Nepenthes care and benefits

[Mendez]

You can use tap water depending on water quality. If you can't find your specific water quality info online, you can always get a TDS meter that will measure ppm in your water. I recognize that I'm pretty fortunate to have clean water straight from the tap with no filter, so tap water may not work for you. But finding out your water quality could save you the money from having to buy an RO system or buying water from elsewhere.

TDS meter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002C0A7ZY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As for the particular species, I would look into a highland or hybrid species that can take cooler temps. I have nepenthes jamban, n. jacquelinea, n. burkei, and a hybrid species that has n. jacquelinea in it. They all do really good in my chameleon room although I do keep them in a separate area because I love them too much and pamper them with higher humidity levels than what is in my cham's cage during the day. A highland or intermediate would make the best plant as they can take the cold nights and still grow. If you go for a lowland species, it may acclimate well, but it would grow slowly. N. burkei or N. ventrata would work well or there's also this:

If you want a nepenthes species that require low light, look into nepenthes aenigma: https://www.carnivero.com/products/nepenthes-aenigma-be-3770?variant=32200344502385

I do also have nepenthes x ventrata that grows perfectly fine in lower humidity and sprouts up some big pitchers. In my experience, it can take cold nights into the upper fifties and highs into the high eighties. Could be a good plant if you were to mount it up near the lights.

Just remember that if you order these plants online, they have been raised in high humidity nurseries so if you place it immediately into your chams cage, the pitchers will die. These plants need to acclimate to the environment before thriving. Once they get acclimated, most of the common species should do fine in the cage. I do keep my nepenthes separate from my chameleons as I love my nepenthes too much to put them in harms way, perhaps I'll move a cutting over sometime soon.

Nepenthes are some of the coolest plants out there, as long as you acclimate them, you will find them quite enjoyable!

 

[jackthejellydragon]

thank you all so much for the help I very much appreciate it. I am looking forward to sharing my nepenthes adventures with you guys soon.

 

[dinomom]

thank you all so much for the help I very much appreciate it. I am looking forward to sharing my nepenthes adventures with you guys soon.

Along with all said above-highland neps do great with veiled conditions. One change I have recently made, and that differs from my neps that AREN'T in cham cages. is to the substrate. They actually do better if they get a chance to drain. Traditional soils consist of long fiber sphagnum moss and perlite, but that is retaining too much water in cham cage with twice daily mistings. So I just repotted with adding some charcoal and large chunks of orchid bark. They actually are a lot like phalenopsis orchids, love to be soaked on the regular but need to drain in between. Soggy roots will rot a nep. same as an orchid. 30-50% day/higher at night is perfect.

Cal Carn grows their highlands in a sort of open greenhouse, so they are used to drier days with warm temps and night humids and down in the 50's, so might not suffer much shock at all.

 

[jamest0o0]

You can use tap water depending on water quality. If you can't find your specific water quality info online, you can always get a TDS meter that will measure ppm in your water. I recognize that I'm pretty fortunate to have clean water straight from the tap with no filter, so tap water may not work for you. But finding out your water quality could save you the money from having to buy an RO system or buying water from elsewhere.

TDS meter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002C0A7ZY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As for the particular species, I would look into a highland or hybrid species that can take cooler temps. I have nepenthes jamban, n. jacquelinea, n. burkei, and a hybrid species that has n. jacquelinea in it. They all do really good in my chameleon room although I do keep them in a separate area because I love them too much and pamper them with higher humidity levels than what is in my cham's cage during the day. A highland or intermediate would make the best plant as they can take the cold nights and still grow. If you go for a lowland species, it may acclimate well, but it would grow slowly. N. burkei or N. ventrata would work well or there's also this:

If you want a nepenthes species that require low light, look into nepenthes aenigma: https://www.carnivero.com/products/nepenthes-aenigma-be-3770?variant=32200344502385

I do also have nepenthes x ventrata that grows perfectly fine in lower humidity and sprouts up some big pitchers. In my experience, it can take cold nights into the upper fifties and highs into the high eighties. Could be a good plant if you were to mount it up near the lights.

