Square pot: Nepenthes rafflesiana

Care instructions

How we grow Nepenthes?
In-vitro plants are acclimated in a Grow Chamber with controlled temperatures and humidity. This indoor setup ensure an easy adaptation to extra-vitro condition, guaranteeing the best conditions for plants in this delicate stage. All plants available at the Diflora shop have been acclimatized for at least 3 months. After this first phase plants are grown indoors at a temperature of 20°C and a photoperiod of 16 hours. Nepenthes are placed under 4000/5000 lux produced by LED lights with a colour temperature of 6400K. As with the majority of carnivorous plants, we use distilled water produced by our reverse osmosis system.

Lighting:
For optimal growth, it is advisable to place Nepenthes in a shaded location, such as a veranda, porch, or under large trees. Alternatively, you can provide shade using cloth coverings. If the humidity levels are sufficiently high, exposing them to direct sunlight during the early morning or late afternoon hours should not pose any issues.

Watering:
Nepenthes poorly tolerates water stagnation, so the soil should always be moist, but never soaked with water.
In summer when temperatures are extreme it is possible to leave 1-2 cm of water in the saucer until it is absorbed. This is because evaporation is usually fast enough to prevent any stagnation. Only use distilled water. Alternatively, all waters with an extremely low mineral salt content are suitable. For example rainwater or all condensation water (air conditioner, dehumidifier). It’s important that the conductivity measures below 50 micro-Siemens.

Substrate:
While 50% peat and 50% perlite is fine as a general substrate, we recommend the Nepenthes substrate we have developed and tested for optimal growth of this genus, composed of a mixture of peat, perlite and bark.

Seasonally and temperature:
Nepenthes do not go into vegetative rest! As tropical plants they vegetate all year round but only under constant conditions.
The solutions for more or less constant conditions all year round are different depending on the type of habitat they belong to, i.e. whether Nepenthes are lowland, intermediate or highland.
This plant belongs to the Nepenthes Intermediate/lowland, so ideally you should have a terrarium or growbox with stable conditions all winter long as many of these Nepenthes (especially the ultra lowland, i.e. the more “delicate” ones) start to show signs of suffering already around 18-20°C. However, it is possible to “overwinter” them indoors as long as they are placed in a well-lit room where temperatures are not prohibitive for them or in a double window under the same conditions.

Additional info:
For more cultivation information visit our care guides or use our plant care support by writing to ilpigliamosche@diflora.it