MOHR Nepenthes Questions Inc. ID

Yes, I've joined the Terraforum for Carnivores, but the admins can't seem to get around to confirming my joining, so I still can't post there, and I really need some advice and and an ID on a new Nep I picked up today at a Publix, of all places.

First, the advice. Last spring, I bought a young tissue-cultured N. miranda hybrid at a reptile show. The plant seems to be doing well, albeit growing more slowly than I'd like, but given that it's winter I'm hoping that it will "take off" come warm weather and longer days. Still, however, it has failed to produce any pitchers. The closest it gets is the elongated tendrils at the end of the leaves, but that's it. I've got it planted in Eco-Earth as substrate, which basically is coconut fiber. I have not fertilized it at all, and it is watered with distilled water and misted two-three times daily with the same. It is in a window facing more or less southeast, and gets several hours of pretty strong sunlight(unless it's cloudy) due to the leaves being gone from all the trees outside. The plant will be more or less two years old this spring. Should I be concerned that it has no pitchers at this point, or is that something that's just going to take a long time with this hybrid? If I DO need to be concerned about the lack of pitchers, what can I do to encourage their growth, or is that something that's just going to have to wait until spring to deal with? Should I repot it into a different substrate, and if so, what? Here is the plant-actually TWO plants-in its six-inch hanging pot:



Now, here's the ID part; I went into a Publix in Columbia, SC, today, on a whim, since I was in the city and I'd never been in a Publix supermarket before, and I needed some groceries, so I figured kill two birds with one stone, right? I get inside, and in their houseplant/flower dept, I see THIS bruiser:



They had this and two rather sorry-looking N. alatas. This plant is huge-leaves over two feet long and good-looking pitchers a foot long, with several small/new pitchers that have not even opened their "lids" yet. It's in an eight-inch pot and fills every bit of it. I hope it will be OK, since the substrate was dry when I got it, and I've since watered it good with distilled water, which is why it was hanging up outside(temps in the mid-50's, have since brought the plant inside), but it wasn't showing signs of dehydration, and at least I can be reasonably assured it wasn't watered with store tap water. It looks like pics I've seen of adult N. miranda hybrids, but I want to be sure so I know what temp ranges it can take(lowland or highland).
Here's some close-ups of the pitchers:




BTW, it cost the same as the sorry-looking little alatas, which were probably beyond helping.

pitbulllady

It looks like an N. fusca but could be N. miranda. I wouldn't worry about the first nep pictured, it can take a LONG time for them to develop pitchers. IMO if your worried about keeping the substrate moist, do a Peat/sphagnum moss mix with some verm or perlite in with it. I always lined the bottom of pot with sphagnum moss any ways to keep substrate from draining out of the holes.

Try e-mailing the mods at terraforums.

Speaking from stomping the jungles, they produce the pitchers, critter catchers, at the time of year that the correct victims are out and about. In Malaysia there is one variety that only makes the traps for about 2 weeks around Sept.

Well first of all that large nep is lovely. I'm not really an expert at IDing, but I do keep carnivores and that looks very much like my miranda. Except bigger. There are certainly better folks to ask on terraforums though, hopefully you've been confirmed by now.
I wouldn't be concerned about the small one since it looks fine aside from lack of pitchers. I've had plants stop pitchering for long periods of time and come out of it just fine. Though if you want to try to coax some pitchers out, you could make sure the humidity is pretty high. My miranda was really fussy in household humidity (probably around 40% where I kept it, and I sprayed it in addition to that) and did much better on my shelf which stays more 60+%. It also looks like it could use a repot. I've never grown neps in just coconut fiber personally, so I don't know if that could the problem or not. I use a 2 : 2 : 1 mix of medium orchid bark, vermiculite, and long fiber sphagnum. I go for airy, more like orchids, because my conditions stay pretty wet (usually). If yours are drier I'd add more sphagnum.
Good luck!

xQuinnx said:

Well first of all that large nep is lovely. I'm not really an expert at IDing, but I do keep carnivores and that looks very much like my miranda. Except bigger. There are certainly better folks to ask on terraforums though, hopefully you've been confirmed by now.
I wouldn't be concerned about the small one since it looks fine aside from lack of pitchers. I've had plants stop pitchering for long periods of time and come out of it just fine. Though if you want to try to coax some pitchers out, you could make sure the humidity is pretty high. My miranda was really fussy in household humidity (probably around 40% where I kept it, and I sprayed it in addition to that) and did much better on my shelf which stays more 60+%. It also looks like it could use a repot. I've never grown neps in just coconut fiber personally, so I don't know if that could the problem or not. I use a 2 : 2 : 1 mix of medium orchid bark, vermiculite, and long fiber sphagnum. I go for airy, more like orchids, because my conditions stay pretty wet (usually). If yours are drier I'd add more sphagnum.
Good luck!

Click to expand...

I have gotten on Terraforums, and they aren't concerned with the young plant not having pitchered yet. No one recommended repotting it, but I'm going to do so anyway. I know it's probably not quite getting the humidity indoors that it wants, but hopefully once the spring arrives and the threat of frost is over, I can move it outdoors where it's more humid. My other two Neps, including the really big one(which has been positively ID'd as a miranda) are in the window at school and are doing great. The smaller one, now ID'd as N. ventrata, a hybrid of N. ventricosa x N. alata, has produced a dozen or more(hard to count 'em there's so many)young pitchers, some of which are just now starting to spill out over the edge of the pot and some really phenomenal growth overall! They get a bit more attention, though, at least during the school week, where I'm able to mist them several times, something I can't do for the one still here at the house.

pitbulllady