Windowsill Nepenthes ampullaria

[North West Neps]

Unfortunately my DIY bodge doesn't appear to be such a good one now. I'm still feel so stupid for frying my plant 

 

Don't feel stupid, you tried some pretty reasonable measures to try and keep a lowlander alive on a windowsill in the UK, and you kinda made a mini terrarium there which is a step in the right direction. It seemed to be doing fine until your thermostat let you down.

I bet you don't feel as stupid as the guy i read about just a few days ago on another forum who thought it'd be a good idea to put his nep in the fridge every night to achieve a temperature drop. Now that's pretty unbelievable !

We learn from our mistakes and we adapt and improve. Don't give up trying !

[nicmanism]

Last time I was in Sainsburys they had glass domes approx 30 cm x 20cm ( I didn't have a tape with me) for about £12. Unfortunately I can't tell you what they were being sold as but we're in the house/ garden bit.

Hope thIs helps .

Phil

Thanks Phil,

I'm going shopping for a new set-up this weekend. Glass domes could be interesting. The plastic ones seem to become opaque with age. Perhaps due to UV degradation.

[mobile]

I know people who grow plants (not Nepenthes) in a fridge :-)

Sent from my XT1039 using Tapatalk

[North West Neps]

I know people who grow plants (not Nepenthes) in a fridge :-) Sent from my XT1039 using Tapatalk

I think i know who you mean, but i believe that fridge doesn't have a door on it and isn't plugged into the mains !

[nicmanism]

By any chance was the lack of pitchers and smaller leaves occuring over winter and did the pitchers start to grow in summer?

I wish I kept better records.

 

I've counted 8 leaves with pitchers. How long does a pitchered leaf take to form? I'm guessing around 3 weeks?? So as a rough estimate the pitchers started forming 24 weeks ago or 6 months ago. That would be early February. That is late winter. So I'm not sure if the formation of pitchers could be purely seasonal...... if my estimate of when the pitchers started forming is correct.

 

Also I was under the impression that lowlanders grow in fairly stable climates and form pitchers all year round? Can any of the more experienced lowland Nepenthes growers let us know whether this is correct.

[North West Neps]

I wish I kept better records.

That'll come in time, you'll soon have a multi column, multi page excel spreadsheet !

[manders]

I wish I kept better records.

 

I've counted 8 leaves with pitchers. How long does a pitchered leaf take to form? I'm guessing around 3 weeks?? So as a rough estimate the pitchers started forming 24 weeks ago or 6 months ago. That would be early February. That is late winter. So I'm not sure if the formation of pitchers could be purely seasonal...... if my estimate of when the pitchers started forming is correct.

 

Also I was under the impression that lowlanders grow in fairly stable climates and form pitchers all year round? Can any of the more experienced lowland Nepenthes growers let us know whether this is correct.

 

In situ they will grow and pitcher all year with several exceptions that live in seasonal climates.  Ampullarias though will typically pitcher all year.  But, and its a big but, that's assuming conditions are stable all year which they wont be on a windowsill in the UK.  Clearly the humidity wasn't an issue for pitcher formation, more probably it was the amount of light it was getting in summer and general room temperature, reason i'm asking is that i've never grown an ampullaria in normal room conditions, although i've grown several in a conservatory, but that was with generally high humidity.

 

I think your estimate is a massive understimate.

[mobile]

I think i know who you mean, but i believe that fridge doesn't have a door on it and isn't plugged into the mains !

No, it's an American grower who grows Cephalotus and Heliamphora in modified fridges.

[nicmanism]

Didn´t you fear this really unaware installation could cause a fire or electrical short?

Bonedry peat is an excellent fire accelerant.

Hi liacina,

 

A bit of a brutal comment considering I'm still kicking myself for killing my plant. But you do make a very good point. Without a feedback temperature control signal the soil warming cables could have easily keep pumping more and more heat into the pot until a fire occured. In my case I am fortunate that the cables weren't able to supply enough heat to cause a fire. After 4 days the system was uncomfortably warm (fatally warm for a Nepenthes). But neither the pots or plastic cables had started to melt, so luckily for me the system wasn't really close to ingnition temperature for the sphagnum.

 

The important point is that I did not check the safety of my system. I didn't know what would happen if the temperature probe failed. I would have hoped for a fail-safe system i.e. where the temperature controller would stop supplying heat to the system if the signal from the temperature probe was interupted. I also did not check what would happen if the maximum heat output was continuously supplied from the soil warming cables.

 

Thankfully I now know that this system will fry a plant but not cause a fire if the cables are run continuously at full power.

 

My next system is going to have the following safety features:

a) a fail safe temperature controller - one which switches off the power supply if irregular temperature readings  occur

b) a way to continuously monitor temperature - a soil thermometer

c) some kind of high/low temperature alarm - I'll look for an off the shelf solution but might even attempt to rig up something that sends a message to my phone

 

Regards

Mark

[nicmanism]

I have a small vivarium heater pad, attached to the bottom of a marble placemat which I stand the jar on in winter. The wattage is very low, so provides gentle heat. Sent from my XT1039 using Tapatalk

That sounds like a more sensible solution than the soil warming cables. Before buying my next ampullaria I might check to see whether a similar system will reach the correct temperatures on my windowsill.

