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Heli Care Advice needed


SoLongFairWell

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I'm looking for some basic advice about growing my Heliamphora nutans x heterodoxa in my sunny living room window. Should it be stood in water or not? I read somewhere that they like to be flushed through like Darlingtonias. Is this the case? I'm growing it in a vase with a bottle cover (no cap) as I didn't want to shock it with low humidity when I bought it in the spring. Is it safe to remove the bottle?

Mobile, your input would really be appreciated here as I know you grow your ionasii hybrid in a windowsill.

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Edited by Richard Bunn
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It will never be safe to simply 'remove the bottle', as the the pitcher will shrivel up. It looks pretty humid in there, so you need to reduce that gradually, over many weeks. My windowsill Heliamphora stand in water, which I allow to deplete before topping back up, but your setup looks like that water isn't going to evaporate that fast.

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It usually never stands in water. It's just that I gave it a flush through to top up the pitchers last night and I hadn't got round to emptying it. I must admit I'm taking chances having it in the sun whilst creating a greenhouse effect.

So what's the best approach to getting it accustomed to lower humidity? Gradually cut the top off the bottle bit by bit over time?

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  • 1 month later...

It's doing fairly well. Just produced a lovely tall new pitcher. The dome is still there but I have been cutting it back from the top every few weeks as a way of acclimatising the plant. There's no longer condensation on the dome. I'd say in about a month to six weeks the dome will be gone. Then I'll just have to start removing it from the vase, which I'll do by gradually raising the pot.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 6 months later...

Sadly I have to report that my beloved Heli has died. It had been out of it's bottle since last autumn, although still stood in the glass vase for ease of watering the pitchers.

Unfortunately about a month ago I brought it down from the bedroom (don't even remember why I put it up there) back into the living room window and so as not to cause moaning from the wife I put it to the side of the window behind the net curtain. Sadly I forgot about it as it was out of sight and failed to water it at all. I remembered a couple of days ago and was too late. It was completely shrivelled up. I'm not going to be able to replace it this year as I have to go over to Cornwall as my father is very ill and I shall be spending the whole summer over there. When I do get the chance to replace it with a H. heterodoxa x ionasii as it's the hybrid that always seems to get the best reviews on here.

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