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N. Hamata colors

If the pic of a hamata is green will it trun purple and get hairy as it gets older?
 
Mostly with Hamata the upper growth is green with brownish red
marking. For the lower pitchers when newly open will lack color, as the growth ages they will pick up a redish purple shade.
 
Light is a big key in this. My plant when grown in a window never got much color, but when moved under fluorescent light it immediately took on a very nice dark reddish color and all the "hairiness" expected from this species. Other plants grown in more intense light have color that is almost black.
 
How much light? Right now I have the window open so the area is in full sun when the sun does shine on it. The only problem is when the window is open it's hard to keep the humidity up.
 
I am not really the authority on this issue.. I used to keep my plant in a west facing window, but out of direct sunlight. It grew large leaves and small pitchers that never got much color at all. When I placed it under the lights it made a huge swing in the other direction, immediately producing smaller leaves and larger pitchers with MUCH color. My plant grows in an open topped tank with 2- 24" cool white fluorescent tubes about 12" away. Sorry but I dont keep track of humidity indoors so I cant offer any info there. It does tend to be fairly dry here, so I expect its not very high at all.

Steve
 
Well said Steve, I must say, its quite controversial with Nepenthes and the light they require, but Mike Catalani had his greenhouse in Tennessee with no shading and his plants were gorgeous..of course he had some serious cooling equipment to compensate for the intense sunlight.
 
I think its a lot like every other plant. Some like more, some like less..  The key is finding the right ammount for your particular plant. N. hamata is a pretty adaptable plant though..  there is a pretty broad range of conditions that you can experiment with without fear of killing the plant.

Steve
 
You said that you have 24" bulbs so they must not be more then 20 watts each right? Could 40 watts be good enough added to the sunlight that would come from the window?
 
Murphy please remember that growing conditions for everyone is different, and what works for person A may not work for person B.  All that is recomended by someone should be used as a guidline.  To be a good grower you must learn how to read the plant.  Let it guide you in what to do with it.  I can't answer your question about the hamata since I don't own one yet.

One thing to remember about leaf burn.  Its not the ammount of light that burns leaves its the heat generated by the intense light that burns the leaf.  Not the light itself.  You can have any plant in full sun if you can keep the leaf temps below that plants burn level.  With florecent lights its hard to give to much light, and as long as the leaves are not too close to the bulb then its hard to burn the leaves.
 
  • #10
Yes they are 20 watts each. Given the color I get from them, I would say that those, + direct sunlight would be plenty to give you awesome color, but again, I am no expert.
 
  • #11
Thanks for the info and advice. I'll try it out. How far/close should the bulbs be to the plant?
 
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