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Ultrahighland Terrarium

I am planning on making my 75 gallon tank into an Ultrahighland terrarium in a matter of days and was wandering in the wild when do Ultrahighland Nepenthes recieve the most humidity so I can set my ultrasonic humidifier on a timer. I know they need high humidity all the time, but I read some where that in a particular part of the day or night they experience a jump in humidity. Also is a fan's only purpose to provide air circulation so fungus doesn't grow? Any other tips from experience would be most helpful. Thnx.
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Ultrahighlands need most humdity at night. It should be 80% and higher. I usually have mine so condensation forms on the tank walls overnight. They do not expierence a jump in humidity during the night, it is a steady 80% plus. When the day comes like around noon till 2 pm. the humdity could fluncuate from 80% to 60% then back up to 70% but generally you should keep the humidity fairly high.
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Yeah you should get a fan, it will save your expensive Nepenthes.
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I have most trouble with fungus in the winter though. Shorter photoperiod and cooler house temperatures are an invitation for it. So be on the look out in winter mostly! Other experience from me I would say just cool them down to the 50's and get a fan.
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And do you paln on these being in pots or planted in the tank? Thanks.
 
As long as your in the 70-80% range it should be fine. I think going much over that in an enclosed growing chamber and you risk fungus as you mention. Even with a fan going the chance of rotting the plants is a concern.

Air circulation is important also to keep leaf temperatures cooler and to aid in removing and supplying oxygen/CO2 at the leaf surface.

How are you planning to cool it at night?
Tony
 
Eeeer... And when it gets nighttime, and the temps go down like, thirty to fourty degrees, the extra water that was in the air when it was warm, should condence on the leaves once it gets cold... Getting cold should be an instant thing, not gradual. They grow on the tops of mountains where once the sun goes down, and nothings there to warm the air, it gets COLD, very FAST... So with that speedy reaching of the dew point, it should almost be as if a bucket of water was poured onto your plants. They should be soaked with condesation...

Of course, that is best, but not manditory (at least I dont think it has to be THAT dramatic, but it should approach)...

I may be wrong. This is not knowledge from experiece, i'm just telling you what I learned from someone else...
 
Tony, like many others at this point I'm gonna have to use lots of @#$%$# frozen water bottles, and also like many others I am looking for a way around it. I know with a 75 gallon tank it will be particularly hard to cool it down to its nightly lows in the 50's due to its large size, but I dont have much of a choice. I have plenty of large freezers that can the water that I need.
Parasuco, humidity condencing on the leaves wont be a problem. I have two really old humidifiers(between 15 and 20 years) that blast water droplets into the air. The water droplets once they lose their momentum fall to the ground. Not to mention I have two ultrasonic humidifiers.
Thnxs for the help.
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Uh Parasuco, you got the temp thing backwards. The temp drop should be prompt BUT gradual. I just put 2 frozen bottles in with my plants and leave them alone the rest of the night. They grow fine and the temp drop is VERY gradual. I know that for a fact. After about an hour it is only 60F then early in the morning it is about 55. Also if the temp was to be dropped so fast like you said "should be like a bucket of water dumped on your plants" that would most likely put some sort of shock on them, no doubt. And personally I don't think time for it to cool down is an issue with these plants, it's the temp that they get. That is what counts. But like I said it should be prompt yet gradual.

Virus- sounds good with 4 humdifiers you have! lol. You don't need to use them all though! I would not run one at night for over saturation of water could lead to disease. (Ask Tony)
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And the ultrasonic (1 of them) I would have run at intervals throughout the day. So regular humdifier at night for like 5 minutes every hour and ultrasonic 5 mins everyhousr during the day.
 
LOL, I have other plants that will need some of the other humidifiers. I am not planning on using more than two. Thanks for the 411.
 
