definitely will want to warm up the plants at night. None of them seem to have the red/purple patch bacterial infection stuff.

The rest of them look normal to me.

 

[leeslikkers]

Thanks a ton for all the feedback guys, much appreciated. Pineapple...wasn't me on youtube.