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frank325

Can you confirm this is correct - pitcher plant care

frank325
14 years ago

Okay so I did a lot of reading last night, just want to make sure I am correct with all of this. New purple pitcher from Lowes, in the "death cube" right now. I've had the lid 1/4 of the way turned to acclimate it overnight in the house. I'm going to pick up some distilled water this afternoon. Once I do, the plan is to take it out of the death cube, keep it in it's plastic pot with the medium it is in (looks to have spag on top, i assume throughout, but haven't inspected it yet). I'll put it's pot into a larger container, and fill it with water about 1/3 of the way up the plastic pot. For now I plan to keep it in partial sun/shade, then move it to full sun once it is used to being outdoors.

Temps range from 50 at night to mid 70's during the day Should I leave it out always, or bring it in initially when it's cooler at night?

Comments (11)

  • tommyr_gw Zone 6
    14 years ago

    You're doing fine, leave it outside!

    Congrats!

  • frank325
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Great, I was hoping I did good. One thing I wasn't sure of... they don't have any water in them. I know there are different types of pitchers, some are open, some have hoods and so on. These are basically open, but their openings aren't facing straight up. They're open to the side, but slightly facing up. Are these supposed to catch rain water? Do we put some distilled water in them ?

  • tommyr_gw Zone 6
    14 years ago

    Let nature do it's thing. They will fill the next rain if out in the open outside.

  • mattmega4
    14 years ago

    What i did was took the plant out of the death cube..and dipped the root system in a bowl of distilled water and got all the cruddy dirt off..and then very carefully put the plant into my mix (which was wet) and then carefully filled the empty spaces and top watered once and let it alone in full sun..it started turning purple within a few days and caught bugs within a week...

  • mastergardenerfrank
    14 years ago

    Your pitcher would really like to be almost exclusively in sphagnum. Glad you did your homework. Wish the boxes said rain or distilled water ONLY. I try to ignore the muffeled screams from the boxes.
    Maybe the people on these forums need to email Lowes for the contact info for the suppliers and implore them to put better info on the cages.
    Frank

  • jacobhaynes21_comccast_net
    12 years ago

    I just bought me a plant like this today and i need help i have no idea what i am doing i just felt so sorry for it because it was dying and i wanted to help but i have been on the internet all day aand cant seem to find anything on this plant all help is great thanks

  • tommyr_gw Zone 6
    12 years ago

    If it is a purple pitcher (a photo of it would help!) follow the same rules as above. In zone 6 (where I am) Mine goes in the fridge just before first frost. It gets the excess water drained out of the pot, put in a zip lock bag and in the fridge she goes. In late February/early March she goes in a south or west inside window to wake up until last frost in the spring.

  • sitting_boy
    12 years ago

    It never rains here except in the winter and I have a sarracenia danas delight. I always thought they made their own juices, but am I supposed to put distilled water in it's pitchers for it to feed? It's young and the pitchers are all very small (8 inches?), but I don't think any of them have liquid in them right now.

  • Hegory
    12 years ago

    American pitcher plants don't have liqiud in them like neps. they create their own fliud according to how many bugs are in them, unlike neps that open full of water, sarracenias keep their liquid just as high as the bugs in them. The exception being the purple pitcher plant, which collects rainwater. your sarracenia doesn't need you to put water in it. If you put water in the pitchers they will likely topple over.

  • tommyr_gw Zone 6
    12 years ago

    Hegory is correct.

  • sitting_boy
    12 years ago

    Great. Thanks