I think it is probably lack of water or temps. I am leaning towards temps, just because you said they were ventricosa and they are the sherman tanks of nepenthes. The brown spots look to originate from the veins which seems to tell me that the issue is from within and not an external attack. Ventricosa is technically a highland nepenthes. Although it will grow like a weed in most any condition. That tells me that humidity is probably not the issue since I grow mine if lower humidity. The next possibility is tempurature. You are in zone 9, how cold does it get there during the winter? Most neps, with the exception of a very few (2 that I know of khasiana and lamii [i think]) can withstand temps below 45. I had a ventrata burn at the growth points this fall when temps got below 50. It is doing fine now and started to branch and vine as a result, but I was nervous for a few weeks. (I haven't lost a nep yet.) Ventricosa if a very forgiving plant when it comes to water and light, but you should never let a nep dry out. Which judging by your experience, I am guessing is not the issue. That is what keeps leading me to tempurature. If that is the case, I think as long as you give them attention and get back to optimal conditions, they should bounce back. Leaves may die, but as long as new growth appears, then you should be ok. In it's weakened state try not to overwater. If leaves are dying, this is food for fungus now all it needs is a nice drink. If it is lack of water, then you should be fine too. Just make sure not to water log it for the same reasons as just mentioned. A little more light may help during the healing phase if the pitchers weren't already a reddish color before this problem. Otherwise, light is just right. Hope this helps...

Wow, ya'll are quick! Thanks, I'll check them out! (I forgot there is a seed saving forum, lol) I wrote the FAQs in the Seed Saving Forum, and to this day is you google "how to save tomato seeds" the first link to pop up is my FAQ on fermentation, but I have long since abandoned fermentation because it can have inconsistant results, especially with beginners, who complain about duration of fermentation, the appearance, the cups sitting for days and attracting flies, etc. I now only clean tomato seeds with a sanitizing soak and scrub--and that is the 'easy tomato seed saving' method in the link above from WinterSown.Org. The process is 35 minutes, start to finish, with a half-hour break within that too. T

sorry I havent been on here for awhile to send photos but I talked to the building inspecter DruidClark. I described it and he said it would really expendive to repair and maybe to far gone. I thought about it and I don't think I want to go through all the hasle maybe if it was on a nice piece of property in a very nice neighborhood but its in the city. Its a nice neighborhood but now I have to admit I was a little scared of buying a house in a neighborhood that stills has its drug wars. I would have liked taking the woodwork but the inspector said that may be tough taking that out will all the moisture and humidity from being exposed. could splinter;what do you think? For years however besides dreaming of restoring an old house I thought of getting original blueprints and building an exact replica of an old house down to the original fixtures. Im thinking maybe that would be the perfect thing for me to do because I could get a nice piece of property in an older neighborhood to build. This would be down the road but a nice thought. Hope you guys are'nt disappointed in me for not going through with it but Im not financially ready for this. I should have thought about that before but as usual I wasnt thinking realisticlly. I guess now theres no need to post a photo of the house.

I apologize for the delay in responding to say ”thank you” to those of you that spent time to post helpful comments. I was a little thrown off when I initially came back to my post - and also wasn’t feeling well (was in hospital for a couple days). While I started participating on the interior home design/renovation areas of Houzz about 1 1/2 years ago, I only started reading through posts related to gardening and landscaping for about two weeks. One of the things I really liked about spending time in this new area was how respectful/helpful everyone was - it seemed to be very different than over on the other topics. While there are many helpful/respectful/thoughtful comments posted over there, there are also snarky/overly critical - and sometimes rude - comments posted over there fairly often. Many people are extremely hesitant to post questions - and even more hestitant to post actual photos of their homes/interior rooms/floor plans due to the remarks that are posted. Sometimes I have to take breaks from over there because it can be stressful! And stress is a huge aggravating factor for my health issues. I do have some other questions related to my backyard, but thought I should just start off with the post about my JM in order to see how that went! LOL! ANYWAY - I have just recently been feeling physically able to spend time/effort for anything related to landscaping/gardening (I was actually bedridden for 4 years - which is part of the reason why I was absent from my home for so long). Prior to the weather becoming so HOT, spending time out on my new patio in the morning/early afternoon reading/listening to music was really enjoyable and relaxing. I’ve always loved plants/flowers/trees/nature in general - but do not have any special knowledge in this area. Now that I’ve had work done in my front and back yards (and have been feeling better - except for the past few days), I’d really like to start learning how to take care of my landscaping + additional planters. @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) - I knew that the bed was being watered every morning at around 5 a.m. - I only discovered that it was for a 5 min session the night before I decided to post my dilemma. I wasn’t sure exactly how much to adjust this based upon the fact that the area never received any additional watering before. I am going to use an actual sprinkler in that area - how long should i let it run in order to give it enough of a deep watering? Since the JM reveives eastern sun exposure - what time of day would be best for me to do this? I really was upset when I saw how much of the canopy had been removed. I assumed that some would be removed, and then additional amounts would be removed later as appropriate in order to slowly reduce the size. However, my SO handled this for me as a favor - he hired a professional to do the work (I need to find out what exact ”type” of professional was engaged to do the work). I thought that since the ”wounds” (not sure if that’s the correct terminology) had healed up since it had almost been two years - but since I am new to this, I am just learning. QUESTION - is there any way to determine if it is verticillium wilt? Or do I just have to wait and see?