Tropical pitcher plant

Tropical pitcher plant: how do you recognise it?

Habit

Climbing or trailing plant with stems up to 1 m long; about 60 cm wide in a hanging pot.

Leaves

Long and fresh green; the midrib extends into a tendril that can twine around a support or carry a pitcher.

Pitcher

Elongated to slightly bulbous, about 10–15 cm long, green with red speckles and redder in more light, with a smooth, ribbed rim and a lid that stays open.

Trapping

Nectar lures insects to the slippery rim; they slide into the fluid and are slowly digested.

Flowers

Inconspicuous spikes of small, red-brown flowers on older plants; male and female flowers grow on separate plants.

Plants: March–April · Pruning: March–April

Why grow it?

• A living showpiece: pitchers that catch flies and fruit flies by themselves.
• One of the easiest pitcher plants indoors, ideal for getting started with carnivorous plants.
• Lovely in a hanging pot by a window, with pitchers dangling from the leaves like little lanterns.
• Evergreen and interesting all year: in a good spot it keeps producing new pitchers.
• Fascinating for children and adults alike: you see how a plant adapts to poor soil.

Tropical pitcher plant: where does it grow best?

• Plenty of light without fierce midday sun: by an east- or west-facing window, or a little way back from a south-facing one. Some morning sun gives redder pitchers.
• Warmth: 18–27 °C by day; a few degrees cooler at night is fine, but never below 12 °C.
• Humid air: the more humid, the more new pitchers. A bright bathroom or kitchen is ideal.
• A hanging pot or high shelf, so tendrils and pitchers can hang freely.
• No cold draughts and no spot directly above a radiator.

Light

Bright, out of direct sun

Potting soil

Cactus compost or airy, humus-rich compost

Acidity

Acid

Watering

Generously

Size

1 m tall, 0.6 m wide

Temperature

Minimum 12 °C

Goes well with

• Cape sundew: A carnivorous plant with the same needs: plenty of light, rainwater and a poor mix.
• Moth orchid: Also likes light without fierce sun, humid air and soft water.
• Air plant: Grows without soil and also enjoys a bright, humid bathroom.
• Boston fern: Green and moisture-loving, a soft neighbour below the hanging pitchers.

Tropical pitcher plant: when and how to plant it?

Plant in March–April.

1. Repot in March or April, every two to three years or when the mix collapses and smells musty.
2. Choose a pot with drainage holes, such as a plastic hanging pot or an orchid pot.
3. Use a poor, acidic, open mix: sphagnum moss with perlite and some orchid bark, or peat with perlite and a little silver sand. Never ordinary potting compost, which contains too many nutrients.
4. Set the plant at the same depth as before and gently firm the mix, without damaging the fine roots.
5. Water in with rainwater or demineralised water and let the excess drain away.

Care

Watering

Always keep the mix moist with rainwater or demineralised water. Tap water contains too much lime and salts. Do not leave the pot standing in water permanently.

Humidity

The higher, the better. Mist with rainwater, stand the pot above a tray of water or hang it in a bright bathroom.

Feeding

No fertiliser and no potting compost: the fine roots burn. The plant gets its nutrients from the insects it catches.

Prey

Do not give meat or cheese: it rots in the pitcher. Indoors it usually catches enough; if not, drop a fly into a pitcher now and then.

Pitchers

Do not empty the pitchers or touch the fluid: they work with their own fluid. A pitcher lasts a few months and then dries up by itself.

Tip: Water only with rainwater or demineralised water and never feed: that matters more than anything. Cut back the longest stems in spring and it will make more new pitchers close to the pot.

Tropical pitcher plant: when to prune it?

Pruning months: March–April.

When: Pruning is not really necessary. In March or April you can cut back long, bare stems so the plant produces new shoots and pitchers at the base.

How:

• Cut stems that are too long back to a few leaves above the pot, just above a leaf.
• Cut off dried pitchers at the end of the tendril, but keep the leaf as long as it is green: it keeps making food.
• Remove brown, dead leaves completely.
• Use the stem pieces you cut off as cuttings.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Cuttings

In spring or summer: cut stem sections with two or three leaves, halve the leaves and insert the cuttings in moist sphagnum under plastic or in a propagator at 22–25 °C. Rooting often takes one to two months.

Air layering

Wrap moist sphagnum around a stem just below a leaf, cover with plastic and sever the stem once roots grow through the moss. Then pot it up in a poor mix.

Tropical pitcher plant: how does it get through the winter?

• A houseplant that stays indoors all year: below 12 °C it stops growing and suffers damage.
• In winter, place it in the brightest spot, close to the window, but do not let the leaves touch the cold glass.
• Water a little less, but never let the mix dry out.
• Dry air from central heating holds back pitcher formation: mist more often or hang it in a bright bathroom. There are fewer new pitchers in winter anyway.

Diseases and pests

• No new pitchers: Air too dry or too little light. Move it somewhere brighter and raise the humidity; the new leaves will form pitchers again.
• Black leaf edges: Tap water, fertiliser or potting compost. Water only with rainwater or demineralised water and repot in a poor mix.
• Root rot: Limp stems turning black in a collapsed, sour-smelling mix. Repot in fresh, open mix and do not leave water in the saucer.
• Mealybug and scale: White fluff or brown bumps in the leaf axils and along the veins. Gently wipe them off with a damp cotton bud.
• Aphids: On young shoots and tendrils. Rinse off with lukewarm rainwater.

Through the year

• January: Rest. Brightest spot. A little less water, never dry.
• February: Mist more often against dry air.
• March: Repot in a fresh, poor mix. Cut back long stems.
• April: Repot or cut back. Take cuttings.
• May: Growth and new pitchers. Keep moist with rainwater at all times.
• June: Take cuttings. Keep out of fierce midday sun.
• July: Raise humidity in hot weather.
• August: Cut off dried pitchers.
• September: Move closer to the light as the days shorten.
• October: Keep away from heating.
• November: Rest. Away from cold windows.
• December: Rest. Mist with rainwater.

Did you know?

• The pitcher is not a flower but part of the leaf: it grows at the end of a tendril that extends from the leaf’s midrib.
• The lid does not close to trap prey; it mainly keeps out rain, so the digestive fluid is not diluted too much.
• Tropical pitcher plants are dioecious: each plant bears only male or only female flowers.