[nicmanism]

In situ they will grow and pitcher all year with several exceptions that live in seasonal climates.  Ampullarias though will typically pitcher all year.  But, and its a big but, that's assuming conditions are stable all year which they wont be on a windowsill in the UK.  Clearly the humidity wasn't an issue for pitcher formation, more probably it was the amount of light it was getting in summer and general room temperature, reason i'm asking is that i've never grown an ampullaria in normal room conditions, although i've grown several in a conservatory, but that was with generally high humidity.

 

I think your estimate is a massive understimate.

Hi manders, thanks for this information. I agree that my estimate could be badly wrong. I'm going to keep much better records next time. It would be interesting to know whether the dome was really neccessary. The plant was under gro-lights but some light (not direct sunlight) does reach the plant through the window, so you could be right that an increased amount of light could have lead to the pitcher formation.

 

Of course many other factors could have lead to pitcher formation ....... such as my girlfriend's habit of turning the central heating up to maximum!!!

 

I'm going to try again. This time with temperature and humidity logger. I might even look into some kind of light intensity measurement. One day I will successfully grow a N ampullaria!!

[manders]

It looks like you were on the right track with that one, apart from the accident.

[North West Neps]

How about building a custom size long and narrow windowsill terrarium out of perspex sheet and aquarium sealant adhesive ? You can buy the long narrow propagator heat mats to put underneath it. Perspex can be quite expensive, so try putting a shoutout on yer local Freecycle, people tend to get rid of all sorts of material offcuts that they feel are no good or to small too resell.

[nicmanism]

How about building a custom size long and narrow windowsill terrarium out of perspex sheet and aquarium sealant adhesive ? You can buy the long narrow propagator heat mats to put underneath it. Perspex can be quite expensive, so try putting a shoutout on yer local Freecycle, people tend to get rid of all sorts of material offcuts that they feel are no good or to small too resell.

Thanks for this suggestion. I've just taken a look online and Wick (UK) sell perspex sheets (1.2 m x 0.6 m) for £18.39. Quite a few other vendors (http://www.plasticsheets.com) sell sheets for a similar price but will cut them to pre-specified size. So this could be an interesting option combined with a windowsill heat mat.

 

However I still want to know whether it is possible to grow an ampullaria on a windowsill without a cover. I like to be able to see my plants without having to lift a dome...I also dislike cleaning terrariums of slime that tends to accumulate on the bottom surface. So I might have one more go at an "in-pot" arrangement before resorting to a custom perspex terrarium. I've already ordered a humidity probe and high/low temperature alarm from ebay.

[nicmanism]

OK everyone,

I'm ready to try again.

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I'm going to have another shot at an "in-pot" heater. As I am very interested to see whether increasing the soil (sphagnum) temperature will raise the humidity enough for pitchers to form without covering with a dome (as suggested might be happening by Welshy).

All of my amazon and ebay orders have arrived. As suggested by lilacina I'm taking safety much more seriously this time.

I have purchased:

 

a) An IR heat mat (for reptiles) - 10W. The 37.5W heating cable from the previous attempt was a bit excessive. I think the IR mat will heat more evenly via radiation and hopefully I won't get local hot-spots near the surface of the heater that will fry roots. This heat mat is IPx4 rated (i.e. suitable for immersion) so I shouldn't have to worry about electrical shorts.

b) Another thermostat. This one has a digital readout of the temperature. So hopefully I'll see if the temperature begins to deviate from the set point.

c) A high/low temperature alarm with a probe. This is a fridge freezer alarm with a -50C to +70C temperature range. I'll set up this device so an alarm will go off if the temperature exceeds 35C (which shouldn't occur naturally in the UK). It only has one alarm so I can't simultaneously set a low temperature alarm but I'm hoping low temperature events will be less drastic since I already have a very effective alarm that monitors low temperatures in the house ....... my wife!

d) A humidity meter. This will hopefully give me an idea of whether heating the soil increases the humidity enough to avoid needing to cover the plant with a dome.

 

I've assembled the IR mat inside a terracotta pot. I'm using a terracotta pot this time instead of a plastic pot due to better thermal insulation. I'm also hoping that warming the damp, micro-porous structure of the terracotta pot will increase humidity.

 

Then I filled the pot with a mixture of perlite and sphagnum and ran a few tests.

First some safety tests. I want to make sure that if the thermostat fails and continuously pumps full power into the soil then I won't kill my plant or worse still dry out the soil and start a fire. So I left the IR heat mat on full power and monitored the temperature. The ambient air temperature was 21C and the soil temperature rose to 32C within around 5 hours and held steady at 32C. This should be just about perfect; a maximum temperature increase of around 11C. The temperature inside our house in the UK rarely exceeds 27C. If the IR heat mat was left on full power during an unusually hot spell in the UK a maximum temperature of 38C would be reached. I'm guessing a lowland nepenthes could endure this temperature extreme for a while and that I would notice the high reading on one of the temperature readouts. 

