8 Quick Nepenthes Tips for Growing More Pitchers

When a Nepenthes – or pitcher plant – doesn’t grow pitchers it probably means that your plants are not thriving. Don’t worry though, chances are you just need a few tweaks to your Nepenthes care routine.

So, how do I get my pitcher plant to grow pitchers?

As you probably know, growing Nepenthes in a temperate climate is more of a challenge than growing them in a tropical climate. I live in the North of the UK, and it’s certainly not tropical! Left to their own devices in my greenhouse, they wouldn’t have grown pitchers – in fact, they didn’t until I made some changes.

I’ve got eight quick tips on how to grow more pitchers on Nepenthes (and a few bonus tips at the end) that I’ve learned through my own research, experience, and a bit of trial and error.

But first, let me introduce you to three of my Nepenthes of different cultivars so you can see the results of proper care for yourself.

This is a Nepenthes Gaya – it’s a beautiful plant with lovely colours and markings. It did have a lot of red at one point, which I will get into in a moment.

These very dark, almost black pitchers belong to Nepenthes Rebecca Soper, which I divided into two plants. Just look at how many pitchers there are on this one!

Finally, this is a Nepenthes burkei – as you can see, there are loads of pitchers on this plant.

If your plants are still not growing pitchers, have a look at your care routine and see if you are following all the rules that I’ve laid out here.

Let’s jump right in!

1. No Direct Sunlight

Nepenthes need high light, but not direct sunlight. Give them as much diffused light as possible through some kind of shading. Keep an eye on your plants, they will tell you when they are getting too much light by developing a reddish tinge on their leaves, which is what happened to my Nepenthes Gaya.

Where your Nepenthes came from (highlands or lowlands) will determine how easily the leaves turn red. For instance, Rebecca Soper goes red very easily.

2. Don’t Give Them Collected Rainwater

Do not give Nepenthes rainwater that’s been collecting on your roof. Why?

Nepenthes grow epiphytically, usually in moss or on the forest floor – and yours is probably growing in sphagnum moss. These mediums have little to no nutrients, which is why Nepenthes have developed a rather wonderful mutation over millions of years. They are carnivorous plants, so they grow pitchers on the ends of their leaves so that they can catch prey! Amazing, isn’t it?

So, Nepenthes do not need nutrients from their water. That’s why you need to give them reverse-osmosis water or distilled water.

If you don’t have R.O. water, you can give them filtered water or any kind of water that you can get hold of that you know doesn’t have any dissolved solids in it. You can test your water with a TDS meter if you’re not sure.

3. Don’t Let Them Sit in Water

You’ll want to water your Nepenthes pitcher plant daily, but absolutely do not let them sit in water. I’ve got mine in hanging baskets, which absolutely ensures that they’re not sitting in any water.

In gravel trays, the water tends to flow through the medium very easily, which invariably pools at the bottom. They like to be well-drained, so putting them up in hanging baskets guarantees that they don’t get wet feet.

4. Try High Humidity

Although most sources I’ve read say that the effect of high humidity on Nepenthes is negligible, it’s logical to me that, if you want your plants to thrive, more humidity can’t hurt.

Their natural environment is in tropical rainforests, so it makes sense that they do well in higher humidity. In the UK we tend to have high humidity anyway, though, but I do have a hydro fogger to keep a constant humidity of 70% – it’s certainly worth a try if you’re struggling to get your plants to grow more pitchers.

5. Keep Them Warm

This should really go without saying, but my Nepenthes produced the most pitchers during the warmest part of the year.

Lowland Nepenthes need to be kept at a minimum of about 16-17 degrees Celsius, but my highland Nepenthes, the Gaya and the burkei, will tolerate temperatures as low as 12 degrees Celsius at night. However, they need a warmer temperature during the day.

6. Supplement Their Light

In the UK, we have very short days in the middle of winter, where natural light will diminish to around only 6-7 hours per day. So, I supplement my Nepenthes’ light with grow lights for around 11-12 hours a day.

But don’t give them more than that – in the tropics they receive around 11 hours of light per day, so any more than 12 hours is too much. If you want your plant to produce more pitchers, then optimising your plants’ light schedule will certainly help.

7. Let Them Catch Their Own Prey

I have a greenhouse with vents and louvre windows, so insects do find their way in. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see that I often post pictures of my plants (especially my Nepenthes Gaya) catching their own prey. If you don’t follow me on Instagram, head on over to see what I’m talking about.

My greenhouse is very attractive to insects. In fact, I often walk in and wonder where all the insects are… until I look inside the pitchers! It’s amazing to see how many different insects my plants have caught.

And now for the most important tip of all.

This tip is my favorite one and it’s the one that really moved the needle for me…

8. Don’t Let Them Vine

All the previous tips will make a huge difference when Nepenthes don’t grow pitchers, but the one thing that helped when my Nepenthes Rebecca Soper wasn’t producing pitchers had to do with the fact that I let grow into a four-foot vine.

Don’t let your Nepenthes vine if:

• You want it to grow pitchers
• You’re not interested in seeing the flowers
• You don’t want pollination or cross-pollination

Cut them off to the basal shoots, which are obviously at the base of the plant. Basal shoots are far more likely to produce pitchers for you. As soon as I stopped letting my Nepenthes vine, my plants started producing pitchers like they were going out of fashion!

This tip was a game-changer for me – they did bloom when I let them vine, however, the blooms are nothing special unless you’re interested in that kind of thing.

Bonus Tips

Starve Them

If you need to repot your Nepenthes, you shouldn’t repot them into a medium that has any kind of nutrients in it (Nepenthes are epiphytes, remember?). Although it probably won’t kill them, it’s very unlikely that they will produce pitchers. You have to starve them to encourage them to grow pitchers so that they can feed themselves.

Buy Mature Plants

If you’ve never grown Nepenthes before, you’ll know (or you won’t know) that Nepenthes take a long time to get to maturity. But when they do, they grow quite quickly from there.

So, unless you’ve got the patience of job, it’s well worth buying and paying a little bit more for
plants that are more mature.