Just remember that if you order these plants online, they have been raised in high humidity nurseries so if you place it immediately into your chams cage, the pitchers will die. These plants need to acclimate to the environment before thriving. Once they get acclimated, most of the common species should do fine in the cage. I do keep my nepenthes separate from my chameleons as I love my nepenthes too much to put them in harms way, perhaps I'll move a cutting over sometime soon.

Nepenthes are some of the coolest plants out there, as long as you acclimate them, you will find them quite enjoyable!

I wouldn't recommend using tap water unless it's tested. Carnivores are very sensitive to the mineral content. You could have good quality water with high mineral content(good for most plants/people, bad for carnivorous) But great post either way, I agree with everything you're saying.

And I was nervous about putting my neps in with my chameleon, but they absolutely loved the Parsons enclosure. Probably because they like the higher ambient humidity that Parson's prefer. The pitchers got hugeee. Another thing is, loads of bugs for them to feed on, mainly millipedes/isopods/flies.

 

[jackthejellydragon]

On carnivero I am ordering a large nepenthes ventricosa and I need some substrate and a pot is it okay to put it in a pot larger than the size of plant. Thinking about leaving it out the cage because they are so beautiful and wouldn't want to hurt it. I will probably put it in his cage but im not positive.

 

[Mendez]

On carnivero I am ordering a large nepenthes ventricosa and I need some substrate and a pot is it okay to put it in a pot larger than the size of plant. Thinking about leaving it out the cage because they are so beautiful and wouldn't want to hurt it. I will probably put it in his cage but im not positive.

Yes, it's perfectly fine to pot it in a larger pot. These are plants that grow in a large pot called Earth, so yes, a larger pot will be A-Okay.

I got all of my nepenthes from Carnivero, they do a great job packaging their plants. They grow their plants in a high humidity nursery so do make sure to acclimate it properly if you don't want the pitchers to die. I placed mine in a terrarium that could hold in the humidity so the pitchers wouldn't die. I put my first nepenthes straight into my chameleon's cage and the pitchers died within a week. The pitchers revived slowly each night due to the high humidity, but the low humidity days absolutely slaughtered them. I think some people use a zip lock bag technique where they gradually open the bag an inch per day (or every two days).

Do you have a plan to acclimate them? If not, no worries. The pitchers might die, they might not, but the plant itself will do perfectly fine and will eventually grow new pitchers that are pre-adjusted to the lower humidity levels.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

I have really been wanting to get a nepenthes and put in my adult veiled cham cage, but I have a few questions. I am wondering which nepenthes I should get I have lower temps around 70 degrees ambient temp and 50 to 60 percent humidity.

Quite a few species should do well in those conditions. I got mine at a local garden store, so it's one of the most common/easy to care for. It came in a hanging pot, so I hung it so the pot is about halfway up in the enclosure, has the same Sansi lights, and its growth has more than doubled in 5 months—just had to separate it into 2 pots.

A month ago, we found a place that specializes in carnivorous & water garden plants. They had more species of Nepenthes than I could count, and all were in outdoor greenhouses in the Northeast US.

I have a sansi led light that I can move to work with nepenthes. Which nepenthes do you recommend and how should I take care of it. I do not have anywhere near me to buy it so do you guys know any reputable people to buy from.

Someplace that provides information on care & placement, and will answer any questions.

How do you guys have yours setup. where do you recommend putting it, will have pictures below for you to tell me. I was thinking replacing that fake plant with pothus or nepenthes but he sleeps there and goes there when he Is scared so I am leaning towards pothus in that spot but that empty dragon ledge is probably a good spot and easy for me to care for it.

The Nepenthes I have got quite viney, but nowhere near as much as the pothos in the same amount of time. I have several horizontal-running dowels, and the plant hanger hangs from the highest. There were (before separating them) two plants in the hanger; one grew up and the other grew down. Very easy to care for—water once a week if necessary (distilled), and feed one of the pitchers per plant once a month or so with a dead bug.