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Help me save this nepenthes!

C

CarnivoreSaga

I am a complete beginner with Nepenthes so I only know a little bit of how to care for them so please share your wisdom.

So, last week I saw a large viney Nepenthes in a corner of a small flower shop. It was super dry and looked really sad. I asked how much it was and the lady gave it to me for free. As soon as I got home I took a proper peak in the pot. There were two mature plants and two basils. I cut up the vines and stuck them in some soil. I didn't want to throw them away, but since they were super dry I didn't spend much time on them. I potted the four plants in a 50-50 coconut coir/perlite mix which was all I had available and watered them thoroughly before placing them under a LED grow light in my kitchen. Both the mature plants have tiny buds on several nodes and one has a larger shoot on the top. I am not sure if the buds appeared before or after I repotted them. I placed the basils together in a small pot. Both have tiny, unsuccessful pitchers and several tendrils on the way, again I am not sure how much of that was already there when I got it. I spray the tendrils with water a few times a day which I saw on youtube could help if the humidity levels are not great. I am planning on buying a small indoor greenhouse to put them in to give them the right humidity.

If I am doing something wrong or you have suggestions for what I should do please let me know. I'm including some pictures.

Dropbox - Nepenthes project
 
I would keep the cuttings in a high humidity environment in a location with good light (but not direct sun.) You can just enclose the pot in a bag but make sure you open it regularly to get fresh air inside. Any part of the plant that has roots attached should be fine without any additional humidity, but you should provide more light than it was getting before - that's likely the reason why the pitchers on the plant before are so small. Hopefully your coir is clean enough for CP use as many of the products on the market are not.
 
It all looks good so far. Coconut and perlite seems like it could be a bit dense so you might want to be lighter on the water than if they were in moss. I'd say a mini greenhouse probably isn't worth it unless you live in an actual desert. None of the species found in a garden shop would need particularly high humidity. They'd just outgrow the tent in a year or two anyway. Misting doesn't help too much in my opinion. If it was too dry for pitchers to form raising it for 30 minutes at a time wouldn't do much. What you want to focus on is light. Under artificial light they'll take as much as you can give them. A few months down the line if your plants still don't pitcher try increasing light.
 
I will put them in bags then. The pot in the store was away from the windows and had no additional lights and the basils were covered by vines so maybe my cheap LED lights will be enough? The coir is clean, yes. It's the same one I use on all my plants. I will be switching it over to sphagnum when I get a hold of that.
 
Coconut coir is actually very good soil for Nepenthes as long as its clean. It looks dense but it allows a lot more air into the roots compared to peat.

If you have a window that gets decent light, this plant will probably do quite well there once it has recovered.
 
I live in a very small apartment so there is not much window space, but i suppose I can try to squeeze it between my pings. I'm quite far north so should I place them back under the lights when it gets darker? It's dark by 7pm. The window has 1-2 hours of morning sun
 
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You could always use supplemental light if the window is providing enough.
 
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