Ok, this isn't really an autopsy.... yet. My Nepenthes is still in the process of dying and I am pretty sure it is at the point of no return. I want to figure out what happened to it so I can try again.
First off, I had it for around 7 months give or take a few weeks. I had the plant shipped already potted so I wouldn't have to worry about substrate. The plant was growing in pure sphagnum moss. I kept my pitcher plant in a big terrarium. It is set just right so when I open the lid, condensation (hopefully the purest water in the tank) pools and falls on the plant and thus waters it although the tank is extremely humid so it didn't need much water because the moss was constantly damp to moist. It has been growing that way for a long time and it did its best growing in that tank. The tank is warm during the day and when all the lights go off, it cools a little at night so I figured that would be great for the plant.
Well I went to a convention in March or April for a weekend and my parents didn't keep an eye on my plants and my pitcher plant turned brown and dried out and almost died. All the pitchers died and I was very upset about it. My best guess was low humidity. The lid on the terrarium wasn't shut all the way and there wasn't any condensation on the glass. I watered the plant and it started to recover. It even began to have new growth and was working on a new pitcher. I DID notice spider mites in the terrarium and I was going to move the pitcher plant but I figured that it had been exposed so it probably already had them. I have kept an eye on the plant but haven't seen any of the webbing or mites. The plant was also a little dry so I sat it in the pond in the terrarium for an hour or 2. Well anyways, I don't know if it was the "pond water", the spider mites, or something else that has killed my plant but it has turned brown and is almost completely dead. I will post pictures of it later but I would like to try to figure out what I did wrong (aside from not treating for spider mites and giving the poor plant pond water) and I would really like some help in figuring out the most effective (and possibly slightly more carefree) way to grow Nepenthes ampullaria.
Edit: I ended up throwing the plant out. It was completely dead. The leaves were a light brown and were wrinkled. I'm leaning towards lack of water/low humidity.
First off, I had it for around 7 months give or take a few weeks. I had the plant shipped already potted so I wouldn't have to worry about substrate. The plant was growing in pure sphagnum moss. I kept my pitcher plant in a big terrarium. It is set just right so when I open the lid, condensation (hopefully the purest water in the tank) pools and falls on the plant and thus waters it although the tank is extremely humid so it didn't need much water because the moss was constantly damp to moist. It has been growing that way for a long time and it did its best growing in that tank. The tank is warm during the day and when all the lights go off, it cools a little at night so I figured that would be great for the plant.
Well I went to a convention in March or April for a weekend and my parents didn't keep an eye on my plants and my pitcher plant turned brown and dried out and almost died. All the pitchers died and I was very upset about it. My best guess was low humidity. The lid on the terrarium wasn't shut all the way and there wasn't any condensation on the glass. I watered the plant and it started to recover. It even began to have new growth and was working on a new pitcher. I DID notice spider mites in the terrarium and I was going to move the pitcher plant but I figured that it had been exposed so it probably already had them. I have kept an eye on the plant but haven't seen any of the webbing or mites. The plant was also a little dry so I sat it in the pond in the terrarium for an hour or 2. Well anyways, I don't know if it was the "pond water", the spider mites, or something else that has killed my plant but it has turned brown and is almost completely dead. I will post pictures of it later but I would like to try to figure out what I did wrong (aside from not treating for spider mites and giving the poor plant pond water) and I would really like some help in figuring out the most effective (and possibly slightly more carefree) way to grow Nepenthes ampullaria.
Edit: I ended up throwing the plant out. It was completely dead. The leaves were a light brown and were wrinkled. I'm leaning towards lack of water/low humidity.
Last edited:
