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Hamata on a windowsill?


19Silverman93

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I hear a lot of conflicting views on N. hamata- some say it's easy as pie and others reckon it can be quite picky about it's conditions. So how do you think one would do on a windowsill personally? I have a few different (relatively easy mind you) species like maxima, robcantleyi, vogelii and bokorensis all growing happily side by side there so how do we reckon a hamata would manage?

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Guest paul y

ive always been tempted to put a few neps in a windowsill, problem I have is its either south or north, no windows in other aspects, ive always believed the will get scorched or not enough light, as it stands I have 3 neps in a tiny little tank and they grow really well,

tempted to set up yet another tent and grow some neps in there, (my missus may well hurt me in my sleep if I do)

regards paul

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I say go for it.i grow one under lights but open to house temps and humidity.James oneil a member on here grows one on a windowill.i grow a couple of neps in a south facing window with good results they just dont pitcher in weak winter sun,they are just starting to pitcher again now

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I say go for it.i grow one under lights but open to house temps and humidity.James oneil a member on here grows one on a windowill.i grow a couple of neps in a south facing window with good results they just dont pitcher in weak winter sun,they are just starting to pitcher again now

I have a south east window where the bulk of mine live and I see exactly the same thing- the only thing that continue to grow and pitcher throughout winter was my little robcantleyi :D

 

so it is indeed possible to manage then, guess I know what I'm saving for now!

 

 

ive always been tempted to put a few neps in a windowsill, problem I have is its either south or north, no windows in other aspects, ive always believed the will get scorched or not enough light, as it stands I have 3 neps in a tiny little tank and they grow really well,

tempted to set up yet another tent and grow some neps in there, (my missus may well hurt me in my sleep if I do)

regards paul

go for it- as I say I have a south/southeast window that I grow the bulk of my neps on and they all do well there except in winter because of the crappy light situation when the don't pitcher well.

Edited by 19Silverman93
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I grew a hamata on a south facing windowsill in my last house for several years.

 

During the summer months I put shade cloth on the window to reduce the intensity of the light.

 

Apart from keeping the window open at night to cool the plant I gave it no other special treatment.

 

It did ok- it pitchered regularly, vined and produced a flower.

 

However, the pitchers certainly didn't last as long as a greenhouse grown plant and often drooped their lids during warm spells.

 

Unfortunately, I bought my own house which only had a west facing windowsill and the plant died over the winter for a variety of different reasons (4ft vine, sob!)

 

So it can be done.  However, no two windows are the same and what works for some may not work for others...

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interesting Mags,i am in no way saying the plant would not grow far better under more ideal conditions but i am saying i think it is possible to grow a plant that increases in size ,i am happy as long as the plant and pitchers increase in size but know that my results would be disappointing to some ,i grow n.sanguinea and n. rebecca  soper in my south facing window and have had no issues with the sun been too strong.I think in mid summer when the sun is at its strongest the sun is high in the sky so you don't get as much as you may think through a directly south facing window.I was really considering putting my Robc and hamata in the window this year because of how well the other two grew last year,but i will put them there soon if i decide to do so ,and hope they can get used to light levels before we get an amazingly hot beautiful summer :sarcastic_hand:      here is my plant when it arrived from wistuba  plants10032012072.jpg   and exactly one year on  flowerstalkvft12102012357_zps7c31274a.jp   so i am happy with its growth,and it was a dream to be able to grow a half decent looking hamata,i am also seriously considering trying to grow vogelii after what you have said silverman,we are both helping to empty each  others bank accounts :laugh1: do you find vogelii grows well i hear people refer to it as "slowgelii" but i just love the uppers

Edited by corky
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N. hamata likes rather high humidity, so make sure you have a cool mist humidifier on hand you can run during hot weather and dry weather. Also small hamata plants are slow, when the get bigger, they grow more robustly.

