Reverse fridge?

[Anoxos]

Let me describe where I live just a tiny bit... I live in SW Indiana, on the Ohio river. I live in a modest apartment with my husband. We have a postage-stamp patio, but it is very shady and doesn't get any sun (same with windows, they all face west). I grow my CPs indoors under grow lights (so far so good).

Wintertime temps are mild (to me, I'm a northern girl), we only get snow one year in 3, give or take. Temps bob near freezing, but just barely. Although winters are soggy and wet, the air gets VERY dry. Surprisingly dry. Run humidifiers in the house to prevent nosebleed dry.

It's too shady for me to grow CPs outside with any success, but do you think I could winter over my VFTs and Sarracenia on the patio? Don't they still need light during dormancy? How would I need to wrap them up to protect them from the dryness of the air?

This is the first year I've grown plants requiring dormancy, and I'm sure my husband wouldn't appreciate me stuffing our little fridge with pots of non-edibles.

Trying to think ahead, so I'm ready when the season comes.

 

[unknownclown]

depending on the temps and what you have they should be fine. It sounds like you have the same kind of winters as washington and mine grow outside all year.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Sounds fine to me. My Sarracenia and VFTs are kept outdoors year 'round and temps get below freezing quite often. In fact, the VFT pots freeze solid. In most places the air is dryer in the winter than in the summer so I'm not sure humidity would be an issue really. But I don't know exactly how "dry" your dry is so not sure on that one.

Welcome to the forums by the way.

Glad to have you.

Suzanne/PAK

 

[Anoxos]

Well, SW Indiana is listed as zone 6a if that means anything to you. I'm in that intermediate area where it's too hot for the northern Sarracenia and too cold for the southern ones to grow in the wild. They require real care either way to moderate the temperature variance. Summers average in the mid-high 90'sF, winters hover around freezing. Humidity extremely high in the summer (river valley), vastly drier in winter.

As far as how dry the air is, I never left a hygrometer out there to see (maybe I should this winter). But my ferns and aloes spend the summers outside and winters inside. We generally don't get a hard freeze (at least not often or for long).

It was more the humidity and light I was concerned about. I didn't know if they would require watering and light during dormancy? I guess not it you bag them and put them in the fridge? I read in 'Savage Garden' that there is a difference between fridge dormancy and 'natural' dormancy...

 

[Tony Paroubek]

If it's so cold that the plants are no longer growing then light is not an issue. Many of the Southern species will do fine in an outdoor bog in zone 6 provided it is well mulched over the Winter. As for keeping them in pots? I dunno.. PAK would be able to help more although she is in zone 7.

In pots the plants will deffinately be more susceptible to drying and freezing/thawing problems.

Tony