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Hello everyone :) I am the owner of a 2,5 m x 3 m x 2,5 m (height) greenhouse, covered with PVC panels. I would like to heat it at about 13°C or 15°C during the Winter in order to grow a larger variety of plants, especially highland Nepenthes and Heliamphora, but I fear it would be extremely expensive. I live in Northern Italy and temperatures in Winter can be as low as -5°C... electricity is definitely unaffordable here I think, so I was thinking about using a small pellet stove... do you have idea?

Hi all, I am trying an experiment out with a terrarium I have made for CP's and I'm looking for some advice on heating it effectively, specifically raising the ambient air temp. I have a number of small terrariums indoors with highland and lowland neps in that work well with natural daylight and ambient indoor temperature. However I tried growing some other CP's like the petiolaris complex sundews this way and they grew very etiolated and did not enjoy this! Not having the room indoors to setup a more serious terrarium for them I decided to build one in the garage utilising a 160L fish tank I had spare. I set it up as a palludarium specifically with a pool with utrics in and a banked soil arrangement for the sundews etc. My problem is the garage isn't heated and although the plants are alive they are obviously not enjoying the temperature which I am struggling to raise over 15 degrees C. The tank has a large heat mat set above the base reservoir which warms the soil and an aquarium water heater heating the water to 28 degrees. A fogger and fans help to distribute the warm moist air when running but really I need to raise the air temp by at least another 10 degrees for it to work. At any other time of year the ambient temp may help this but for now I need to find another way. Lighting is LED's so no heat is emitted so I wondered if it was an idea to add a vivarium ceramic heat lamp to raise air temp or alternatively a basking bulb which also puts out the correct light for plants. Has anybody tried this? I need to know if these are likely to add the temp increase I need or whether I would in fact be wasting my money? Just to confirm there are no reptiles/amphibians in the tank, it is purely to grow CP's. Rich

Dear all, I guess many of you have experience over the years of the best method to grow certain species. I have an opportunity to start from scratch and in an ideal world would build an attractive greenhouse/conservatory that has drainage and heating to suit tropical plants especially carnivorous species (+ tropical cacti), as well as a cooler frost free section and more standard coldframe/cold house attached for other species such as saracenias. For those of you that know Winterbourne I am thinking along the lines of a smaller version of their tropical house/their cacti house and CPS display. I can work on the design but my key question is what heating system would you recommend for the main tropical section or frost free section? I am envisaging a brick base glazed structure. Would like to keep heating bills down. If anyone can recommend and greenhouse suppliers, have designs that they have used and like, Id be grateful for that information too. Andy