Thinking about starting a collection again...

[LeafKirby]

Hey guys.

I'm not sure if you remember me but I'm sorta interested in making a carn plant comeback!

I had to give away everything for college ;(


For now, I'm looking for small plants that are like pygmy sundew size. They also need to be able survive less than 8 hours of sunlight on a windowsill with low humidity.
I dislike pygmy sundews...
I don't think I can handle the Genlisea, but I could try again...

Any suggestions?

 

[Maiden]

Hey hey !! Of course i remember you!
Welcome back to horticulture

Maybe some vfts and drosera under a t5 ?

 

[RSS]

There are a few common Utrics that would do well on a windowstill, U. sandersonii being the easier and more showy. I would bet you could grow a Ceph also, without direct sunlight you won't get the dark colors but green Cephs are still nice plants imo.

If your open to adding lighting I would look into some of the smaller LED kits, there are a few threads started there about them recently. You can add more light to a much smaller footprint than T5s require. A single compact flourscent can also add enough light to grow a few plants with good colors.

 

[scottychaos]

Cant go wrong with the classic Drosera capensis.
it would be fine under those conditions, and it can be a beautiful plant.

of course, it is bigger than what you asked for..
but there aren't many CP's that are the size of pygmy sundews, that aren't pygmy sundews!

Scot

 

[DavidA]

You might be able to grow a small ping, something like a Pinguicula esseriana.

 

[Not a Number]

If you're getting at least 4 hours of direct sunlight during the growing season most CPs will do fine. Any of the South African sundews like the aforementioned D. capensis or D. aliciae, D. venusta, D. natalensis should be happy. You don't need much more than a 3-3.5 inch for a few plants. They might get a little crowded when they start to clump but there is always the trading post to get rid of extras. You probably want species that don't need dormancy.

I take it you are in a dorm? What will you do during the breaks when the dorms are typically closed or during the summer?

 

[Jcal]

if you only have a small area do a mini bog! I have one in a kritter keeper and its growing well.
dont get anything you dont like. that takes the enjoyment out of the hobby. i have a few spare dews laying around. pm me if your interested. just pay postage.

 

[seedjar]

If windowsill light is all you have to offer, you may want to stick to forgiving, common species like D. adelae (possibly in a big fishbowl or terrarium to protect it from drafts, depending on how dry it is.) Some aquatic or semi-aquatic non-CPs will probably tolerate those conditions as well, so you can make your grow space look nice in the mean time while you wait to upgrade your lighting. Resist the urge to acquire plants you can't keep happy: for the cost of two or three nice sundews you can afford a small compact fluorescent lamp that will give you a much greater chance of success with most plants. In fact, if you have the room for four-foot tubes, you can light a whole 4'x2' shelf with standard T12 shoplights for under $60, including fixtures, tubes, power strip and timer.

If the window gets direct light, eight hours may be plenty. However, I still recommend going straight to grow lights for a beginner - the reason is that, when you're just starting out, you can't always tell if your plant is unhappy because of light, watering, pests, etc. Most CPs are very tolerant of overlighting, but don't deal well with excess shade. Bright light is also one of the easiest conditions for a small hobby grower to provide. So, spare yourself the guesswork and blind those puppies. If you're anything like me, waiting to expand your collection will be preferable to perpetually replacing sickly, underlit plants.

~Joe

 

[mcantrell]

Could you maybe get a 8x8x12 or 12x12x12 Exo Terra mini-terrarium and put some lights on top? That would let you grow some things -- 8x8 would hold 4 3.5" pots, 12x12 would hold 9 or 1 big 11" bog pot. Both are watertight at the bottom and would work as a "tray" of sorts.

I'm considering doing something like that on my desk at work, might work fine in a dorm.

 

[Tanukimo]

If you are into aquatics, Utricularia gibba can be grown in a small cup and is really easy to take care of. Utricularia in general usually don't take up much space, so you could grow several species in a small pot.

 

[Jcal]

RSS is the master of exo nano tank setups. highly recommend checking out his thread about them.

