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Question

FlytrapGurl

apple rings.. what more can i say?
Okay... here's the situation: I got a four foot tall, two foot wide, plastic/metal, clear vinyl covered greenhouse for my brithday. I have all my CPs in it. It has four wide mesh shelves. I have all my VFTs and my venosa and my wrigleyana and my adelaes on the top shelf(that's all I can fit up there) and the remaining potfull of Darlings and potfull of Pings on the second shelf. Being on a different shelf does nothing to shade them. I have the front unzipped and rolled up completely when I roll the greenhouse out into the all-day sunny part of the back patio, and I zip it up and roll it in under the overhang at night. The problemo? Well, since the Pings and Darlings can't take hours on end of full, direct sunlight, I need some way to shade them while they're in the greenhouse. I came up with a bright(in my opinion
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)idea today. I could take two layers of window screen, put one on top of another, and clip(with clothes pins)the screen onto the surface of the top shelf; the screen will shade the bottom shelf enough to keep the Pings and Darlings confortable. Does this sound good? If I have to, I could also clip screening to the front of the greenhouse, between the top and second shelf.

Will this work well?

Thanx a bunch!!!
                   A FTG feeling all intelligent-like
 
Good Lord... you don't know?!
 
Sounds good to me, maybe even too shaded, just watch the plants closely and if they start to produce leggy, overly green, lacking red pigment leaves (Darlingtonia), then it is too shaded... GOOD LUCK!
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Okay, so should I just put the two layers of screen on the surface of the top shelf and not in front of it as well(did that make sense?)? The sun is directly above the greenhouse half the time, and the other half of the time the sun is facing the front of it at a 40* angle.
 
I would put one above, one to the angled side... A comprimise! That way, instead of heavy shade half of the day, intense light the other half, its just partial shade all day, much better for the plants!
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Best Wishes!!
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Thunk ya!
 
GACK! The thermometer/humidity meter I put in there last night says it's 50% humidity(good, right?), but the temp is 95 degrees Farenheit!!! ***walks off, scratching head and saying ''I reeeaaalllllyyyy need to start getting up before noon so I can unzip that thing sooner...''***
 
You might consider putting a shade cloth over the whole greenhouse and putting an extra shade cloth over the lower section. The temp in the greenhouse is going to remain the same throughout so you need to bring it down. Do you have plants that require high temps with those that require lower?
 
Well, you tell me that... here's my growlist: (all of them are in the greenhouse)

*three D muscipula 'Green Dragon' (All in the same pot... I'm beginning ti think that they may be hets)

*two D. muscipula 'Common' (both in the same pot)

*one huuuuuuuuuge S. purpurea ssp. venosa

*two potfulls of D. adelae

*one potfull of unknown Pings

*one potful of Darlingtonia (I water them with refridgerated water and give them ice cubes several times a day)

Sooooo... what's the verdict, your honor?
 
  • #10
Hi FTG,
I dont know about all the individual requirements of the specific plants, but it seems to me that if you have been successfully growing them already, then the less you do to change their conditions the better... i.e. if you have been growing them all uncovered then prolly best to leave them all uncovered. I may be wrong but I believe the main functions of the enclosure are to trap in humidity and warmth, neither of which should be a problem in Fla. As for shading, I'd experiment a bit and see what works the best for your plants.
Just my opinion
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Steve
 
  • #11
Okay... I just figured out via The Savage Garden (which I'm done reading already!!! ) that my pings are primulifloras.
 
  • #12
To make your life easier, instead of constantly adding ice cubes you might want to try building a drip waterer to suspend over your Darlingtonia.  Basically the way I've done it is freeze small plastic water bottles filled with whatever pure water you use.  Then punch or drill 1 or a couple small holes in the top and suspend it inverted over your darlingtonia pot.  That way as it melts it drips cool water slowly and continuously onto the cobra lily throughout the day helping to keep the root system cool.  You really need to get some other Sarracenia though seeing as how you're in the perfect area for them
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 Maybe I'll have to extend the Tamlin effect to you when my Sarr seedlings get a touch larger.
 
  • #13
I might do the dripper thing... If I can find some way to suspend it... hmmmmm...

EDIT: The screen shading is doing pretty good. I certainly don't need to do any more to shade it... that was handy!!!
 
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