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Hello fellow CPers.
My Nepenthes hamata suffered a week-long drought over the summer last year. This caused the leaves to grow smaller, yet as strong as the previous ones. It's growth of rate wasn't as impressive as when I had first received it, and the pitchers' size had obviously been greatly reduced.
I gave it Osmocote as an effort to try and help it recover, but this probably didn't do much more than speed it up a little - the plant refused to grow any larger, despite its healthy root system and the dose of Osmocote.

After losing my patience I decided to do the following to all my plants:

1. Repot into looser, fresh Sphagnum moss, in aquatic plant pots as opposed to a peat-LFS-perlite substrate in conventional plastic flowerpots;
2. Remove all Osmocote;
3. Spray with a systemic insecticide in case pests were causing any trouble;
4. Feed the plants via the pitchers with bloodworm mash, and spray occasionally with a heavily diluted organic epiphytic fertiliser (seaweed extract). No other factors were changed (temperature, humidity etc.).

I don't know what factor/s played the biggest role, but the results seem quite apparent in the pic below. Either I gave it a jolly good boot in the hind or the plant felt it was just about time to get going, but all the same I'm happy it's back on track (the plant is in a 13cm container):

nhamatarecovery9rg.jpg


From this I have learned that feeding the plants via their traps is the safest and probably most effective method, as long as the collection remains at a manageable size!

Cheers
Amori
 
Very cool! I've got a tiiiiny little hamata that I've been having some trouble with, I hope it'll pull through. Very nice job, looks like it's pulled itself back up quite nicely!
 
Seems that everything is going well now for your N. hamata!

Which reminds me, I definitely have to aquire one of these Neps for my new terrarium...
 
What brand of pesticide did you use?
 
Nickz123: I used Provado Bug Killer (UK), in other words, imidacloprid. It's an all-rounder pesticide and acaricide (kills mites), and it has worked wonders for me (always read the instructions!).

Cheers
Amori
 
Nice looking hamata.  How often do you feed the pitchers?  If I use small insects, I feed my pitchers about once a week.  It takes a while before it kicks in, but the end results are always good.  

I've used bloodworms for pings and sundews, but I've never tried it on Neps.  This morning I gave my neps a few and I'll see how it works.

Brian
 
nice job. more than likely it was the miticide. I'm sure good food and fresh potting helped too. If you want even better results, try a systemic fungicide as well. Usually get large growth spurts after I use it on my guys.
smile_m_32.gif
 
Brian_W: I use freeze-dried bloodworms on my sticky plants, and frozen bloodworms for my Neps. I mash it up with a small fork (smells extremely foul), mix it with a little distilled/RO/deionized water, and suck it up a syringe. This is convenient since this allows me to feed the smaller pitchers without causing any considerable damage to them.

rlhirst: I don't see how the systemic helped that much - there were no obvious signs of pests and, if there were, the rest of my collection would've been affected as well (which they weren't) - some plants didn't show any visible improvement in growth at all and remained the same (healthy). I know what you mean though, as many pests are elusive and I have seen plants "recover" from something they didn't even have.

I personally point out the substrate as a big culprit. I failed to mention it earlier, but all my plants were potted in extremely tightly packed LFS - which I now realise is a very big no no. I reduced the amount of substrate by at least 2/3 for each plant, and it seemed obvious that their roots weren't acquiring enough fresh air (I don't know what i was thinking...).

Cheers
Amori
 
...and 24 days later... (sorry for the cruddy quality!)

nhamata1dt.jpg



New pitcher, 2.75" (on leaf pointing south) as opposed to previous 1.5" pitcher.

nhamatapitcher4pc.jpg



Cheers
Amori
 
  • #10
Great job, Amori. You took action and the plant responded. Personally, I have sometimes been hesitant to experiment with new conditions/treatments, and the plants have suffered until I was willing to act.

(Here in the US, I just found a ready-to-use spray containing cyfluthrin and imadacloprid...does a good job for spot spraying pests with no sign of toxicity to nepenthes.)

Good growing,
KPG
 
  • #11
So what do they call the pesticide and where did you get it?
 
  • #12
Woo hoo! Nice new growth! It's good for growers to see things like this because it inspires them to investigate and give them the confidence to act. Thanks for posting this.
smile.gif
 
  • #13
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Est @ Jan. 27 2006,2:58)]Woo hoo!  Nice new growth!  It's good for growers to see things like this because it inspires them to investigate and give them the confidence to act.  Thanks for posting this.
smile.gif
So true! I love seeing positive outcomes like this. It always gives me more faith the next time one of my plants takes a dive.

The moral of the story: Never give up!
smile.gif
 
  • #14
Wow
That is coming along nicely
smile.gif

Bye for now Julian
 
  • #15
And today:

dscn2058yz1.jpg


I apologise for the terrible quality and lighting of this pic. The small stunted leaf is a result of the tanks' lid falling on it.

dscn2059wf7.jpg


The most recent addition.
Fortunately enough for me, the plant barely struggled through this summer.

Cheers
Amori
 
  • #16
thats another thing i love about hamata.. the leaf:pitcher ratio is amazing!! beautiful plant and congrats on your success!
Alex
 
  • #17
That's weird. I thought I already posted here.

Fantastic! I don't think your lighting is bad at all.
 
  • #18
so do you grow it in a terrarium? what are the conditions like?
Alex
 
  • #19
Thanks for the kudos!
The plant is grown in a big terrarium with RH ranging from 45% to 80% during the day and 85% to 100% at night. Lighting is supplied by a single 400W high pressure sodium bulb, with added blue.
Night temperatures are out of control at this time of the year, since I depend on the outside air to cool the terrarium down to a desired 48F (in winter, at least). Nothing seems to want to give up the ghost despite it all though! I like to grow my plants hard, so they don't flinch if I have to move them out of their already hostile home.

Cheers
Amori
 
  • #20
imidacloprid is Marit and it is not a mitacide! It can make a mite infestation worse because it kills off the beneficial insects that keep them in check. It has been described as Mite Viagra. Frequent mite population explosions occure if you have a mite infestation and use this stuff. It is great and I love the stuff. Just not for mite protection so your plant definately did not have mites or it would have gotten worse.

Your Hamata looks great! Thanks for sharing. I long for one of these plants.

srduggins You can get this insectacide by the brand name of Merit in the states. It only sold as a concentrate under that brand name. Lowes is carrying it now too. It is sold there as the brand name of Bayer advanced. There are several different treatments to get so make sure you get the ones without fertilizer added. I persoanly use the rose and flower premixed psray bottles. They are 5 bucks a bottle. The Merit consentrate is more economical if you have a large collection. They also sell a bottle of Bayer for trees ans srubs, but you would have to figure out how to mix it since its not listed on the lable for flower use and it would be illegal for me to suggest you use it, but its the same active ingredient.
 
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