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My new Terrarium conditions


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Hey all. Here is a pic showing my terrarium conditions. It is a bit warmer than I expected it to be and perhaps a tad higher humidity than expected. From my wishlist below, what would you advise me concerning how appropriate any of those plants would be in these conditions.

I may even have to help tamp the heat and humidity down, let me know what you think! :heart:

terrConditions.jpg

Please let me know if you believe these conditions are stretching it for any of these plants off my current wishlist:

Larger pots in back:

N. ventricosa

N. tentaculata

N. maxima

N. ampullaria

N.campanulata

N.tomoriana

N.bellii

Middle size to larger pots:

VFTs

D. capensis

Byblis liniflora

Mexican pings of any variety

U. reniformis (always wanted to grow one, but probably do fairly well being a tropical Utric.)

D. extrema

N. glabrata

Cephalotus (Haven't grown one before, but I assume Ceph would like the temps and humidity level if kept around 25% but maybe stretching it here with lighting.)

Small pots in Drosera water tray on pedestal nearer lighting:

D. aliciae

D. prolifera

D. falconeri

D. macrophylla

D. ramellosa

D. cistiflora (will enjoy a larger pot when older)

D. pauciflora

D. paradoxa

Edited by Odysseus
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Well that's an interesting wishlist. Some of these species are rare, you'll have trouble finding them. And they have different growing conditions. For me, VFT's do well when kept outside or on the windowsill, there's no need for a terrarium for them, the same with the common sundews like D.capensis, aliciae, etc. You should read about the growing conditions of these plants, you can't keep all these from your wishlist in the same conditions.

Edited by moof
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Thanks for the reply, Moof.

I live in a bit too dry a climate (Utah, USA) to succeed in not scorching VFTs outside, so I have to settle for tanks and I know that it isn't ideal but they are still really fun to grow here.

I just put up my wishlist, not necessary that ALL of these plants live in the same conditions, I was just curious about my conditions and figured that leaving a message wondering about my conditions meant nothing without providing an idea of what plants I would want to grow in here.

Edited by Odysseus
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from personal experience, my cephalotus did not enjoy hanging out next to my D. paradoxa, lanata, and ordensis. The tank was slightly warmer than yours and divided into 3 tiers, mexican pings and petiolaris on the top tier, utrics and sub tropical drosera on the 2nd, and highland nepenthes, helis and cephs on the lowest tier. despite being on the lowest tier and having moving air my ceph pouted for a bit before i decided to move my subtropicals and lower tiers into a separate tank with much cooler temperatures. it's doing much better.

how will you deal with D. cistiflora? you plan on having it on the top tier but what will you do once when it stems upward? this was the main reason why i decided not to purchase one for my terrarium.

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In this case, I likely won't get a cistiflora.

Like I said above, I included my whole wishlist but I recognize that some are not compatible with this tank setup and would have to be in different conditions in order to work.

I was more curious if anyone had any opinions on the tank's current environment and probably shouldn't have added that list in the post. I just made the last minute judgment to throw in my wish list to see if any could enjoy this tank and if in order to grow more of them if I should drop the temps or humidity.

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If you dont get a temperatur drop at night I wouldnt bother with N.glabrata since it grows at an altitude at 1600-2100m.

Same goes for N.tentucalata (1200m - 2500m)

The other nepenthes you have mentioned should be just fine though

Maxima can get quite big as well as ventricsosa and will outgrow that tank rather quickly but they make excellent house plants later when mature :)

Why dont you try some small growing lowland nepenthes instead? like : N.campanulata, N.tomoriana ,N.bellii ,N.danseri to name a few.

My advice is find something you like, do a little research and then go for it.

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And if you want to keep D.prolifera - it needs high humidity. I keep mine at 90%. D.pauciflora is a southafrican sundew which grows during the winter, just like D.cistiflora.

Drosera extrema - you mean Drosera binata var. multifida f. extrema? D.binata are nice sundews, but some say they need a dormancy period. I kept some without putting them into dormancy for some years and they did quite well. I traded them for other plants a few years ago.

