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Stu

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Everything posted by Stu

  1. Stu

    Two different bogs

    They've not been set up long... just a week or so before those pictures in July. Therefore I cannot comment on how they will fare during the harsher winter months of our British weather. Incidentally I will be moving house soon so have to temporarily tear down these bogs to move them!
  2. If you're after an 'out the box' simple setup, these T5 units are 2ft long and kick out good light... http://www.3ch.co.uk/lightwave-t5-propagation-light-4-way-short.html (They do a 2 or 4 tube version) I've not used them myself, but would go for these if I wanted a fluorescent setup on a tank that size. I'm currently building a custom LED system for my 2ft terrarium but is much more expensive and DIY heavy! ;-)
  3. Nice build Chris! You did get an absolute bargain on that perspex too... very expensive stuff usually.
  4. Thanks for taking the time to explain your methods and findings - it's always good to hear thorough information that could help other growers in the future.
  5. Stu

    Two different bogs

    This is very specific to my setup and the fact I will be growing it practically as an emergent aquatic. Sure, I'll probably let the water level drop significantly periodically (and air exchange will occur lower down), but most of the time the rhizome and roots will be completely under water.
  6. Stu

    Two different bogs

    ha, yeah will have to wait and see on that one whether they like dicing with death - there are many cats in the neighbourhood (including our two) so we rarely see birds in the garden anyway!
  7. Having started my Carnivorous Plant journey (some ten years ago) by growing a handful of plants outdoors (due to lack of a greenhouse at the time), I've now returned to displaying a few plants outside; in a couple of newly set up bogs... A Darlingtonia haven on the left, and a mixed species bog on the right: The Darlingtonia are in a very watery/soupy mix of pure Sphagnum & rain water, and has a solar-powered airstone at the bottom to create a bit of oxygenation - in full sun the water really bubbles away! The Belfast sink bog, consists of S. × 'Maxima', S. purpurea venosa, S. × harperi, S. oreophila 'Purple Throat', Dionaea muscipula (seed grown myself), Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu', Drosera capensis 'Alba', Pinguicula grandiflora & Utricularia dichotoma. It is a sphagnum, peat & sand mix with a blanket of sphagnum on the surface. It will be interesting to see these progress over the year(s), especially the Belfast sink, which should fill in nicely with D. capensis seedlings, P. grandiflora gemmae and the spreading U. dichotoma (providing it doesn't completely die off during the winter!)
  8. Stu

    Outdoor Bogs

    Pictures of my outdoor bogs
  9. Stu

    Two bog overview

    From the album: Outdoor Bogs

    Species: Darlingtonia californica Sarracenia purpurea Sarracenia × 'Maxima' Sarracenia × harperi Sarracenia oreophila "Purple Throat" Dionaea muscipula (seed grown) Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu' Drosera capensis 'alba' Pinguicula grandiflora Utricularia dichotoma

    © Stuart Keeler

  10. Stu

    Belfast Sink Bog

    From the album: Outdoor Bogs

    Species: Sarracenia purpurea Sarracenia × 'Maxima' Sarracenia × harperi Sarracenia oreophila "Purple Throat" Dionaea muscipula (seed grown) Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu' Drosera capensis 'alba' Pinguicula grandiflora Utricularia dichotoma

    © Stuart Keeler

  11. From the album: Outdoor Bogs

    Species: Sarracenia purpurea Sarracenia × 'Maxima' Sarracenia × harperi Sarracenia oreophila "Purple Throat" Dionaea muscipula (seed grown) Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu' Drosera capensis 'alba' Pinguicula grandiflora Utricularia dichotoma

    © Stuart Keeler

  12. Stu

    Belfast Sink Bog

    From the album: Outdoor Bogs

    Species: Sarracenia purpurea Sarracenia × 'Maxima' Sarracenia × harperi Sarracenia oreophila "Purple Throat" Dionaea muscipula (seed grown) Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu' Drosera capensis 'alba' Pinguicula grandiflora Utricularia dichotoma

