Keeping a Young Hamata Stable

[Sigesti]

I've been growing plants for about a year or so now with a decent amount of success. I ordered some heliamphora from Wistuba and decided to give it a try and order an N. Hamata.

And so, a 6-12 month old clone should be on my way, but I'm edgy about raising it because I know how fickle they can be. I've got a terrarium setup that maintains fairly high light levels and good humidity, but I worry about sudden drops in humidity when I need to open up the terrarium for some reason or another.

I was wondering what methods people used for raising their young n hamata, and in particular avoiding sudden humidity changes.

[wasted]

When I first got mine I didnt acclimatize it for very long, had a hell of a time with it, the thread is here;

http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24177

Anyhow.. its finally toughened up to my greenhouse conditions (humidity drops sometimes to 50 during the day, rises to 80+ at night) and is just producing its first pitchers and growing very quick, mine was a BE plant and in my experience they tend to be a little stronger than the wistuba plants so i'd expect that the hamata would need a lot of acclimatizing although I wouldnt of thought opening the door briefly would suddenly shock it.

[manders]

I've not noticed Hamata being at all fussy so far, its just survived winter with no problems in a conservatory and humidity was quite low over the winter. That said i had a MT clone which didn't survive shipping, the current one is a Wistuba clone. Its had a mite attack though, as do most of my wintering neps at some point.

[Dicon]

I think you should find that a terrarium provides a stable enough environment to get it settled.

The one thing about hamata is that it will let you know when humidity is getting too low as the lids quickly droop closed!

I find mine quite easy and every leaf pitchers and they last for well over a year.

[Sockhom]

I find mine quite easy and every leaf pitchers and they last for well over a year.

You're lucky Dicon. Or i should rather say that you grow N. hamata very well.

My small plant pitchers never last for more than a month. I don't know why.

It grows in a bright spot in a high humidity environment.

François.

[Mathijs]

Mine grows very well too (a pitcher on every leaf). I grow it under a light tube, with 80% - 90% humidity.

I've got it since the EEE in Leiden, and it grows quite fast.

[An D Smith]

For my two-pence-worth, I raised a fantastic BE clone to adult-hood with over 20 cm tall pitchers. Just as it was starting to climb it got invaded by red spider mites and has never been the same since. Three years down the road and the mites still show themselves occasionally and it has not pitchered for the last 3 years. The mites are tiny, really, really tiny and a x10 lens is needed to see them properly. In my experience, most Sulawesi species seem to be particularly prone to mite attack.

One day I will have to get another, as I would love to have a upper pitcher of this species.

Cheers

Andy

[agustin franco]

Hi Andy:

I was wondering as I read your post whether you've tried miticides to get rid of those mites at all?. just curious.

Gus