Heliamphoras basically need higher humidity. I only know from my experience that H.minor can be grown in lower humidity conditions (50-60%) but it's growth was very slow.

If I were in your place, I'll raise the humidity inside and purchase some of the queensland sundews (D.prolifera, D.adelae - the third one, D.schizandra is a little bit more tricky in cultivation for beginners). Bladderworts will do well inside then.

I suppose that even in Utah, VFT's and capensis will do well on a windowsill if the soil will be kept moist

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If I were in your place, I'll raise the humidity inside and purchase some of the queensland sundews (D.prolifera, D.adelae - the third one, D.schizandra is a little bit more tricky in cultivation for beginners). Bladderworts will do well inside then.

IMHO I think that a RH level at 79% is quite good :S

Edited by Jimmie Hansen
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If you dont get a temperatur drop at night I wouldnt bother with N.glabrata since it grows at an altitude at 1600-2100m.

Same goes for N.tentucalata (1200m - 2500m)

Yeah, I checked it last night and not a tremendous drop at all. Really it stays high, 80s day and 70s night. So like you said lowland Neps are better suited for how the temperature in this tank has turned out.
Why dont you try some small growing lowland nepenthes instead? like : N.campanulata, N.tomoriana ,N.bellii ,N.danseri to name a few.
Yeah, those are great additions and I think I will go for them, not just because of the apparent warmth in this tank but because they will stay lower growing. Thanks for the time on this Jimmie!
And if you want to keep D.prolifera - it needs high humidity. I keep mine at 90%. D.pauciflora is a southafrican sundew which grows during the winter, just like D.cistiflora.
Yeah, good point on the pauciflora, I dropped it from the list. Better to keep it simple.
Drosera extrema - you mean Drosera binata var. multifida f. extrema? D.binata are nice sundews, but some say they need a dormancy period. I kept some without putting them into dormancy for some years and they did quite well. I traded them for other plants a few years ago.
Yeah I did mean Drosera binata var. multifida f. extrema, looking ad D'amato's book I see it in a pic on page 42 and saw that at least for him it is one forked sundew that is working for him in a tank. He wrote it there without the "binata var. multifida f." just Drosera extrema. I should have fixed that for my list. Sorry. :)
Heliamphoras basically need higher humidity. I only know from my experience that H.minor can be grown in lower humidity conditions (50-60%) but it's growth was very slow.
Here was another error on my part, I got this list from talking about a growing chamber I was going to build that WOULD have been lower humidity. This tank has major humidity and is 70% through out the day and up to 90%+ at night.
I suppose that even in Utah, VFT's and capensis will do well on a windowsill if the soil will be kept moist
I started out trying this method but even with water they didn't do well, PLUS the lighting situation was really poor then and is EVEN worse now. I currently live in a basement apartment with no brightly lit windowsills to use. So I have to stick with the lights and tank strategy only unfortunately.
Oh didn't notice the hygrometer on the picture. I've got a dark display and it looks like turned off. Yes, 79% is sufficient!
Awesome. Glad my humidity is more than enough, sorry for not lightening up that image but taking a pic of the moment's current conditions as shown on the hygrometer was the whole point of the picture I attached. :wink:

Thank you both for your time in answering this here! Made some adjustments to my list based on your feedback.

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Thank you both for your time in answering this here! Made some adjustments to my list based on your feedback.

No problem :)

Just one thing on your new list. Ampullaria can get rather big and have big leaves. But give it some time to grow then just cut it down. This will encourage side shots. And you will have small leaves and big pitchers in no time :wink:

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just out of curiosity, why did you cross out paradoxa? paradoxa thrives in high temps and high humidity. i was trying to show you that you could only keep the petiolaris complex or the cephalotus but not both. mine is happy being blasted with high light and temps as long as humidity is there which you have plenty of. the only problem are the flowerstalks...

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