 

As for the low temperature extreme - I set our thermostat to drop the house temperature to 19C during the night. My wife complains this is toooooo cold but I've told her that we need to be environmentally conscious and not waste too much energy on heating. But actually consideration of the night time temperature drop required for healthy highland nepenthes (which I grow right next to my ampullaria set-up) does come into play. At this low ambient temperature extreme the IR mat should easily heat the soil to the ideal temperature of 24C? (can one of the more experienced Nepenthes growers suggest the ideal temperature set point for an ampullaria?).

 

During this test I also monitored the humidity (I'm guessing it is RH). At the time I switched the IR heat mat on the ambient RH was 60%. This rose to around 85% as the soil temperature increased to 32C. The RH continued to rise as the ambient air temperature dropped. Eventually a RH of 99% was reached. So hopefully I won't need a dome for pitchers to form.

 

I've also bought a cheap light meter and taken a reading of the light intensity: 4800 lux. Has anyone investigated optimum light intensity for their nepenthes?

 

So now I'm ready. Hopefully...... unless anyone has spotted any flaws in my set-up. I just need another N ampullaria. I'm going to hold out for a nicely coloured variety. Hopefully one will be arriving for me in October.

 

Mark

Edited August 18, 2015 by nicmanism

[manders]

"I've also bought a cheap light meter and taken a reading of the light intensity: 4800 lux. Has anyone investigated optimum light intensity for their nepenthes?

 

Mark"

 

 

 

 

50,000 to 130,000+ LUX, depending on species.  They will grow, but slowly and maybe stunted, with as little as 1000 LUX. 

 

I have never been able to reproduce the true color of my brick-red ampullaria by growing it in the UK.

Edited August 24, 2015 by manders

[North West Neps]

As for the low temperature extreme - I set our thermostat to drop the house temperature to 19C during the night. My wife complains this is toooooo cold.

 

Pardon ?!!!

I can't sleep if the Summer temperatures at night hit 14c, and your missus reckons it's tool cold if you drop it to 19c ? Surely a typo !

[nicmanism]

 

"I've also bought a cheap light meter and taken a reading of the light intensity: 4800 lux. Has anyone investigated optimum light intensity for their nepenthes?

 

Mark"

 

 

 

 

50,000 to 130,000+ LUX, depending on species.  They will grow, but slowly and maybe stunted, with as little as 1000 LUX. 

 

I have never been able to reproduce the true color of my brick-red ampullaria by growing it in the UK.

 

Thanks Manders

 

I might have to consider additional LED lighting then.

 

Are your lighting conditions natural light? I've read that with full spectrum natural light 100000 lux corresponds to full direct sunlight and 50000 corresponds to daylight shade conditions. But plants only require the red and blue bands of the spectrum for photosynthesis. Most of the white light spectrum is not used by plants.

 

I've got my plants under Sylvania grolux tubes. These tubes emit mainly red and blue light so hopefully a reading of 4800 lux from predominantly red and blue light corresponds to brighter white light lux readings. But if my red ampullaria (if I ever get one) doesn't achieve impressive colouration then I'll invest in some fancy LEDS.

 

Mark

Edited August 25, 2015 by nicmanism

[nicmanism]

Pardon ?!!!

I can't sleep if the Summer temperatures at night hit 14c, and your missus reckons it's tool cold if you drop it to 19c ? Surely a typo !

That is quite strange. My wife is from Lancashire, you are from Lancashire and I'm from Sydney. But you guys feel the cold more than me!

[manders]

It will probably grow fine with the light your giving it, but some sunlight wouldn't do any harm either.  I've tried growing them with sun part of the day and still don't get the colour you see on wild plants or those grown in the tropics, but its good enough, even if not exactly the same.

[nicmanism]

Hi Manders

 

I've always assumed (most likely wrongly) that N ampullaria is a shade growing species.

 

I could easily move my set-up to a sunny or partly sunny window. If only I had two Cantley's reds then I would put one under lights and one on a sunny window to see which one grew best.

Edited August 25, 2015 by nicmanism

[mobile]

These are the light levels my N. ampullaria receives (x100):

 

 

and this is what the plant looks like:

 

[manders]

They grow in partial shade, but in the the tropics so it's still high lux.

This red one below should be a dark brick red colour, instead it's a bit pale and with many pitchers having greenish patches.

Note that although the pitchers might grow with low humidity, I find ampullarias need high humidity for the leaves to grow properly.

[nicmanism]

These are the light levels my N. ampullaria receives (x100):

 

 

and this is what the plant looks like:

 

Hi Mobile, thanks for posting your lux reading. I'm not sure I'll be able to get close to 40000 lux with my grolux tubes.

 

Do your LEDs emit white light? I'm guessing the intensity from your LEDs can't be directly compared to the value from the grolux tubes since grolux tubes mainly emit red and blue light. Also which N ampullaria variant do you have? Is it a red variant or a speckled variant?

[nicmanism]

Wow manders! Are they your plants? Very nice. Are they both Cantley's reds or is the one on the right a speckled variety?

I'm guessing from the photo that you grow these plants in your conservatory. Do you keep the conservatory heated during winter? What humidity levels do you maintain?