 

[cpbobby]

I have gotten someone into cps by letting them grow dews in a windowsill under with a single 23w compact florescent bulb in an 8 dollar desk lamp from walmart and 6 dollar timer from lowes. If you can get away with the combination of natural and supplemented light then you can probably grow just about any cp that can survive with your given humidity and temperatures.

edit: that came out wrong.....i meant any plant that can tolerate your given humidity and temperatures.

GL and try not to let the bug bite you too bad on the comeback. lol.

 

[RSS]

Could you maybe get a 8x8x12 or 12x12x12 Exo Terra mini-terrarium and put some lights on top? That would let you grow some things -- 8x8 would hold 4 3.5" pots, 12x12 would hold 9 or 1 big 11" bog pot. Both are watertight at the bottom and would work as a "tray" of sorts.

I'm considering doing something like that on my desk at work, might work fine in a dorm.

I have a bit of an Exo-terra problem...I just LOVE the doors. You quickly get into budget concerns when you bring up these things. But I'm be happy to answer any questions if you want to head that route.

RSS is the master of exo nano tank setups. highly recommend checking out his thread about them.

Really odd thing to be a master of. There are some people on the Dendroboard that put mine to shame.

Jcal is likely referring to this thread. http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php/128737-Exo-Terra-Nano-Tall-Setups

These things can get silly expensive if you let them. Page 4 starts a construction log of the last one I put together.

 

[LeafKirby]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!!!

I'm gonna get a bit more info on my room so I can help with suggestions.

 

[LeafKirby]

By info, I mean a picture.

As one can see, I don't really too much space to work with this year.
I'm not allowed to really hang much either.

I'll get a better picture of the windowsill.

I'm also facing North in Alabama now if that helps at all.

 

[seedjar]

I suggest forgetting the window altogether. If it's facing squarely north you won't be getting any direct light. Even if you're skewed a bit to the east or west, what direct exposure you do get will almost certainly not be enough. With those conditions you could try some Utricularia or perhaps D. adelae. There are probably some other low-light tolerant Drosera you could try but I'm not up-to-date on cultivation tolerances... I imagine though that the small rosetted species probably have to deal with shade in habitat, so it's not implausible. I also understand some of the Mexican Pinguicula prefer indirect light in the wild, growing in shady rock crevices or on vertical walls. Bottom line, though; carnivorous plants are already their own speciality in the horticulture world, and shade-tolerant carnivorous plants are a speciality within a speciality. You'll face an uphill battle getting a collection started that way.

If somebody wants to give you some shade-tolerant species it might be worth a try, but I would put my money into proper lighting before I started buying plants in your position. There are lots of people who will offer to send cuttings, seeds, etc., but not many people can afford to ship you grow-lights just out of the goodness of their hearts.

~Joe

 

[NatchGreyes]

I'd say, try a few tropical terrestrial Utrics. - U. calycifida comes to mind, even though I grow it in high light. The Queensland Sisters, for Drosera. I think there are one or two Neps, but someone else will have to give advice on that one. You can pretty much forget anything native to North America, except, maybe U. subulata, but, I'm not sure on that.

 

[ramdacc]

Glad to see I'm not the only CPer that plays DOTA 2. Although I probably am the only CPer that plays DOTA2 and is over 30. :-/

 

[LeafKirby]

Glad to see I'm not the only CPer that plays DOTA 2. Although I probably am the only CPer that plays DOTA2 and is over 30. :-/

I was hoping someone else played here


Anyway, my current options seem to be utrics, some easy dews, maybe 1 genlisea, and a few butterworts...



I miss mah Sarrs ;~; but I guess they'll hafta wait.

 

[RSS]

Just for an example here is a Ceph that was grown up from a leaf pull on a low light windowsill. Not the best looking Ceph on the forums but its clearly growing.

DSC_0045 by randallsimpson, on Flickr

Another option if you have extra $$, and you don't mind lighting up your window for the world to see. It would be easy enough to reproduce without mounting anything to the walls.

DSC_0050 by randallsimpson, on Flickr

DSC_0051 by randallsimpson, on Flickr

DSC_0052 by randallsimpson, on Flickr