Adelae

This all depends on the size of the greenhouse, but unless the fan is pointed directly at the pings they shouldn't dry out. I also don't think humidity is all that important, I have had a couple on a window seal in Townsville (dry climate) for few years now, and the humidity is normally about 40-50% there, in saying this in my greenhouse and at my parents north of here with much higher humidity they do grow a lot better. However I have tropical pings, so I couldn't say for anything alpine pings. I have however had issues with certain drosera drying out, but only the rainforest group, however I have never had an issue with mould or algae on drosera or pings.

Hi Dave, I had a small polyhouse (1M/1M/2M) and ran two CPU fans in this and never had any issues, I used it for about a year. I think that most CPU fans (12cm) are suitable for an area of about 1 square meter, but once you reach this dimension or larger then you will most likely need more fans. When I had my uni polyhouse (3/3/2.8M) I had to run 5 fans and even then I didn't feel that did enough so I bastardised a portable 30cm fan and ran it off a car battery/solar panels. So you will have to take into acc the size of the setup and work out the best placement, for a small setup this is typically from a top corner facing diagonally to the opposing corner.

I use standard NPK pellet fertiliser on my neps (seedlings included), depending on the species I normally mix spag/peat/sand (ration various by species) then once they germinate and are about 1cm I spread about 3tbs of the fertiliser on the tray (standard 30cmseed tray). In saying this I keep them in my greenhouse which is automated, so excessive watering, but it works well for me. Alternatively I got good results outs of seasol, though again misters.

Also the methods I mentioned are in play when I am at uni and my plants are at my greenhouse at my parents, so a couple months unchecked is normal.

If you use a pump that circulates water from the base of the terrarium (which I am assuming) it will be worth having a supply for the reservoir, I have found upturned bottles (I use 5L bottles) work great and keep a constant level (similar to a dog watering bowl with a bottle, very common). I also obviously works if they are sitting in the water and maintains the right level, though it does not sound like this is the case. I would also suggest having an empty pot as the last that the pump drips into, this way you may see if water is making it, pressure should not be a problem unless the holes are to large as I used a similar setup for a utric wall, 5mm pipe at 1M and holes every 5cm, this still had water exiting the end, the pump was a small solar pump. Alternatively if it is just neps and not drosera or pings it may be easier to use a small mister, one per corner or one per side, again I have used small solar pond pumps for this and they work (on a sunny day), I am guessing you are using a much more powerful pump that takes AC power, my tank was 2ft/3ft and had 1pump with 2 misters (well more sprayers) and worked fine. With this method humidity is raised and once a day for 15min or twice a day for 5min is fine, otherwise you can get away with 15min every two day providing your are using misters and not fogger tips (though fogger tips are uncommon and need much more pressure to work). In all cases however I had the plants raised from the base of the tank and the reservoir at the base (except the utric who were in the water). Hope this helped, but as Druboi said, more info would make suggestions easier, also the biggest issue with an external water source (such as a barrel) is that you may end up flooding the base of the tank and causing rot in a few species (though I keep most of my neps in permanent trays)

We get the odd days in the 40's (C not F) and plenty days in the high 30's and my ping moranensis, its hybrids and prim's do fine, though I can't say for cold as I readily get as low as 8C on winter nights, but I am guessing you mean pom cold, so I cant say for that but I doubt moranensis would appreciate the cold.

I have one of these in my greenhouse, just a bog garden with sunken pots and it works great (so soil between pots). The advantage over just pots is that plants like sarracenia, drosera, stylidium and utricularia......... can spread out of the pot and you can get sections (easy risk free propagation). It also means, as prior mentioned, that you can move them around and more importantly weed species such as drosera burmannii or utricularia (huge list) won't get out of control as easily and invade. Your in a cold climate, so I don't have to warn you to avoid black pots, though if your summers get hot enough, avoid black pots. To cut back on cost I filled the bog with sand between pots and then just used a top layer (5cm) of sphagnum moss for spreading.

Triffid park in Victoria have a huge selection of sarracenia, here in Au we also have exotica plants (as you know), primal plants, captive exotics and various societies you could join to hel build the collection

I grow al of these drosera well, binata being a bit of a weed, I have found that show better colour in afternoon sun than morning, but full sun all day is fine. I use various depths, but really a pot of 12-15cm deep is fine for all with a permanent water table of 1-5cm is fine, I have also found that binata enjoy the occasional flooding (in the bog gardens they tend to grow best in depressions whereas capensis and alicea do best on mounds. In saying this I am tropical and as a result my supplied conditions may not work for you (water depth/irradiance for example), although afternoon sun is pretty well accepted for carns in most climates.

I am in a tropical climate and tried this with a small esky as a pot, within a foam box as a water basin/tray, and just as a heads up to future tropical growers who see this and think it might work, I tried several times with a solar pump (and 3 at one time) and it never worked for more than a month in summer or 1-2months in winter. But it works well for utricularia when it is running water to the top of a small rock face. I'm envious that you poms can grow darlingtonia so well.

