Growing Nepenthes indoors

Growing Nepenthes indoors

Why Grow Nepenthes inside?

Historical and modern growers alike have great success growing Nepenthes, Heliamphora, Cephalotus and other highland tropicals in a greenhouses around the world. This is evident from hobby greenhouses to many of the large nurseries and suppliers of carnivorous plants.  

I personally have never used a Greenhouse and have had success using a variety of methods to grow highland Nepenthes and other carnivorous plants indoors. With the advancement of grow light technology I’ve found it easier to maintain and control conditions, especially when moving between rentals. This will mainly focus on Nepenthes, but the same methods can be used to grow a variety of highland tropicals inside a home or apartment with or without natural lighting. 

 

Temperature

I A wide range of Nepenthes can handle a wide range of temperatures. I have good results growing a variety of highland to lowland plants in intermediate temperatures.

I use SensorPush sensors to monitor and conditions because otherwise it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on. With this I can see that my kitchen.

I’ve found that plants tend to adapt poorly and will show ill effect quickly for temps too far outside their range. Some respond by stopping growth and pick back up just fine when it’s favorable again. However a few of the most finicky species will slowly decline until they come into range, and die if they don’t improve soon enough. 

Definitely the most likely to kill plants is extreme heat. Some can handle temps >100F (38C) without issues, but sensitive highland plants (eg hamata, heliamphora) will have issues and suffer damage when temps are > 90-95F (32-35C)

For night drop i’ve found most species tolerant of only dropping to 65-70F (18-21C) which is the warmest it is for me naturally in the house. However I’ve tried growing N. aristoloiciodes and N. sp. nov. Papua New Guinea which both promptly decline and eventually died when temps were >60F (16C). 

Humidity

Generally I’ve found most species to be adaptable to lower humidity. Most species will grow faster and some will hold additional pitchers when relative humidity is higher. This also favors molds and disease so rot can be more likely as well with stagnant conditions. 

Currently I grow most of my plants in my normal room humidity which ranges from low 40-80% throughout the day. I have hardier plants in a sunroom which gets considerable hotter and relative humidity will dip down into the low 20s and teens regularly. I’ve found many species surprisingly tolerant of these conditions.  

Growing Nepenthes using natural light or windowsill

Many hardier hybrids and species can do well on a windowsill that gets bright light or in a sun room. In my experience light is the most important factor for most to pitcher.

 

Extreme heat can damage some plants, but many are hardy and and can handle temperatures > 120F (>50C). A shade cloth can be helpful during summer for windows that see afternoon sun and/or if you see signs of burning. 

Growing with artificial lights

Artificial lighting has come a long way and there are many options to artificially light Nepenthes. in the past I’ve used T5 grow lights,  but now use LED with similar results while using less power.

Most Nepenthes don’t require a high amount of light to thrive. A grow light meant for starting seeds, or shop light with high CRI can be used with great success.

 

Right now I’m trying to keep it simple and it’s working so far 🙂 

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