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Everything posted by Ben
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If I can add another natural hybrid that I'd like to see in cultivation, then rajah x villosa (x kinabaluensis) would be my choice
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I grow mine in live sphagnum moss. I've tried it in peat both flooded and quite dry, but it was nowhere near as successful. In moss, I find it incredibly invasive and it has filled a full seedtray. At the edges of the tray, pulling back the moss reveals dense white stems and bladders. It throws up lots of flower scapes although they don't often produce flowers except last year (when the weather was very hot and sunny) when it flowered like crazy. As to watering, I keep the sphagnum moist but never flood it. It has also survived winters in my unheated greenhouse.
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Thanks everyone for the comments. I'm looking forward to a few more pitchers opening. Bill - Not too sure of its origin. Some of my other maxima hybrids are from Cantharifera. I've not seen x tiveyi advertised by Cantharifera. Was that your source? This one came from a friend. Julian - I haven't been posting too much, but I have been lurking though, just in case anyone is offering x dyeriana cuttings
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It says that apparently they're £3.99 at our local supermarket, but I've never seen them in stock!
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I've had this plant for nearly two years and its the first time it has pitchered for me. Fortunately it was worth the wait... Now its settled in, it looks like there will be more pitchers on the way soon :)
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Another idea: One time I built a little waterfall at the back of my terrarium using one of those small pumps used in table top water features. The pump pumped water up to a top dish which then overflowed creating the waterfall. I placed the mister in the top dish so that, when on, the mist cascaded down with the waterfall onto the plants below. I eventually got rid of it because I ran out of space in the terrarium and moved all my plants to the greenhouse, but if you have space it can make quite a nice feature...
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I use one in my terrarium which I bought from www.aquatics-online.co.uk Its the low water model here It seems fine. It has been running for 15 minutes every 6 hours for the last year or so and I have not yet needed to replace the disk. Since I only use it with rainwater I haven't yet had occasion to try its effectiveness with hard water.
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How to use bayonette fitting bulbs in terraria?
Ben replied to Jamesemt's topic in Terraria - Cultivation & Equipment
If you want something waterproof, look for the bulkhead type outdoor fittings. I think B&Q sell them for a couple of quid which take a standard bayonet fitting. You will need to check though that they are long enough to accomodate your particular type of energy saving bulb though. Look for an IP standard of IPx4 or above (IP54, IP55, IP56 etc.). Also try to get one which does not diffuse the light too much, ideally a clear cover would be best I would have thought. As with most of these fittings they are designed to be hard wired so you need to add your own cable I'm afraid. If you don't go for a waterproof option, then it would be best to position the lights either behind the terrarium or suspend them above, with a sheet of glass or plexiglass between the bulb/fitting and the tank. Best of luck -
Thats an interesting thread and it may well be true that Darlingtonia can withstand high temperatures providing they are given plenty of aeration to the roots, however, my advice to a novice would still be to keep their roots cool. The original poster did not say where he is located, but in the UK at least this is easier than trying to rig up some elaborate aeration system.
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I'd leave it on and let it die back naturally. VFT traps have a limited life and this can be shortened by overuse or catching something too big. As it dies back, the plant will absorb the nutrients from the trap. Only cut it off once its completely brown
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If your Cobra Lily is not looking too well, it could be it is too hot rather than the humidity. Cobras grow naturally in the margins of mountain streams so they like their feet to be kept cold and wet.
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Check out my carnivorous plants website
Ben replied to ebeyonder's topic in Carnivorous Plant Websites
Great looking site! I especially like the byblis :) -
Bill, In my experience, D. adelae grows very easily through the summer in water trays alongside my other Drosera/Sarras (I keep it frost free in the winter) But I also find that it sometimes loses all its leaves and dies back - presumably through some trauma such as too cold? or too dry? or being repotted which it seems to hate! It readily sprouts from its roots though and indeed all my plants are offsets from the original parent rather than propagated by seed, which I think has never set for me. My tips would be: 1) Put it in a big pot - it grows a big root system and you don't want to repot more often than necessary because of the trauma thing. 2) If it loses its leaves reduce the water - this is the time I find it most vulnerable to rot (I guess treat it a bit like cephalotus in this respect) 3) Be patient with it. 4) Since I do incur losses, take tips from others if they reckon they can keep it looking healthy all year around :)
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You should smell my greenhouse at the moment!
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I think its called Durian. Very tasty, but banned most places because of its smell.
