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My greenhouse: 44 gallon pentagon with humidity problems

FTS:
AnandsAquariumandTerrariums003_zps6e0f61f9.jpg
 
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wow.. I can't even picture all of this in my head. Any chance of seeing a pic of your current setup? I'm slow.. so visual displays help like no other.
 
A few things you can do.
Not sure where you live, but I would serious consider moving any Sarracenia and VFT's outside. Place them in full sun. Not at once. Do it slowly, over a few days moving the plants from a shaded area, to a brighter area and then full sun.

I would not be overly concerned about the humidity. I grow a lot of plants in the house at 20-35% humidity. (Cephs, Neps (HL & LL), Dews, Pings, Utrics etc, etc). It may take them some time to adjust, but they always do.

As for you tank. Do you have any opening on top? All my tanks have a several inch opening the length of the tank for air circulation, and too let the heat escape. My temps are in the mid 80's and I grow a Heliamphora heterodoxa x minor in my setup. I have tried some other Helis in there, and have lost some do to the heat but the heterodoxa x minor does not seem to mind.

I may try to post some pics here shortly...
 
Elgecko! I have visited your site a lot. I live in the north bay area in CA and it gets pretty hot. The VFT and the pitcher seem to be doing fine inside so I will keep them there. I would rather not lose them to heat/sun/humidity, as they are used to 70% humidity all day long.

Good news. I upped the time the humidifier is on, so now it is on 2/3 of the time and the humidity stays above 60% all day, and is peaking at 85% at night. Temperature is peaking today at 78*. Lowest humidity all day, accoring to my exo-terra thermo-hygrometer, is 61%.

The camera just got back from India, so pics will be posted later today.
 
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And here they are:
View from room
Roomview.jpg


Full tank shot
Fulltankshot.jpg


Top of tank
Nepenthes.jpg


FTS of bottom
FTSlower.jpg


View from left
Leftside.jpg


Pics of individual plants to come. Misty-ness if just from humidifer that was on a minute ago.
 
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Individual plants. There are two pygmy sundews that I could not get with the camera.

Standard venus flytrap from Home Depot
VFT.jpg


Cephalotus
Thecephalotus.jpg


Drosera spatulata. I have 2 of these.
Sundewspatulata.jpg


Drosera capensis
Sundewcapensis.jpg


Drosera carbarup
Sundewcabarup.jpg


Drosera binata T-form
SundewbinataT-form.jpg


Drosera adelae- the only sundew with dew right now.
Sundewadelae.jpg


Sarracenia purpurea v. (v stands for ventricosa?)
Purpurea.jpg


Nepenthes bicalcarata
Nepenthesbicalcarata.jpg


Drosera madagascariensis
Madagascarensissundew.jpg


Heliamphora minor x heterodoxa
HeliamphoraMinorxHeterodoxa.jpg


Same from top
Helitop.jpg


And an empty terrarium that will eventually house some jungle plants:
Emptyterrarium.jpg


Comments? Suggestions?
 
V. stands for venosa. And just a heads up, some of those plants are completely incompatible together. THe bical and Heli, for example, prefer opposite ends of the temperature spectrum, the bical preferring hot and humid, the Heli enjooying cool days and cold nights. Also, I admit it's not a bad idea to place LED's in there for humidity purposes, some of the sundews would do best in full sun, while types like the bical do better in partial shade.
 
The bical is not doing too good, I know. I read that lowland plants do better in 80+* weather and high humidity, like what prevailed in my tank a few weeks ago. 70-80%/ 78* is now normal, with lows in the lower 60%s/68*. I may have to move it to a seperate terrarium.
But this is also good news, as it means the other plants will do better and the interesting nepenthes that are highland might grow better.
 
ditto what hcarlton said. The reason most people have separate setups to grow nepenthes, sarracenia, drosera, heliamphora, etc is because they all prefer different humidity, light levels, water regimens, etc. granted there is some overlap, but a single setup for all of them is pretty much impossible from my understanding. HL nepenthes and heliamphora can be grown together typically as can possibly some sarracenia that are known to be able to tolerate colder climates such as S. purpurea ssp. purpurea. However, most sarracenia like it wet, with high light levels and warm to hot temps. I grow mine outside year round and it stays around 100F during most days of the summer and they do great as long as you keep them watered. As for sundews it really varies from species to species. I mostly grow petiolaris complex sundews and lowland nepenthes which both like high light levels, very humid, and hot environments. I keep my grow rack at about 95F during the day and drop it to 75 at night with about 80% humidity. Some of the other sundews like your binata t form can tolerate high temps but like it a little cooler than 95F. I've got one growing with my petiolaris dews and it hated me for a few months but now it seems to be picking up. I've never grown pygmies until recently so I can't give any advice on those or the cephalotus, but from my understanding they like it warm and humid. Hope this helped. Overall I would say pick a genus you really want to work with and focus on making an ideal environment for that genus and then figure out what also will grow in that environment. also make sure you edit your pics so that the tags from other vendors aren't showing (its a forum rule). Good Luck! :)
 
  • #10
It doesn't seem to me like putting a bical in with a Heliamphora would be a good idea. The former wants hot swamp and the latter wants a chillier swamp. Is the surrounding soil for the Heliamphora a peat : perlite mix too?