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must say Dave i grow mine alongside a fair few other HL neps and i would be over the moon if they all grew as well as the Hamata,but last summer it did loose all its pitchers by november and started pitchering again in Febuary ,it grows much better than my stenophyla or fusca which are gonna go on the compost heap if they don't pull their finger out soon, and they are meant to be "easy growers" well not for me

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You need to fertilize those other species if they are growing in the same soil your hamata is in. Hamata grows in mossy forest while those other two generally occur below mossy forest. You should get an eymae, it also grows in mossy forest and will love your hamata conducive conditions.

The reason I say give them fertilizer is because mossy forest soil tends to be super leached, whereas areas below mossy forest tend to more mineral soils and the plant roots into mineral soil or tree bark instead of moss. So I'm making an educated guess that your stenophylla and fusca need a slightly richer soil.

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I view hamata as one of the easier "highlanders." People have a tendency to lump its cultivation requirements with the toothy species of Sarawak, but it's dissimilar to these and more adaptive overtime. Although the species does well with high humidity, a moister substrate is much more important as opposed to, say, macrophylla, which is somewhat opposite in its requirements, i.e. high humidity and an airy substrate is typically key. I am growing several hamata at room temperature/humidity and they do well once acclimated. However, as mentioned before, like tentaculata, they like the media a bit wetter (the lamina are somewhat telling of this). 

 

Also, N. hamata seems to be one of the species that will readily absorb water through the pitchers, if given the chance, especially when humidity is not very high. I've observed this with five or six genetically distinct individuals and it seems consistent. The pitchers tend to last longer and growth is slightly improved when performed, so I generally recommend it. 

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interesting Mags,i am in no way saying the plant would not grow far better under more ideal conditions but i am saying i think it is possible to grow a plant that increases in size ,i am happy as long as the plant and pitchers increase in size but know that my results would be disappointing to some ,i grow n.sanguinea and n. rebecca  soper in my south facing window and have had no issues with the sun been too strong.I think in mid summer when the sun is at its strongest the sun is high in the sky so you don't get as much as you may think through a directly south facing window.I was really considering putting my Robc and hamata in the window this year because of how well the other two grew last year,but i will put them there soon if i decide to do so ,and hope they can get used to light levels before we get an amazingly hot beautiful summer :sarcastic_hand:      here is my plant when it arrived from wistuba  plants10032012072.jpg   and exactly one year on  flowerstalkvft12102012357_zps7c31274a.jp   so i am happy with its growth,and it was a dream to be able to grow a half decent looking hamata,i am also seriously considering trying to grow vogelii after what you have said silverman,we are both helping to empty each  others bank accounts :laugh1: do you find vogelii grows well i hear people refer to it as "slowgelii" but i just love the uppers

That's fantastic for a years growth :D which clone is it? I think he has several available...

 

as for vogelii, go for it- I actually got mine as part of a roraima order that went fantastically wrong but I have to say I'm glad I did get this one, had it for a good few months and it's looking very good- showing a fairly decent jump on leaf sizes:

lU2mqHt.jpg

 

despite the fact it's uppers get all the attention I actually really like the lower pitchers of vogelii, heres the biggest one on mine

clcNFuz.jpg

 

I'm in the finishing stages of acclimating it fully- the pot is in a wide open seal easy bag but it's made the transition easier than anything else I've tried. in fact on my 'sill it's done better than the supposedly easy x rebecca soper which has been a bloody nightmare for me personally.

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Thanks for the reply.So i am not the only one who has trouble with "easy" plants.And yes the lowers are real nice too.As for what clone,i dunno i went for a clone of their choice

I'm glad it isn't just me either :smile: I also have trouble with fusca like you said, but I might give fertilising it a go like dave mentioned. it's not like I have much to loose with it anyway.

I do wonder if it's worth giving my troublesome ones a bit of the old coffee treatment anyway?

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Plants that aren't growing when all other conditions are good are being limited by a lack of nutrients. After you fertilize, it will take about 6 weeks to see if it helps as Nepenthes grow rather slowly. You'll see if the new leaves are larger or have a more vibrant color.

