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I need a large crop of pitchers

Lil Stinkpot

Lucky Greenhorn
I need to make my five foot tall ventrata deliriously happy.

I don't have the space or lighting to bring it in the house, and my greenhouse is really a "warmhouse" that gets down to 50-ish degrees in the winter. I need to check what's in there, but I think my best option is to raise the temp on the heater, or even plug in the oil heater next to the Nep.

Besides keeping it warm, is there anything else I can do for it?

How about a mercury vapor lamp that was giving my dragon eye problems. Last I heard, neps don't have corneas....
 
That would certainly help. I don't know how to do that without buying something. I guess I can try to go in there each morning and spray it down, but I'm already running late each day. ;)
 
cover it in plastic and place a bucket of water below it ?
Or make some kind of rain with a cheap pond pump ?
 
I wish I had a pump, I'd make a wet-wall. Like a swamp cooler, but without the cooler.

Maybe I just need to fork it over, and buy a pump. It's a possibility, after a couple paychecks.

~Edit~

Wait! I have a lifetime supply of buckets and rope. I bet I can even dig up a couple cheek blocks. I will rig up one bucket full of teensy holes, and hang it over another bucket. Re-fill as needed. Genious!
 
You can place a large tub of water near the heater. That will raise the humidity. The mercury vapor lamp would raise it some but such a small light might not do anything either. Plus the blub might not take high humidity too well. It's funny that the mercury vapor lamp is giving your lizard eye problems? I use a mercury vapor lamp in all my reptiles cages. They last the longest and have the best UV output of most lamps. What kind of eye probelms is he having? When my cham's have eye problems it's a shedding issue from too low humidity. I have a tropical spray I use or I will wipe the eye with a wet q-tip until the offending piece of skin is removed. I have never had eye issues with the dry climate reptiles I have. It's also possible the eye problem stems from an injury (bug in eye) and not the lamp. Anyway my two cents.
 
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I could never make my ventrata happy during the fall/winter months. It almost always stopped pitchering for me I think because I could not give it enough light for it's massive size.

I grew it outside during the summer and it pitchered fine in low humidity. Pitcher sizes suffered, but it did pitcher in lower humidity and higher amounts of light.
 
It's a Zilla 100 watt MVB. It was causing a form of sunburn on the eyes called photoketoconjunctivitis. It's what you get when you go skiing without your UV sunglasses. It feels like you have sand in your eyes. After I switched to a florescent with a better UV spread the problems went away.

Yeah, that bulb will do better in a terrarium.
 
I've never had a problem with modest humidity. My old house never got over 60% and my Deroos' Alata went nuts grown as a houseplant. Since you have a greenhouse with controlled conditions, you might try using net pots, or orchid baskets; I've had excellent results with the former and always heard good things about the latter. I think one of the aspects frequently overlooked in Nep cultivation is root zone air circulation; in my experience, it's a major limiting factor. If you regularly experience humidity below 35%, you might need to keep net pots in shallow water trays to keep them from drying too fast; alternately there are ceramic orchid pots with holes in the sides that aren't quite as porous as net pots/baskets but still allow extra air circulation.
The best primer on Nep cultivation I've ever read explained that Neps are touchier about what you don't give them than they are grateful for the things you do. Basically, if you get all the conditions (temps, humidity, media, watering, etc.) you can keep them alive, but if your watering isn't up to snuff, giving them extra light isn't going to make up for it. So if you've hit a roadblock in finding the conditions one of your plants likes, make sure to scrutinize the things you aren't able to give it. Sadly I can't find the article any more - it was on Barry's site but seems to have got lost in the big update. I think I saved it to a text file somewhere though, so I'll try to get him to repost it if I ever find a copy.
~Joe

PS - Wayback Machine to the rescue! http://web.archive.org/web/20050404002545/http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq6010e.html

PPS - Pond pumps may be cheaper than you think... I got a little 100GPH one for less than $12 last year for a terrarium project.
 
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  • #10
I wish I could hang it, but my GH is only 5 x 10 x 6 high. I simply don't have room to let the vines have their way along the walls & ceiling. That's why I put it in a pot on a trellis. There is absolutely no way I can keep it indoors. It's too big, and we have no place for it, except in the living room with all four cats and super destructive puppy. That won't fly.

I feel that my watering is good. I have tap water that reads 60-70 ppm dissolved salts. I keep this Nep in a 12 x 12 ceramic pot that is often standing in a little water. When that puddle goes down the whole plant gets soaked.

I am not w coffee drinker, but I can have my sister brew up a pot, if it will help. I also have some MaxSea that I really haven't used. I'll give it a try.

I will raise the humidity and temperature, and try to find a well lit section to place it. It's massive!!! The plant has always been happy during the summer, but stops pitchering in the winter. I hope that I can prevent that this year; I need to collect some pitchers for a "secret" project. If it works, you'll hear about it.
 
  • #11
It's a Zilla 100 watt MVB. It was causing a form of sunburn on the eyes called photoketoconjunctivitis. It's what you get when you go skiing without your UV sunglasses. It feels like you have sand in your eyes. After I switched to a florescent with a better UV spread the problems went away.

Yeah, that bulb will do better in a terrarium.


Crazy! I have never had an issue with that at all. How close is you light to the lizard? None of my lights are closer then 12" some even 16". What do you use for heat? They need the basking light ( & heat) for proper digestion.
 