Speaking for my own growing conditions, I think I was lucky to put my Helis through 80'sish during the day and then the 65ish during the night because I hear they like it cooler, but I couldn't even grow a N.rafflesiana that can supposedly take lower temps than bical like those that I had (80 day, 65 night) with the Helis.
 
  • #11
I have moved out the pitcher and the VFT, and next to go will be the bical. Thanks for clueing me in. I originally thought they could coexist, but apparently not.
The heli is in a 1:1:1 peat: perlite: spaghum mix.
Anything else I should worry about?

Also, would my terrarium be better for a highland or intermediate nepenthes?
 
  • #12
it really depends what you want to grow. I find its a lot easier to grow lowland nepenthes rather than highlanders because it is easier to provide ideal temperature and humidity. All I do is use HO T5 bulbs to raise the temperature to around 100F and then I use a cool mist humidifier to lower the temp back down to about 90F and I have a small fan run once every couple of hours to further cool the tank and provide some airflow (the fan isn't really necessary but I like to think it helps). As for highlanders, the temp range is harder for me because without some sort of cooling device I cannot provide the nighttime temps. There are tons of threads about cooling systems people have built on TF so I would suggest checking those out. depending on the species you are looking at temps between 65-80 during the day and 45-65 at night. Intermediates can tolerate warmer nights than highlanders but cooler temps than lowlanders. so long story short it really depends on how much you want to spend to provide the correct habitat. This chart helps with figuring out what species you might be able to grow in each environment for nepenthes. http://www.michaelkevinsmith.com/ne...titudinal-Distribution-Temperature-Chart.html
Good luck!
 
  • #13
Accroding to the link, there are no nepenthes I could have in my tank. I have a daytime temperature of 75*-81* and a nightime temperature of 68-70*.
What is a hardy intermediate I could have?
 
  • #15
Man, I just can't wrap my head around this one.

I'm no expert, but many of these plants as others have stated have different growing requirements. Also, not every CP needs to be housed in a terrarium.

I live in New Mexico, and I have low humidity problems, and since I live at 6700' our temps do fluctuate during the day. But from what I can see here your Neps will do better not living in a bog setup. They don't like their roots wet, also, once they settle in, they will take off and start to vine right out of the tank.

For me, I found that a tented shelving (around $25) unit works best for my CP's. You can control the humidity easily and you don't have to worry about cooking them with direct sunlight. IMO, It's much easier to maintain and healthier for the plants

Here is one of my setups.
enclosure1.jpg



Good luck
 
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  • #16
With those temperatures you probably could grow some intermediate nepenthes no problem. Pretty much any intermediate hybrid would do just fine in there as long as you provide adequate soil. If it were me I would leave the nepenthes in a pot with a typical nepenthes mix like orchid bark, large perlite, a little sand, and maybe some dried LFS tossed in to hold the moisture a little and sink the pot into the soil and top with live LFS. But make sure the pot is a good bit higher than the rest of the plants, like maybe at the top of the hill you made so that the pot isn't sitting in water whenever you water. If it were me I would get a couple different nepenthes, maybe try N. ampullaria (Lowlander), N. maxima Watatau Dwarf (intermediate), and some sort of hybrid that is fairly forgiving like N. lowii x campanulata or any N. mirabilis hybrid. I would try and stick with Nepenthes that stay fairly small. N. bellii might be okay in your conditions and it stays very small, you also might be able to adapt N. glabrata to grow in your conditions if you are careful, I've adapted one to grow in my lowland setup, albeit it isn't very happy.

What sort of lights are you using? A few daylight spectrum CFLs are probably pretty good, but HO T5s are much better. Based on the previous pictures it looks like you are using one CFL and one LED light? I would really switch to a better lighting setup, the plants will definitely appreciate it. If you have a humidifier pumping fog in I would keep the lights outside the terrarium. Maybe have a custom plexiglass top cut that fits well and then have the lights sit on top of that. I'll post a picture of what I'm talking about because I have a setup for my heliamphora that is exactly what I think would work well for you.

I think you could probably grow some mexican pinguicula and maybe some sub tropical pings like P. primuliflora. Also many sundews would be ok in there.
Hope this helps! I think your setup could be really cool if you plan it out again and do your research for what plants would work in your conditions. Good luck!
 
  • #17
Already growing mexican pings.
And the neps are definitely not in a bog setup. The water never gets above 1"; the bical is way up there and even the other one is in its own pot, so water comes in really slowly.
The leds are now 1 100w cool white led, 1 9w royal blue led 3up star, 1 9w deep red led 3up star (both luxeon ES). I am also keeping the 42w CFL bulb. The lights are seperated from the fog by a pane of glass so they don't short circuit.
I already have one maxima hybrid and a bicalcarata on the top of the hill.
And the reason I'm not doing grow racks is due to their look. I wanted a terrarium that looks as natural as possible. And I got one. I need a meepton of lighting, but IMO, it's totally worth it.
 
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