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Need some tips on making my burkei happy.

I recently recieved a three year old burkei neph from that nice fellow who had that contest in the trading forum. Its a real beaut, looks healthy, and has another small one growing as a bonus.

I want to do my absolute best to make sure this plant lives a long healthy life, and being that I'm a complete newbie to plants of this type, I'd like some tips on a few things.

First, while in transit, the mature and active pitchers got mildly squished unfortunately. Nothing severe, but it did cause a few cracks in them that basically destroys their ability to hold fluid of any kind. Will this kind of trauma to the active pitchers cause the plant any lasting harm? Should I just trim them off since they'll eventually die soon anyways from not being able to retain fluid and sustaining some damage?

Second, I've got a new pitcher that's just about ready to open and turn active. There was a large enough hole between the pitcher and the lid to put some water in, so I did that. I'm curious though if I should put some 2% milk in now as well, as some people here recommend, or if I should wait for it to become fully active before doing so.

Third, the size of the plant prevents me from putting it in my small terrarium, and I don't have anything else at the moment to put it in in order to keep it in a super humid environment. I'm misting it quite frequently to make sure the soil is always moist and that the leaves get a good smattering of water to keep it hydrated. Can I just keep doing this, or is it absolutely necessary for it to be in a contained environment with lots of humidity in order to have healthy growth and pitchers?
 
Fygee,
Those pitchers will dry up and die off, but I wouldn't cut them off until they do. They still contain nutrients valuable to the plant. Just pot it up and let it be. I'd wait until the developing pitcher is open and then feed it a bug or two. Hold off on the milk till the plant is established, imo.

Whether the plant needs more humidity depends on where you live. It may do fine as a windowsill plant, if you don't live where it's too dry. It would do fine here in Northern California, for example, but it might have problems in Denver, CO.

Capslock
 
The whole milk thing is still experimental. If you add milk you may just kill that pitcher as well. It wouldn't harm the plant any but it can be a good way to get rid of a new pitcher in a hurry. I have been trying the milk and formula thing and it is a very delicate to do. It very easily rots the pitcher in a hurry if any of it touches the pitcher itself. Also it WILL rot if it is added to water and not the natural digestive fluid. Caps is right, I got one as well and they do pretty good as general houseplants if you have fair-good humidity.

Joe
 
Alrighty, I'll hold off on the milk thingo then.
smile.gif


I live in Vegas which is basically dry air central during the summer, but its indoors where there's a lot more humidity (though I suppose if you have constant humidity ratings of 15% or less outside, anything more than that will look like a lot more
smile_n_32.gif
). Does the average indoor humidity suffice even if its drier than a mummy's corpse outside?
 
try sugar, or sugar water since your not supposed to mix food with water (i didn't know that untill superimposed hope brought it up)

i've used sugar water before it it kills the pitcher in a few days , but it speeds up growth ime
 
Yeah I am also curious as to the best ways of taking care of this plant as I was also a winner in the previously mentioned contest. One question is how can i go about acclimating this plant to sunlight out side?
 
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