Question
Hi, I have been growing nepenthes for about a year with pretty good success(havnt killed one yet)and I would like to try a N. Hamata. Most everything I read says these are not for beginners but it seems like they require about the same treatment as most highlanders which is mostly what I have. Is there any special treatment for N. Hamata I should know about?I'd hate to kill such a expensive plant! Also I've been seeing a lot of information on the nepenthes forums about fertelizing with coffee. Do you have any experience with this?

Answer
Hi Peter,

If you've been having good luck with other Nepenthes, N. hamata isn't that difficult for a highlander.  They are definitely the easiest of the toothed peristome plants.  It will help if you can get a slightly larger plant, but that can be very expensive.  You just need to keep the humidity slightly elevated ~60-70% while a young plant.  Older plants can handle lower humidity.  Other than that, just like other highlanders, keep them cooler.  Temperatures in the 70's are fine.

I've only tried coffee fertilizing once on a limited basis, and my results were not impressive. (It was in winter, so without more sun it's hard to tell what benefit it had.) Here a link to a discussion on it:  http://icps.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=news&action=display&thread=2097

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com