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the thing is Dave i know my conditions are p$$s poor but the hamata still does better than most,i do have trouble with knowing exactly how much to water,as my conditions change with the seasons ,so i think in the past i have watered too much and rotted the roots,am i correct in thinking the symptoms of too much water are similar to too little?for example wavy leafs because rotted roots stop the plant taking up water therefor same symptoms as not enough,i will take your advice on ferts as i like silverman have not much to loose with the badly growing plants ,i have coffee and an orchid fert to hand ,what say you Dave (i hope you find this of interest silverman,i wanna pick Daves scientific brain) i also think Mato is on to something with making sure the pitchers have water in them especially for me growing in low humidity

Edited by corky
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Corky, if you've been experiencing rotting at the root zone, the last thing you want to do is give the plants more nutrients in the soil. I personally fertilize with a synthetic and with coffee during warm months, but both will exacerbate any issues you may be having with soil pathogens or stagnation. The trade-off, with coffee in particular, is that they work so well that pathogen growth is also promoted to a dangerous degree, making flushing of the soil a necessity (again, with coffee in particular). For plants that are still in the rosette stage, that sudden browning of the petiole of the newest leaf (not meristem) is a sure sign that things are dire. At least with vines, they can be cut.

 

Typically, when people complain of rot, the best solution is more light, as the plants will be able to more easily transpire (assuming CO2 levels aren't being limited by a closed system), alleviating stagnation at the root zone. If this isn't possible, they need to be kept quite dry when temperatures are consistently low.

 

As far as "p$$s poor" conditions, I wouldn't worry so much about that with this species. A grower in the midwest USA, Ron Dudek, has a rather large, vining hamata growing on his windowsill in coco husk. I believe he supplements with some cheap CFLs in the winter, but other than that, it's really just a house plant.

 

And yes, the water in the pitchers helps ;) 

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cheers Mato,i don't really know if its rot or not,could be as simple as needing more water,the leaves on a couple of plants are wavy and the plant does not grow much at all,and its blooming stenophyla ,a plant you describe as an OX,maybe i should stick to drosera,oh and i am not worried for the hamata just a few other neps that seem to do bugger all for huge amounts of time,i think i have found the limitations of growing in a completely uncontrolled environment ,either drosera or an army of hamata's and robc's as for me these are both good house plants

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the thing is Dave i know my conditions are p$$s poor but the hamata still does better than most,i do have trouble with knowing exactly how much to water,as my conditions change with the seasons ,so i think in the past i have watered too much and rotted the roots,am i correct in thinking the symptoms of too much water are similar to too little?for example wavy leafs because rotted roots stop the plant taking up water therefor same symptoms as not enough,i will take your advice on ferts as i like silverman have not much to loose with the badly growing plants ,i have coffee and an orchid fert to hand ,what say you Dave (i hope you find this of interest silverman,i wanna pick Daves scientific brain) i also think Mato is on to something with making sure the pitchers have water in them especially for me growing in low humidity

oh believe me, I'm mentally filing all this information under "useful to know" when I get home tonight it's coffee time for a certain N. fusca & co. though.

Edited by 19Silverman93
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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, I'm taking the plunge, one hamata clone 4 from andreas wistuba ordered, we shall see how it turns out, though if it grows half as well as corky's has I will be well pleased :D

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might be keeping this order quiet from my girlfriend- threw in a raff and a truncata too so i ended up at about 75 euros worth all told- I'll never hear the end of it if she finds out! :D

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nepenthe hamata is the dream of every cultivator ?!  :heart:

along with robcantleyi I think it's one of the definitive collectors species. I'm dying to see a cross between the two!

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congrats on your order :tu: ,what form of truncata did you go for,and are you planning on growing the raff and trunc on your windowsill too,i would try and place the hamata away from the glass a bit to start with especially if its small in case it cooks

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congrats on your order :tu: ,what form of truncata did you go for,and are you planning on growing the raff and trunc on your windowsill too,i would try and place the hamata away from the glass a bit to start with especially if its small in case it cooks

just the bog standard Philippines form :smile: the trunc will be on the windowsill with my robcantleyi seeing as it seems to like it and the two are related, the raff will be going in my lowland tank if I can fit it, if not then it'll be joining the window gang. I think I'll start the hamata in my little high light intensity spot so it doesn't get roasted by the sun but still gets its light dose :D how long does AW take to dispatch usually?
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