NepG, you know how it gets really cold so suddenly in the dessert when the sun goes away, right? Its the same thing on a mountain peak. It won't shock them if that is what they are supposed to be living in. I don't have Ultra Highlands, but I do have two easy easy highlands I'm experimenting on (not to see wut works, but to see if I can get the temperature that low, if I as a person, find it too tedius, etc.), and my terrarium is eighty during the day, all day, I put the ice in,and within a half hour, its down to fifty five degrees (on really hot summer days it only goes down to sixty butnights have been cooler). Once it turns dark, plants go into an entirly different routine... They dont photosynthesize, and honestly, I dont remember or care wut they do at night... I know they breath oxygen, but other than to say, start a process like that, or to keep it going, I think it would need the temps right away, and not just as the monring begins to approach... Once its morning, and I take the ice out of my tank, it takes about two hours to get back up to eighty...


Like I said. I may be wrong, and I'm not talking from experiece, but for some reason logic is suggesting to me that I am correct. I'm usually wrong, so I won't feel too bad when someone corrects me, but wutever... I'de rather get it straight in my head, if thats all that comes from this...
 
If your terrarium is pretty sealed up then you shouldn't need any humidifiers.

Yes in nature when the temperature drops, dew collects on the plants. Personally I think wet plants in a terrarium is asking for trouble with disease, and running humidifiers to duplicate this is quickly going to rot the plants or kill the roots from overwatering.

In nature the plants slow down photosynthesis as the sun sets. So cooling down and photosynthesis will drop in a gradient TOGETHER. In culture though it is different.. when the lights go out photosynthesis halts abruptly (unless there is a fair amount of natural light around still). I don't think it would hurt the plants to be cooled rather quickly. The faster they are cooled the faster respiration slows and the more energy the plant saves and can put towards plant growth.

So what happens in nature isn't necessarily what is best or what happens in captivity. At least this is how look at the situation.

Virus, If you can hit mid 50s most highland and some of the ultrahighland will be quite fine.

Tony
 
  • #10
Ok Parasuco, you must understand that these are only regular Ultrahighlands (the more common ones) IE: Rajah,Lowii,Muluensis. and they do not require a VERY cold temp drop like Villosa,Aristolochiodes,Macrophylla. They just require a routine 50ish temp at night. And you must of course remember that these plants are in cultivation not in the wild. And I realize that cultivized (?) plants have ancestry to there wild comarades but you still have to remember we have much more control over what they expierence than what the wild does. We can lower it to 55 while the wild only get to 58, as an example. All I am saying is that I do not think the time is important but the duration of the temp drop and if it reamains steady throughout the night. Please don't take this a mean conversation either. I speak from expierence, and what works for me and most other growers.
 
  • #11
I'm not taking us arguing offensivly... My rebuttle is from experiece of another grower, who got his info directly from John De Kanel, the Borneo Exotic's US representative...

My terrarium stays fifty five all night... The amount of ice I put in (its not crouded, dont worry about me like, touching leaves, and freezing them off...
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), it keeps itself frozen, so when i wake up, there are still chunks... When I take it out, it goes up to wutever it wants to, usually 80 kuzof the light (not a shoplite, or anything special...), but if i c it going past eighty, i stick one bottle of ice to keep the temps steady...

I thought lowii wasjust highland, possibly intermediate....
I got this info from neps... Well, his wesite at least... Are you sure?
 
  • #12
Lowii, is considered an Intermediate Ultrahighland Which means it can grow as an Ultrahighland/Highland.Intermediate Nepenthes fine. So IMHO it COULD grow in a room temperature terrarium/ enclosure with no cooling for a while but in the long run should be in Ultrahighland/Highland conditions. This is all my opinion and how my Lowii grows,and it does very well in ULtrahighland conditions, but hey Lowii is an overall slouch when it comes to growing speed so you cannot make it go faster!
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  • #13
Hmm... So one would live in my terrarium then?

For it, and other highlands, CAN the temps go lower that that at night, for monthes at a time, without harm?
 
  • #14
Yeah it would be fine in your terrarium if it get's that cool at night.

How cold are you talking about? Lower than what?
 
  • #15
well, before, when it was HOOOOOOOOT all day long and at night, by terrarium came down from eighty to sixty, but now its down to fifty five...

I'm not sure how low it will go in the winter...
 
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