I have had great results with both soaking them in pure H2O for a couple days or 48-52hour soak in 90% GA3 (best results). Then sow on 1 part spag/1 sand (or gravel) or 60/40 sand/peat (I have had great results with either), I use 12-15cm tall pots, a water tray just 1cm below the soil, then after a week or two they germinate, drop the water table gradually (about a cm per day or two) down to 3-4cm. Give very bright light, my plants get full sun all day through 50% beige/sandstone (one of the two). Obviously high humidity really helps, mine sits at 70%+, as for temps aim for 25-30C, but my germination tank in the greenhouse gets to 38C and they seem to be fine with it. Grubs, caterpillar, grasshopper and thrips seem to destroy small plants, but once they are at the 30-40cm mark they seem unkillable. Hope this helps. (also they seem to need cross pollination to get seed so keep several going or you may loose them)

Going off Joseph Clemens statement "GA3 could cause more trouble", this could e linked to the cutting conundrum, some people use cutting hormones (rooting gels) for their cuttings and say they make all the difference, other say they do nothing, some go as far as saying that neps have natural means of increased cutting success (as many plants do) and that the gels/powders can have a negative effect. I have tried GA3 and found no difference, but my seedlings are misted twice daily (back of greenhouse) so I would image any chemical was washed off (I sprayed them with some excess from my drosera, hence no soaking). Some advice, I have had issues with peat and spag, I find that if they are lowlanders or intermediate (my restriction) they do very, very well on 2 part African violet mix: 1 spag and a small amount of NPK, I use a 30cm seedling tray, fill it, add 1table spoon of NPK then water lightly, add seed and sit in my greenhouse (daily misting, humidity 70%+, good circulation, full sun all day through 50% shade cloth). I then do not transplant until they are making true traps (about 3-4cm diameter), I drop the whole tray in water, let them float up, swish them around and transplant. Hope this helped, sorry its abit late.

Yes, I have plenty of weedy vents, retirement at 21 ;), wait does this mean that black knight and ventricosa are also costly now.

I'm not UK, but brunnings (yes bRunnings not Bunnings) NPK works great for my nepenthes, utricularia, sarracenia and stylidium.

It was pretty funny, I recently acquired (a friend found it and got it for me as a joke) little shop of horrors, the movie must be 40+years for how bad it is, but the giant carnivorous.....what ever the hell it is, is hilarious. I think that in the ice age movie (comedy kids show) there is also giant carn plants when they go to the underground continent, or whatever it is

Campanulata and bellii are easy to grow can take a lot of rubbish before slowing down, otherwise you can stunt neps, sort of like a bonsai.

Hi all, I have been out for awhile (uni exams and start of holidays) but have just received some U.vulgaris seed (not common here in Au), and am hoping to get advice on germination/growing. I currently grow (and have germinated) U.gibba, aurea, stellaris and australis, but all were tropical forms, so no treatment. in general I put 1 cup of compressed dried sphagnum into a 5L bowl (30cm tall), fill with water and let it sit for 2-3days (until spag sinks), then I all seeds and place in a bright but not directly lit position in the greenhouse and leave until the plants are 3-4cm then move them to a larger pond. Do I need to (or would it be best) if I cold stratify, GA3 or just leave the seed? On a side note I also got some U.praetermissa seed and am wonder if GA3 or a cool strat is necessary. (was just going to throw on 3 dried spag:1 sand, high light, high humidity and a 12cm pot with a 2-3cm tray, same as my U.longifolia and renformis get) I am in a tropical climate so no real winter, thus a natural stratification is out of the question. Any advice would be great

Hi all, I have just received some U.vulgaris seed (not common here in Au), and am hoping to get advice on germination/growing. I currently grow (and have germinated) U.gibba, aurea, stellaris and australis, but all were tropical forms, so no treatment. in general I put 1 cup of compressed dried sphagnum into a 5L bowl (30cm tall), fill with water and let it sit for 2-3days (until spag sinks), then I all seeds and place in a bright but not directly lit position in the greenhouse and leave until the plants are 3-4cm then move them to a larger pond. Do I need to (or would it be best) if I cold stratify, GA3 or just leave the seed? On a side note I also got some U.praetermissa seed and am wonder if GA3 or a cool strat is necessary. (was just going to throw on 3 dried spag:1 sand, high light, high humidity and a 12cm pot with a 2-3cm tray, same as my U.longifolia and renformis get) I am in a tropical climate so no real winter, thus a natural stratification is out of the question. Any advice would be great.

Off topic post, sorry.

Also most smaller drosera (pygmies, bummanii, small spathulata varietys) like very fine sand (1mm or less), but most other drosera and sarra's like course sand (2-3mm)

My plants all get sunlight, as I am tropical I can keep them outside year round, butI am still leaning towards stunted. Otherwise what if your plants are from a high elevation (1800-2000M marks) and most in cultivation are from lower elevations (0-1000), they would naturally grow slower when compared to other amps would they not?

Martin Hingst's amps cant be in to much light, in one pic he has D.adelae with them showing very little reddening, although there are varieties that show more red or green than other adelae, all show reddening in high light. Also Manders, I have some of my amp "green" in spag and sand (2:1) and they grow fast, granted slower then the same clone in sand/peat/bark, but still fast.

I recently lost several petiolaric complex seedlings to these little buggers, I found that putting drosera burmanni plants amongst the seedligns work well, they masacar them, as do adelae and indica, but indica get out of control when they seed and you get loads of indica in your pots, burmanni less so.

Amps go pretty high altitude wise, so I would image their are cold tolerant/intermediate amps out there, I am not sure High light is the reason for compact growth, I have 2 of my amps outside in full sun from 9am-3-4pm and they grow fast, but in winter they slow right down. My amp green were seed grown and went from 2inch rossetes to 1foot vines in a 6month time frame, my flecked amps did the same, but I got them when they where already 2-3inch. You said they are cuttings, I have a small mirabilis cutting that I took whilst small (3inch), in over a year it has only grown to a 3-4inch diameter and made 5-6leaves that are very compact, perhaps this is not conditions but rather it was stunted.

I had a pet one that lived in the greenhouse (it could leave at anytime but I fed it on occasion), it was an albino, which was why when I devastatingly found it dead on a bench I preserved it in a jar with a native stick insect that also lived in the greenhouse, they seem to like the citrus tree's near the greenhouse, in particular the stick insect that live on bottle brush tree's and lemonade tree's.