  • #12
60-70 ppm was about where my Neps started to get cranky. You might try flushing the pot occasionally with rainwater.
If you want to use coffee, go to Starbucks and ask for a bag of used grounds. Most of them have bags set aside specifically for gardeners. No sense wasting good coffee when the alternative is free.
One thing I've started doing with my lankier plants is folding over vines while they're still soft so that they make a sort of S-curve as they grow. Bend the tip down, wait for it to turn back up and lengthen a little, then repeat. It looks kind of weird, but I like it better than just hacking the vines back, at least for the time being. You could always do it on a more subtle scale by wrapping the vines up and down the trellis, or around the perimeter of it.
Also, I think that MV lamp is worth a shot, especially if you can rig a little reflector for it to help trap the heat. A thermal ballast - like a dark-colored barrel full of water - might help regulate the day/night temperatures a little better as well. It won't convert your space into lowland conditions; just help to make sure that the highs and lows are less extreme.
~Joe
 
  • #13
Frilleon, the lamp was at it's maximum effective distance, about 18 inches. This is a known issue that's been happening with all the MVB bulbs- they've changed recently. Goo check out beardeddragon.net for further details. Just about every brand has been affected.

I use the florescent coupled with a halogen flood lamp for heat and to provide a really bright light to constrict the pupils, reducing the risk of damage that nay bd caused by looking up at the flo. UV.


Seedjar:

Each winter I collect what free water I can and use it to give everyone a boost. Someday we plan to install an RO unit. Someday. :-D

I like the ziggety-zaggety vines, I'll try that. The vines are really thick, but fairly soft. I think I can bend them. I also have some black paint; I can take a couple buckets, paint them black, and put them behind the plant. During winter the sun shines through the GH at a slant, hitting the ground only at the far, north, end. How does this sound: north wall-black buckets-oil heater-(a little space)-plant-sun. Or maybe: wall-heater-water-plant-sun.
 
  • #14
The trick with training the vines without damaging them is to get the bend started before the leaf even beings to unfurl. I use loose twist ties (twist them so the tension is on the ties and not the vine - always leave wiggle room) or I'll wind a heavy cord or chain around the vine to weigh it down to one side if I'm having a hard time getting the bend started.
The buckets will be most useful where they receive direct sun throughout the day. I recommend putting them to the south of, and slightly below, your pots, if it's possible to do so without cutting into the light your plant gets. Having some near the oil heater will help make things more efficient, too.
Another cheap trick is to line the inside of your greenhouse with bubble wrap. (Flat side in, bubbly side against the wall.) But that assumes you have an affordable source of bubble wrap.
~Joe

PS - Oh! If you've already got a big vine, here's one more thought; more growth points means more potential pitchers. If you can, tip your vine horizontal, preferably so that the tip is lower than the root ball. That should encourage the old sections of the vine to sprout new nodes. About two years ago my N. x. Margaretea was getting too lanky so I slackened the vine down on the stake I had supporting it, and it took on a sort of curvy "N" shape. Since then I've had a dozen or so new nodes pop from the root level and oldest parts of the vine, about five of which have kept going and developed into nodes bigger than the "leader." Even those that haven't bulked up just seem to be waiting for their chance, unlike other plants I've had that let underdeveloped nodes die off after a while.
 
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  • #15
Yeah I went and did the research. It's not all the brads but a lot of major brands. I also run most of my lights through a screen. Most likely why I have not seen the issue. My uyro's all have the same lights directly running on them Frilled dragon too. Then can hide from the light and also have a gradient in the tank (they can move away from the light). Anyway I didn't see any info. on actual cases where the MVB was the issue. All documented cases are for compact, T8 & T5 flo's. They do state that MVB can be an issue but no documented cases. Anyway this seams to be the leading site handling the issue: http://www.uvguide.co.uk/index.htm. Very intresting and this is the first time I have heard of it. I guess on my next round of new light's I'll have to keep an eye for this. I did just buy a new compact flo for my new cham but I have it outside the screened cage so I should be good.
 
  • #16
The most publicized recall was the MegaRay MVB: http://www.beardeddragon.org/bjive/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=121986

Even now the bulbs are suspect.

Other companies had similar issues about the same time, and you'd have to contact them about it before you heard anything. Bringing all this up, I remembered that mine's the T-Rex Power Sun, not Zilla as I said earlier. T-Rex seems to be having a problem as well, but we haven't heard a thing from the company.

PKC has caused deaths, especially with babies. Not MVB, but rather starvation from either loss of appetite from the pain to the more extreme cases that couldn't see at all. I caught Teddy early on, when he just started squinting.

Teddy and I are happy with our ReptiSun 10 tube. It may be a bit more trouble getting things just right, but that's half the fun!

Please be careful with CFL's-- I have heard of cases where the bulbs were giving off UVC. (some of the regulars on BD.org have spectrometers.)


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Back to our regular scheduled program:
LOL!

As soon as I get home I'll take a few photos to show what I have to work with, and of the darn weed itself. :-D it has at least three vinesthat are over five feet, and another three or four over three feet. Then more shorter ones. If I have room, I'll let a couple down to see what they do. The pot is 12" high; they can go well below the root ball, If I lay them on the ground.
 
  • #17
Warning: super-sized photo. Once I get home, and if I remember, I'll re-size it. From my mobile it's nearly impossible.

Pardon the mess:
<img src=http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc221/tippitytwitchit/the%20plants/0b12d915.jpg>


I'll have more room once I move that 50 (or so) gal aquarium unseen, to the left.

---------- Post added at 08:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:32 PM ----------

Here it is last year, right before it broke it's hanger. That's when I put it in a sitting pot, where it never skipped a beat.

<img src=http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc221/tippitytwitchit/the%20plants/0b12d915.jpg>


I thought I had a picture of it when I first got it, two years ago, but it's not in PhotoBucket. Oh, well. Enjoy!
 
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