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):
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
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):
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