Nepenthes spectabilis dying?

[jmj430]

Hi all,
I purchased a small, tissue cultured Nepenthes spectabilis from californiacarnivores.com about 2 months ago. I believe the plant was in good health upon receiving it (this is my first nepenthes so I may have been ignorant to a problem). For the first month everything was fine, no traps died as I have read can happen (so I thought I was doing pretty good). But after that first month the traps started browning and it continued onto the leaves and to the stem. At first I wasnt too worried because there are two smaller plantlets?/growing points?(not sure on my terminology) and as those leaves died the smaller plantlets were growing new traps. However it continued and I started thinking I might have a mold or fungus problem so I sprayed the plant with physan 20 and removed the dead leaves. This didnt seem to stop the problem and the plant has continued to deteriorate. I beleive the older portion of the plant is toast but I hope to save the younger portion/plantlets and at least learn what happened. I would much appreciate any help. Thanks!

My growing conditions are:
Night 70F 8.5 hours
Day 80-85F 15.5hours
Humidity 60-80 (drops to 40-50% on hot days when ventilation runs more, rarely happens, or when I open the terrarium)
Light 1500ft/candles(t5HO)
Water every 3-4 days

[Dave Evans]

The plant appears heat stressed. For whatever reasons, Sumatran Nepenthes tend to be more sensitive about not having high humidity and water with dissolved solids in it. The sypmtoms can't really rule those out either.

I think the plant will recover if it starts getting less heat during the day and a long cooling time at night... Not sure how you can achieve that result with minimum effort/expense. Sometimes just placing plants that are heat sensitive in the shade for the hotter parts of the summer/year works, but this plant is already suffering and needs some TLC to recover.

BTW, it as looks like the top branch is aborting in favor of the lower growth.

[paulbarden]

70F at night is too warm. A constant diet of warm nights and hot days will stress this species badly.

[jmj430]

Thank you both for your swift responses. Ive moved my plant away from the hot lights into a cooler enclosure with 90-100% humidity for the time being. Im gonna try and use bowls of ice water within the enclosure to bring the night temp down until I can get an aquarium chiller and small humidifier set up. Would a day temp of 75F and a night temp of 60F be good target temperatures?

[taz6122]

I would clip the top off and try rooting it. Here's one I'm doing tonight. 



As you can see in this picture it's got a little nub growing out of the vine so I think I'll try 2 cuttings instead of just topping it.



This is a rooted cutting I took last month of the same variety as above.



and the humidity chambers I made from plastic cake tubs.



These are lowlanders but you could put a cup of ice in the humidity chamber for a cool down if you have no other means.

[hcarlton]

Unless you have prior experience in rooting Nepenthes cuttings, I'd leave something like that as a last resort. A 75 F day and 60F night temperature might work, but I'd still try getting night temps at least a couple degrees lower to be safe. Also, spectabilis is one that isn't too uppity about high humidity levels, but during acclimation it definitely will be a good idea.

[taz6122]

The top will be a complete loss if it aborts and it's not going to hurt all the other growth points. What is there... 2-3 more? And they look healthy.

Not much risk for another possible addition to the collection IMO!