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some Heliamphora photos


mikewilder

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Hello,

I moved my entire collection from Portland, Oregon to Baldwin county, Alabama this year. The recent hurricane emphasized how precarious my collection is now. So, I decided to take a few pictures.I can't figure out how to make the links work, just goto http://www.heliamphora.us/

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Thanks Greg, that's kind of you to say. I'm happy because it's flowering right now for the first time. The bracts are extremely sticky with nectar, and the flower smells like Gardenia. I've never detected a smell from Heliamphora flowers before. Hopefully I've made a nice hybrid cross with that first flower.

I chose the Cerro Duida clone specifically because it is not supposed to form a stem, and I thought that would be wise since i'm a terrarium grower. But now that I see how grand it has gotten, I wish it would form a stem. I bought a clone from a different location, but it will be years before I see a stem. Something to look forward to--

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When it was shorter I grew it under regular t12 shoplights (4 tubes/8 sq ft.) for several years. Once it became too tall I took an aquarium and flipped it up so that it is standing on its long axis. I have the pot on a stand inside so that the pitcher tops are as close to the "ceiling" as possible. The open front I then covered with saran wrap (plastic film.) Anyway the lights for this set up are two 26 watt (actual consumption; each =~100 watt incandescent output) compact fluorescent bulbs, the kind that screw into a regular incandescent socket. I use crappy clamp light reflectors for those. I think I got the two bulbs and reflectors for ~25 usd at a building supply store. Solely for illustration, this is what I'm talking about:

http://www.amazon.com/75408-26-Watt-Spiral-100-Watt-Equivalent/dp/B002DZMTUE

http://www.amazon.com/Bayco-SL-300N4-Clamp-Aluminum-Reflector/dp/B007RKKEHA/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1351133722&sr=1-1&keywords=clamp+light+reflector

I don't use the clamp part, I just rest the reflectors on little plastic spacers (legos work well) on top of the terrarium. You need the spacers a) because the bulb is slightly longer than the reflector, and b) to aid ventilation of the heat given off by the lights. Obviously this is an unattractive set up. But it gets the job done. The tatei has grown well under that lighting for about 3 years now, and I used to have purpurascens and nutans giant under those type of lights. Both of the latter also flowered under them. So you can definitely do fine with those, as long as your ambient temp is low enough to compensate for the heat they produce. If you want to spend a little more money, and you can do some soldering, 50 watt led panels are looking pretty attractive these days. However I have zero experience with that. If you wade through this thread, you can find some good information and sources:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2128756

Anyway, happy growing--

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Hello Nepgrower,

your comment made me wonder about the extended part that holds the spoon above the pitcher. Is it so long because of etiolation? The answer seems to be no. As the inflorescence grew, I had to lower the plant much farther from the lights. Meanwhile it developed a new pitcher, and in this pitcher, the extended part is proportionally much shorter than on the older pitchers, despite getting much less light. So it does seem like that extension is normal, at least for this clone.

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