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Hi, Plastic greenhouses are ok, but in time they do tear and flap around in the wind. You can buy replacement covers for some of them though. I have one which was left out all winter and it finally gave up the ghost this spring, but in terms of protection it did keep the worst of the weather off my hardy CPs this year. Through the summer, they are great as long as you allow some ventilation as they tend to get very hot in the sun.
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Rocklizard, That was the point I was trying to make in my post. D.Adelae is a tropical plant, but in cultivation, I find it is much easier to grow if you lower the humidity. It doesn't need it, and in my experience high humidity just leads to the plants rotting. My advice is to keep it cooler and dryer than its origins would suggest.
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I also heard that D. Adelae was not easy and this was my experience early on, as I kept rotting them in my terrarium. Once I stopped molly-coddling it and started treating it a bit more like a D.Capensis it has been fine for me. If I let it dry out it loses its leaves, but it shoots back from the roots and flowers nicely.
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Break some bits off and put them in any of your water trays, and wait for the little yellow flowers to appear...
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To be on the safe side, I'd take the two flowers and rub them together. I have found self fertilisation of B.Liniflora a bit hit and miss without a little manual assistance.
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Gas heaters in greenhouse?
Ben replied to flycatchers's topic in Greenhouses - Cultivation & Equipment
Bill, I have heated my greenhouse this last winter using a bio-green propane heater. Things you should be aware of: 1) Hot air rises! This may be stating the obvious, but I set my heater on the ground at at 8C and found that the heater would belt out heat all night and maintain 8C at the bottom and something like 25C and more at the top of the greenhouse! You will need something to move the air around in order to eliminate this temperature gradient. I ended up rigging up an extractor fan and ducting to suck air from the top and blow it out at the ground (For this I needed electricity!) 2) You can't set different day and nighttime temperatures. I ended up using an electric fan heater on a time switch during the day to raise the temp to 25C 3) If you plan to use gas as your only source of heat you will probably want to buy an auto-changeover valve. These work on pressure differential between the two cylinders and switch over before the used bottle is completely empty. You can continue to run with the used bottle online for a time in order to run it down further, but you will always have the feeling that you are returning bottles which are not completely empty. 4) The biogreen heaters (at least) do not modulate the heat, i.e they are either full on or not. I bought the most powerful one I could find, but with the benefit of hindsight, if I was buying again I would choose one which either allowed me to control the power or did it automatically depending on how severe the frost was. Also a pilot light continues to burn gas day and night regardless of temperature 5) Swapping gas bottles is a bit of a bind, I have had to replace a 19kg bottle about every 6 to 8 weeks. The larger bottles are too heavy to handle by myself. Now some good points: 6) Burning gas creates moisture in the air so it does to some degree maintain humidity, ventilation is not problem for humidity especially during the winter when the air is damp anyway 7) My greenhouse is not airtight and I have not so far seen the need to add any additional ventilation (Which reminds me I must test for CO at some point :) ) 8 ) The temperature control seems pretty accurate 9) I estimate that the gas costs me about 2/3 what it would cost to heat to the same temperature by electricity Bottom line, don't choose gas to avoid installing electricity, but it may save you some fuel bills in the long run. If you are not too cost sensitive, it may be less hassle all round to have two electric fan heaters on separate time switches for day and night time heating. -
Help Concerning Lowland Nepenthes Tank
Ben replied to Brendan's topic in Terraria - Cultivation & Equipment
Brendan, You can get grolux, sunglo etc, fluorescents in 12" / 8 watt sizes for very small tanks, although I guess you will get a better density from compact fluorescents such as the 18Watt (100watt equivalent) energy saver bulbs. For a small tank, heating may be best with a submersible heat cable or mat if a full sized aquiarium heater is going to take up too much space. Failing that, can you find room for a slightly bigger tank? ? -
You're both way ahead of me. The flower stalk is about 1 inch at the moment. 23 to go then! How long did it take from the bud first appearing to flowering?
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I only remove: 1) The brown bits 2) Traps which are partially snapped off due to weather etc. 3) Traps which are lying horizontally (maybe because of 2) 4) Traps which are obstructing new growth (Especially likely with Purpurea and sometimes with Minors) I doubt this kind of removal makes much difference either way to the plants, but it does make them look tidier.
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My best success has been growing it in a shallow tray of Sphagnum Moss. It spread throughout the tray last year and flowered for the first time. As to watering, the tray is upto half full of water, but I do let this level evaporate away. I water it when the moss starts to look dry on top. Ben.