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notostracan

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Everything posted by notostracan

  1. Love the tank, looks very natural! Like that you have random ferns, mosses and mushrooms popping up - that must be interesting to observe and make it feel even more natural. ....spent too long looking at that pic. You monster .
  2. I usually use Lampspecs for my terrestrial and aquarium plant bulbs, very cheap. Any of these would be good: http://www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bulbs-Tubes/54-Watt-1149mm. Although for growing plants tbh, I wouldent replace the tubes unless they have actually blown. Thats just what the manufacturer want you to do and likely advises in the instructions...modern florescent bulbs last ages and barely drop their light output before they blow. Depending on how you have your light timers set, you should get 2-3 years out of a T5 tube and even then it will only drop by 5%. See this graph: Most spectrums (2700K-10000k) will be great, you can even mix and match the bulbs to suit your taste. With florescent tubes the "K rating" matters a lot more to our eyes than to the plants, so choose based on how you want your plants to look. The lower the K rating, the more orange the bulb will look.
  3. Thank for the details. Yeah, mine looks like its in pure peat of some sort, not the best, but at least its putting out some new growth. Maybe if I repot soon enough I might get some flowers before next year. Off to try do some digging on "Tempa"! :)
  4. Very nice, thanks for sharing the pic! Do you have yours sitting in a wee bit of water in that glazed pot, or do you just keep it moist? Information on Pinguicula "Tempa" is more scant than I thought it would be, does anyone know anything about the origins of this ping? All I can seem to find is that its a relatively new Mexican hybrid that can be found in garden centres. I think I'm going to have to make extensive use of Google translate to find any info on this haha,
  5. I'll just use a small handful of play sand for the sake of it then lol, and use a higher ratio of silica sand (which is more like fine gravel compared to the play sand). Cheers!
  6. Thanks Richard, I'm going to try do some reading on "Tempa", when it flowers I will do comparisons with pics online too. Good to know more certainly its a Mexican.
  7. Hi there, this week I made a visit to the Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam and brought back my first ping from the small gift shop. It was sitting in a tray of water with several VFTs but no other pings and it had no ID tag or sign. I'm hoping somebody can help me ID it? Any hints or guesses appreciated :). I'm guessing its a Mexican hybrid? I presume it would be much better to get a picture of the flower for ID, but that would have to wait until it blooms, I do have a couple of quick pics of how it looks now:
  8. So I've been reading about soil for Pinguicula spp. and the gist seems to be that the genus as a whole isn't fussy, there's anecdotal evidence that some Mexican species do better in an alkaline soil mix, and the wetter you keep them the more open the soil mix should be. Going from all the forum posts I've been trawling through, people tend to use a greater variety of soil mixes (according to personal preference) than with other CPs, and those soil mixes contain a greater variety of materials! Now after research I'm not too worried about what soil mix I use, no matter what my pings ID is lol . I'll keep it wet but not standing in water for now, once I get at least a rough ID I'll do some research on its natural habitat (or it's parents habitats) and base my watering regime on that. For soil I'll use what I have around, but make it a more open mix than the 1 part silica sand : 1 part sphagnum moss peat that I use for my VFTs. Probably 1:1:1 of silica:peat:play sand, since I know play sand is relatively inert, but will have more minerals than the aquarium silica sand I use. Might throw some LFS in there too since I have it.
  9. Unfortunately I'm not sure what kind of Pinguicula is is yet, as I bought the plant without a label, but I will post a photo for clues as to its ID :). I've just got the pot sitting in a tupperware tub with one of my VFTs, I don't let them sit in water unless I'm going away for more than a day though.
  10. Do Pinguicula benefit from some alkaline material (like the mentioned coral sand, pumice, dolomite etc) in the soil? Or do they just tolerate it well? I plan on re-potting an unidentified Pinguicula, and want to give it the best substrate possible, but as I plan to keep it in the same tray as other CPs I wouldn't want any minerals leaching into the tray.
  11. Thanks for the tips, I'll look into root cuttings when I eventually repot it, really don't want to unnecessarily risk it losing its dew for months so I'll assess the situation next year I think!
  12. Perfect, I'll leave it as it is for now. I take it you only need to repot when the plants are literally spilling over the sides? I've read some opinions that the carpet moss is bad for VFT's that's so I was worried it could stunt the growth of a relatively low-lying sundew. However I'd rather leave it there as it does look much nicer than bare peat!
  13. Hi there, I'm slowly growing my CP collection and yesterday received a beautiful D.aliciae through the post. There appears to be 5 or 6 rosettes in the pot and the surface is covered in a nice looking (carpet?) moss, however I am wondering if the plants would be better able to spread and divide without the moss and/or in a bigger pot. Should I manually separate the plants or just leave them to grow into a clump? When I repotted my VFTs, it looked as though the moss was possibly stopping new traps coming through the surface, so I removed it and replaced with a few sprigs of sphagnum moss, should I do the same for sundews? Any thoughts appreciated, here's the plant now:
  14. Or Dionaea "Please Kill Me".
  15. Will bump this as it's very interesting and I wanted to say the typical P.jaumavenis look beautiful and healthy too. Love detailed pics of CPs growing in situ.
  16. notostracan

    U. alpina

    Enjoyed the pics, currently trying to decide what utric species I'm going to get and will give U.alpina a google.
  17. Nice shots and plants, enjoyed them too!
  18. I've only grown U.graminifolia and U.vulgaris myself, but am very interested in your post! I want to get some easy "terrestrial" utrics at some point soon, so if they grow well I'll try flooding some too.
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