Not really sure what to make of this.

[sykosarah]

So, I was just looking around online, and apparently, nepenthes will actually wilt if they have too much water, which is kinda weird to me, a tad atypical. So does the wilting for too much water look the same as the wilting for not enough, or do I have to play the guessing game should I see a leaf or two looking weird -_- ? Because, you know, I don't want to make the wrong choice should this come up because the solution for one makes the opposite problem worse.

[paulkoop]

Yah they dont wanna sit in water

[hcarlton]

If Nepenthes get too much water, it causes root rot, which ends up with the same result as if the pot were too dry: the roots no longer absorb the water the plants need, and they wilt from dehydration.

[sykosarah]

So there isn't really a way to tell if the wilting is from too much or not enough water without feeling up the soil and having enough experience to know what is and isn't too moist or too dry?

[hcarlton]

If it's from not enough water, the wilting will certainly happen in a very short time. If it' from root rot, it'll be a bit more gradual, and you'll notice the stems of the plants will sometimes look as if they've gone wrinkly. But certainly, a lot of experience always helps. Certain species like it wet (my ampullarias love sitting in waterlogged soil, and a lot of hybrids don't mind, or it's okay when taller pots are used), but others like it to be just damp enough.

[sykosarah]

How about ventricosas? I know my hybrid likes it on the drier side thanks to that being a property of at least one of its parents if not both, but when I look up ventricosa it just says "typical", as if I am going to know what the typical moisture in general these plants like if I have never even seen them in person before -_- drier I get, it says the medium at the top should dry out a little, it is descriptive, typical tells me nothing. I asked because 1 of the ventricosa leaves had a wilted looking dying off that occurred within the past 3 days, with the sides and not the tips turning brown first. So I suspected too much water, but none of the other leaves look bad, so I don't know if it was too much water/too little and that leaf is just the first to go, or if that leaf was old and died off weirdly.

[paulbarden]

Photos please.

[theplantman]

Here's the deal about Nepenthes. It's not really the "dryness" of the soil that is preferred. After all, the plants live in rainforests. They get frequent overhead water. The aeration of the media is what's crucial. The roots of all plants breathe, and Nepenthes are no exception. They need access to the little pockets of air that form between soil particles. What I find helps is to imagine you have a pile of leaves in your hands. If you drop the leaves and don't pack them down, they will stay light and puffy. That's exactly what happens to build the soil that Nepenthes grow in naturally. They prefer bark, leaves, moss, and other stuff that randomly falls onto the forest floor and has a nice, open structure.

If you formulate your media correctly then you avoid most of the problems that can occur by too wet or too dry of a medium. I prefer 1:1:1 orchid bark:perlite or Turface:Long Fiber Sphagnum Moss.

The purpose of the sphagnum is to hold water. Perlite does not "cling" onto water or nutrients, but it takes up space and "puffs" up the medium, thereby adding aeration. Perlite also resists decomposition, which can break organic materials in your media down into a sludge with no air space. The orchid bark will cling somewhat onto water and nutrients, and also serves the function of making the media chunkier and adding air space.

So. When Nepenthes have "too much water," you are experiencing one of two things:
(1) Waterlogged media and lack of air space. You can detect this by unpotting the plant and smelling the soil. Without air, methane gas builds up in the soil from anaerbic processes. It smells bad. If it smells bad, you've solved your issue. You need to repot into airy, fresh media. The plant is wilting because its roots have suffocated. They die without access to air. Without roots, you get the exact same wilting as if the plant was dying of dehydration. The degree of wilting corresponds to how much of the root system was suffocated to death.
(2) You have a pathogen. Typically symptom (1) leads to this because the plant is stressed, which makes it easier to get sick. Pythium, phytophthora, and a myriad of other fungi and watermolds infest soil that is overly wet. They consume your plant's roots and are nasty. They're hard to treat without chemicals and I usually advocate throwing out the entire plant. They spread easily from splashing of water and soil, or pruning tools. Sometimes you can see evidence (ex. phytophthora has a distinctive smell and you can see pythium on the soil surface). Since pathogens are eating your roots, you will also get wilting. The degree of wilting corresponds to the size of your infection and the percentage of the roots that are still healthy and transporting water normally.

[sykosarah]

Well, I figured out that it wasn't enough water, turns out the shiny surface of the saucer I put under it gave the illusion of moisture and it had been dry for who knows, probably a couple of days. Only 2 leaves have experienced wilting and the damage hasn't continued since.

On another note, in this particular plant it is a mix of long fibered sphagnum, perlite, peat moss, and orchid bark, I would say at about a 3:1:1:1 ratio in order of ingredient I listed. It didn't have a strange smell to it at all, I just think it needed more water. If the medium was giving off an odor, I would have mentioned it.

[Dave Evans]

Nepenthes don't care how wet the soil is persay. The problem happens when the water is too deep for it to flow and the oxygen in the pot soil gets too low and the roots start drowning. To avoid these conditions, most people use less water or a very open soil mixture.

In well oxygenated conditions, Nepenthes can grow in pure water to rather swampy conditions. The key is air and water flow keeping oxygen to the roots. Nepenthes are wholly dependent on fresh soil conditions, even if the "soil" is watery muck. If you use a lot of perlite in your soil, you can probably stand the pots in water without issue. Dense soils can loose oxygen fast, conditions might be good one day and just a few days later the roots might already be dying especially when it is warmer.