Pir's Carnivores (Pic Heavy)

[Piranha86]

Seeing where you live, as far as your VFTs are concerned you should think outside the box. Or at least outside your house. With winter protection VFTs are hardy in my area, and I'm a USDA zone colder than you. I have mine in a half barrel on a heavy duty dolly so I can move it in to the garage if it gets really cold,. They can be grown in the ground and overwintered if you mulch them heavily, and nothing beats the sun for growing them during the growth period. Mine went from a garden center special I bought in April with about 8 or 10 tiny little traps to a monster with about at least two crowns that has had upwards of 30 large traps at once. Supposedly there are established populations in the NJ Pine Barrens, but I've never seen any myself. I have it in with some hardy Dews (rotundifolia and filiformis), some sub-tropicals (spats and capensis) and some Sarracenias, along with Cranberries and a few associate wetland plants. Also some nice healthy Sphagnum. I'll get pics up.

Yeah, I'm defintely going to try some outdoor stuff. Probably a minibog. After winter dormancy, I'll put the VFT bulbs in there. I'd also like to get some S. purpurea bulbs/young plants, and some temperate sundews.

sweet plants, good luck with them! Obviously it's hard to put a measure on something like this, but how would you compare them difficulty wise to maintaining a planted tank? Thinking about getting a couple now that I've downsized on fish stuff.

I'd say it's similar. I haven't had these too long, though.

I pitcher feed my neps and sarrs with a weakly mixed orchid fertilizer. I've definitely seen improvement in their growth and pitchering.

Do you think it's a bad thing that a few of the pitchers on my alata and the one open pitcher on the ampullaria don't have much liquid inside?

 

[jbradt]

Not a "bad" thing, per se. But it wouldn't hurt to put some water in them. It will help with water uptake.

 

[Piranha86]

Plants are doing pretty wa ell! I'll update with pics soon. All of my 'red' spatulatas have turned green, but are very healthy. One is just starting to flower.

Does anyone know where I could get a hold of a Drosera stolonifera or similar tuberous fan-leaved sundew specimen? They are super cool but I haven't found anything about where to purchase.

Also, I want to set up some kind of enclosure for highland neps and possibly a ceph, any suggestions for what to do?

 

[jbradt]

Plants are doing pretty wa ell! I'll update with pics soon. All of my 'red' spatulatas have turned green, but are very healthy. One is just starting to flower.

Does anyone know where I could get a hold of a Drosera stolonifera or similar tuberous fan-leaved sundew specimen? They are super cool but I haven't found anything about where to purchase.

Also, I want to set up some kind of enclosure for highland neps and possibly a ceph, any suggestions for what to do?

I can't help with the dew except to say check out all the usual places online.

When you say enclosure for hl neps, what exactly do you mean?

Sent from my MB865 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[Piranha86]

I can't help with the dew except to say check out all the usual places online.

Yeah, I've been looking around with no luck. They're supposedly pretty easy, just not found very often in the hobby.

When you say enclosure for hl neps, what exactly do you mean?

I'm not totally sure, to be honest. I was thinking my 37g aquarium, but I'm wondering if the humidity would get too high. I'd like to have some sort of indoor greenhouse for my room, as it gets really dry by November and December from all the heating. Maybe taking some type of shelf/rack and using plastic or scrap glass or something like that to surround it. I'd like to have it automated for temp and humidity as well. It'll be a good winter project, hopefully.

 

[jbradt]

I've gone both the open rack and terrarium routes, and IME, the open rack works best. Covering it with plastic is a great way to keep in humidity, and it will generally give you more options as the plants grow than a glass box. The biggest thing to keep in mind (IMO) is airflow. It's important to keep humidity appropriate, but not to the point of cutting off a good supply of fresh air exchange.

Automating heat and humidity was a goal of mine for a long time. I realized that it's incredibly difficult though unless the overall environment is very stable. I've found that it's more important to give them stability than it is to hit any ideal mark of temp or humidity. Just remember that for HL plants, the temperature drop at night is the biggest factor temp wise.

 

[Piranha86]

Thanks, JB. I'm kind of envisioning a rack system with roll-able plastic sides so that I could control airflow and humidity a little bit better. Would I need a separate light fixture for every level?

 

[jbradt]

That depends a lot on spacing, distance between racks, etc. I did well for a long time with one light over the top rack. After my collection (and rack) grew, I had to add a second light over the bottom shelf.

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[Piranha86]

Alright, thanks JB.

Do you think that a shelf like this would be OK?
http://www.target.com/p/whitmor-sup...al_1&lnk=Rec|pdp|ClickCP|item_page.vertical_1

I think I'll go stalk your thread again

 

[Piranha86]

Another Question: Is it about time for VFT dormancy?

I was planning on trimming them down to about 1cm above the bulb, and then putting them in a zip-lock container with some damp peat, and leaving that sealed in the garage until Spring.

This Spring, I intend to throw together a minibog, but I'd like it to be portable so that I can take it to the summer camp that I work at. The Cub Scouts would really like that. Perhaps I can create a few new CP disciples :grinyes:



So my plan for the rack is as follows:

Bottom Tier: Surround bottom and 4 sides w/ glass or acrylic, and have partially open ceiling. For lowland neps and other tropicals. Might just stick a fish tank down there. Lava rock along bottom, fill (and drain?) water as needed. I will probably have heating wire along bottom.

2nd Tier: Sheet Plastic rolled up and down on sides to encourage or restrict airflow as needed. Shallow tray, easily filled with water to sit pots in. For HL's and hopefully cephs, etc. May have a small fan for airflow if needed.

3rd Tier: Lighting fixture, clamp lamps, fans, other hardware etc. I might keep this in a window and grow something on the top. We will see.