I'm so sad. This has been my favorite plant ever. I've kept it alive over a year. It put out a ton of new growth this spring, and there are a bunch of tiny new pitchers starting on all these leaves. The problem is it was so over grown I didn't notice the base of the stems were brown until I trimmed all the dead leaves from last year. I think it stopped draining properly. Is it a total gonner, or can something be done at this point. I'm so bummed. Please help!
All of these photos were taken the same day? Looks like it is just discarding old leaves to me. Plant in first photo looks very healthy.
Daniel, I think the first photo is what it looked like last year. However, I also thought it didn't look bad with the old leaves naturally dying off and new growth on each stem. I understand the desire to regain the lushness of the plant as originally purchased, and it can come back a bit more. The soil surface looks a little odd... Did the original poster dig around superficially before the second and third pics? I'm wondering if there was a lot of white to yellow to brown gunk on the surface that was removed. These are bog plants. They shouldn't be in standing water, but neither should they dry out completely. And the water used for them should be soft. Seems to me that overall Texas would be more likely to have hard tap water. You might not want full sun, but bright light, maybe with shifting tree canopy or on a lanai, would be best. They do need high humidity. South east in Texas is probably humid enough, but if there's a drought you will need to increase the humidity around the plant.
I just took all the pics the other day. The new growth looks good, but the stems are brown. I noticed it was in standing water, just not sure how long. I just thought the brown stems were dying starting from the base and working its way down the stems. I didn't touch then surface, no gunk. All I did was trim the dead leaves. That's when I saw the brown stems. The plant has doubled in size since I got it last year, but these new pitchers are quite a bit smaller.
Looks pretty normal to me. Do a search on here on "pitcher plant" or "nepenthes" and you'll see what mine looked like before and after its haircut. Its indoors year round here, and it almost looked like it was undergoing a seasonal change. Its not as lush as it was, but It DID come back. So don't give up on it. I'm going to re-pot it sometime soon, and I'll post photos. Just as a matter of interest: I fed it a wasp two or three weeks ago, and the pitcher I put it in now looks like its half full of chocolate. The pitcher still looks pretty healthy though.
Photos are in this section under "Pitcher plant dying". Sara's Garden and I had the same issues. Be of good cheer Notagardener!
Finally got around to getting pictures of my recovering Nepenthes: The book is just for scale. Two pitchers that are big enough to swallow a mouse. Clearly a carnivore, witness: the dinosaur scales on one pitcher.
Wow! Beautiful!! Thanks for posting them. I noticed mine has some new growth around the dead looking stem area that I was worried about. Such a relief. Mine had a bunch of huge pitchers when I got it, but the new ones are all quite a bit smaller. It has several vines, and one of the vines puts out pitchers that don't open. The lid just stays attached. It's weird, and I'm not sure what that's about. I'm happy though because it's alive!
