For starters, if you do have nepenthes pitcher plant. You have placed it in the wrong type of media. The media you have for your plant retains a lot of water. Nepenthes need good draining media, which is one part sphagnum moss, one part perlite, and one part fine orchid bark.

The other mistake is that you are watering it with filtered water, which in time will add salt to the growing media and kill your plants. Filtering may remove some of the chlorine but it doesnÂt remove the minerals from tap water. You have to water it with distilled water or at least R/O water.

Neps donÂt absorbed nutrients through their roots; it only serves to anchor the plant into the soil and water absorption. Some Neps even have done away with roots totally when they become mature like N. lowii growing as a vine of treetops. But having frogs digging around the roots of an immature Nep is definitely bad, it keep the plant in a state of shock.

But the main reason it is aborting developing its urns is usually because of the lack of light. Neps require at least 12 hours of bright but filtered light. So how much light are you giving it?

What mystifies me is that you said your Nep developed an onion shape bulb, Neps donÂt do that. Maybe something that has to do with shock.

...my local Lowes and Wal-mart only have Miracle Grow perilite- with added fertilizer. should I skip the perilite and just add some orchid bark to the mix? Or could I add pea gravel?
I read that rubbing a dilute fertilizer on the leaves only would help make pitchers. I did it a while back and nothing bad or good happened. It might have been too dilute.

When I repotted it I noticed that the peat moss was hard packed, so I took a pencil and mixed it around to airate it. Should I add some orchid bark to the soil? the pot has holes in the bottom also.

Also, to fix the frog problem, should I put some slate on top of the soil and take it off when I need to water?

Lighting:The lighting is currently one 15watt repti-glo uvb lamp designed for lizards and frogs, and one heat lamp (75 watt) i think is from Exo-terra, but im not sure because i threw the packaging out. but the heatlamp is designed ESPECIALLY for lizards. I may downgrade the heatlamp from a 75 watt to a 50.I have a cryptanthus next to it that has pink in it's leaves, and I heard that for it to do that it needs high light.

the size of the tank is: 18"Dx18"Wx24"L Im not worried about it outgrowing the tank soon because it is in the exact center of it.

the odd thing is about the onion-shape-bulb is that it developed at the top of the plant- at what I think is called the growing point. Whats even weirder is that it developed into about four new leaves-maybe it was four leaves compacted into a 'bulb'?

~Chris

The weird behavior in your plant was from the fertilizer in the perilite and the frogs. Just remove it from the terrarium, they really have no added benefit unless its too dry to breath. If you can find it long fiber sphagnum works better than peat. If you must use peat add a lot of bark to it. The pitcher plant is going to need more light to pitcher. If you look on the packaging of fluorecent lights they have something called kelvin. You want a kelvin rating around 5000. Thats the light that will give them the best color indoors.

I havent added the perlite to the soil because it had fertilizer in it. Should I add the orchid bark to the mix or not???

The bark is fine. Go heavy on the bark if you can water frequently because an airier mix is generally better for pitcher plants.

OK. I took it out of it's pot, found out most of it's roots rotted off >:( so I dipped it in rooting hormone with added fungicide. I have it in it's original substrate except I added a handful of Orchid Bark to the mix. I also added orchid bark on top of the soil so it's harder for the frog to burrow into. I put a stick next to it to keep it stable until it roots. Should this substrate be OK? *hope it roots*

~chris

I HATE that Miracle grow puts all that crap in their mixes. HATE IT. I buy Hoffman perlite. Check the local mom and pop garden centers in your area.