As there were a lot of questions of growing new Neps bought from SGF 2008 in the forums, I decided to give some tips on how to acclimatise your new Nepenthes plants to your conditions.
First, You need to decide where you want to grow the plants. Try to find a permanent place and avoid shifting them around. An ideal place for Nepenthes usually have high humidity and considerable amount of sunlight. For most lowland Nepenthes, 70% or above humidity and morning direct sunlight and semi shade throughout the day are ideal for them. These conditions can differ a little bit, depending on the species of the plant. For example, Nepenthes Ampullaria can take more sunlight.
Next, you will need to acclimatise your plants. This process usually take 2-4 weeks to complete. Once your plants are acclimatised, they can grow real fast and start growing beautiful pitchers! Always give them the same amount of water at a regular basis. Only water your plants when the media look and feel dry as over watering can cause the media to waterlog and cause root rot. Potting media like cocopeat retain more water than draining media like peat moss and perlite, so the watering regime will be different.
Some suggest bagging up the plants to increase humidity. Here in Singapore, the humidity level is around 70%, which is good enough for these Nepenthes. There is no need to bag up the plants unless your place is very windy. For windy areas, you can put them in a bag but keep the top open and slowly roll down the bag every alternate days and finally remove the bag.
My N. xGardentech’s growing tip dried out after a few days. I grow it in a windy place, so I place it in a shallow bag to retain the humidity. As a result, a new growing tip emerged right beside the dried tip!
It is perfectly normal to see the existing pitchers drying up. This is part of the acclimatisation process. If your exisiting pitchers are empty try adding some water into the pitchers, till around 1/3 of the pitcher will be fine. You may even see the growing tip of your plant dried up! That happen to my new Nepenthes xGardenTech (Ampullaria x Ventricosa). A new growing tip emerged shortly, which indicate the plant is still doing well!
You will know the plants are acclimatised when they start to grow fast. By this time, your plants are more hardy and will produce wonderful pitchers soon!
Hope these information help you get started in your Nepenthes hobby!