    © Stuart Keeler

  13. Stu

    Darlingtonia bog

    From the album: Outdoor Bogs

    Darlingtonia californica bog with solar air pump

    © Stuart Keeler

  14. Stu

    Darlingtonia bog

    From the album: Outdoor Bogs

    Darlingtonia californica bog with solar air pump

    © Stuart Keeler

  15. Stu

    Darlingtonia bog

    From the album: Outdoor Bogs

    Darlingtonia californica bog with solar air pump

    © Stuart Keeler

  16. Nice pic Fred - I like the one with the wide yellow bands... looks like some sort of fly face! I've noticed similar random variability on my reniformis flowers.. Occasionally some have no stripes and some have had three or four!
  17. No one would be able to definitively say it'll be fine unless someone from a similar climate has tried. Best bet is to ask around locally to see if anyone has experience and if not, simply try and see if it works for you. Here is the climate data for the single area of the world that D. regia grows, if that helps at all? http://www.worldweatheronline.com/Wellington-weather-averages/Western-Cape/ZA.aspx
  18. Just to add my experience to Chris & Fred's above... I'd always heard of stories about dried out peat being hydrophobic and never to let it dry out, however I'd always just left the open bag in my greenhouse and never had problems. Even when it went dry, it always rewetted really easily. However, a bag of Irish Moss Peat I got recently was absolutely terrible. When first opened it was bone dry and is a nightmare to try and get wet... has to be submerged in water for ages before using in pots. With peat like that, I would never pot up a plant without fully soaking it first. Otherwise you'll probably lose the plant through dessication before the peat fully wets up!
  19. Southern Water made it their mission to put every property on a water meter by 2015. Guess you're supplied by someone else Chris? With a meter, you're charged per 1000cm3 drawn from the tap, and also per 1000cm3 waste water that goes down your drains. The waste water charge is about twice as much to encourage you not to be wasteful with water.
  20. With RO you are effectively concentrating your tap water in the waste as the pure water is forced out across the membrane. I would be cautious of using it to water certain plants in the garden. Acers like acidic soil and so even our naturally hard and alkaline SE tap water is a bad idea over time for them. The waste RO will be worse. I'm not sure on bamboo preference/tolerance, you'd have to do some research on this.If you have lawn areas, or bare ground it might be better to pour there, or even down a road drain outside to avoid the waste water meter charge.
  21. De-ionised water is slightly superior to RO as you will be guaranteed to get 0ppm pure water, but a good RO system will also achieve a similar result (and a lot cheaper for home use!).De-ionised water can be purchased from most supermarkets etc., but does not work out cost effective on a large scale. It is best to look for a local RO water supplier (aquarium trade/window cleaner trade) if you need lots of water (i.e. a water butt or more). A small home RO system can be picked up for around £50 and will last for a good few years, dependent on usage frequency. The output can be slow so a whole water butt can take many hours to trickle fill. The killer for an RO system is if you are on a water meter and can't find a use for the (heavily polluted) waste water! RO usually produces 1 litre of pure water for every 8 litres passed through. i.e. you'll be charged for 8x water draw + 7x sewerage cost for every 1 litre of RO water gained.
  22. Stu

    ID help

    Give it a few hours and it'll probably add itself!! Although quite a pretty little thing, I've had to keep mine far away from my other Utric pots as the damn thing has a habit of taking over and out competing the other species.
  23. I've sold seeds to a (friendly) guy in California via eBay, which seems a bit mad when their natural habitat is in California! He was probably southern Cali though so temperatures could be different, but I still would have thought suppliers would be easy to find there!
  24. No, without seeing/dismantling a unit, I can't be sure, but I'd guess that the mist is created by a ceramic membrane vibrating ultrasonically. These can easily get clogged or destroyed by dissolved minerals in the water. Due to the cost of the terrarium in the first place, I'd be inclined to use RO/distilled water in it (shouldn't need to buy any overpriced branded stuff from them). Hard to say on this information alone. Plants primarily use the blue and red wavelengths of light to grow. 6500K White LEDs put out a fair amount of blue but usually not a great deal of red. From what I understand, blue is used for vegetative growth and red more for flowering. You still don't know the the intensity of the lighting though so light colour temperature doesn't tell you the whole picture. Basically avoid VFT or Sarracenia that require dormancy. A cephalotus would look great in there, some tropical/warm climate drosera. Could alternatively have heliamphora but these would require different conditions to the others so not together.
  25. That's a great idea Fred, and one I wouldn't have necessarily thought of - thanks for sharing! I guess one could use activated carbon in the filter too if you were worried of any possible contamination or high dissolved minerals.
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