Further Grow-Shelf ideas
Hello Again, all you who want to grow the "Highlanders"!
To start however... Av8 and anyone else following this thread interested in the grow shelf ideas...
Yes the glass would heat up. Adding an additional glass pane with air space between them (re: your oven door reference) is one way of dealing with it, however it further diminishes your light transmission and increases distance to the plants even more.
If you have some distance between the bulbs and the first glass pane, (and be sure to clean the glass thoroughly...no fingerprints!), along with a decent CFM fan that blows/draws primarily directed across the space between the bulbs and glass, then it should keep the glass relatively cool and further solve the heating problem.
Anything is an improvement. Right now people have their lamps sitting right in the chamber, with the bulbs and ballasts heating up the inside like a little oven. Figure how many lamps are inside your chamber, and you're really cooking!
Isolating the lamps and the hot air around them with ductwork and a glass pane, and drawing the heat off with as large a fan as you can get, should reduce the heat produced quite dramatically. Even a small percentage is a definite improvement, when you add up all the lights involved in some people's setups. LED technology for plants is still relatively in its growth stage (no pun intended), so it is going to be over-priced for now. It does look promising tho!
There is so much we can easily do to work with fluorescents, that for most people it is the "best bang for the buck" right now. That's why I offered some ideas on how people could solve the problems they are encountering. $25 worth of ductwork, caulk and a few small fans can possibly solve their problems adequately.
I didn't mean to get too far off the subject or spend too much time refining my designs on the shelf systems. Especially since I am not working on one right now. But I don't mind sharing some of my ideas for helping people with these shelf systems, especially since the heat problems with lighting seems to be common.
NOW... Back on the subject of my current Highland Chamber, I would like to start by referring to your last comment as it sums up how I feel....
"
But then if it was easy, everyone would have one"
And I think it would be nice if growing all kinds of CP's was easy (even "Highland Nep's, for a novice), so everyone
CAN have (grow) one! And that is my goal in designing these.
Back when I got into CP's, we didn't have much available to us. Common VFT's, maybe if you searched you could find common pitcher plants (Purpurea & Flava), butterwort and a sundew or two. No way to find a Nepenthes nor much else! And few ways to find anyone else interested in such strange plants!
Now-a-days we not only have access to new varieties of VFT's, Sarr's and Sundew, as well as innumerable varieties of Nepenthes and Heliamphora, we can actually buy a N.Villosa! Things may be costly, but at least you have the opportunity to buy them. Do you know what a miracle that is! IN my day the only way you were going to even
see a Highland Nep. like N.Villosa was in National Geographic Magazine! (Vol.125/#5, May'64).
Now for as great as it is to have the ability to buy such "rare" Nepenthes and other plants,
I think it would be equally as great to give nearly anyone the ability to "
easily" grow and care for those plants! That is a big part of my goal in this venture! (A part of the rest is staying alive and being able to eat!)
Anyway, I have taken a quick picture of my rough Prototype I made. I just wanted to give people an idea of what I am able to do "cosmetically". Keep in mind it is a "rough" and don't know if it is nice enough now to put in your living room. It isn't finished yet, and is missing much of the wood trim still.
I don't know what you all think of its looks, but my wife loves it. She thinks its nice to see tropical plants growing in their little chamber, and likes the wood trim as it is nice enough to display. I haven't finished on the cabinet yet, and yes it does set on a cabinet below that holds much of the "functioning" parts.I have blocked it out as it is really "rough" right now. I basically finished it up enough to get it functioning so I could get some plants into it and start testing it on "live" subjects.
I will be changing things as far as its appearance goes, and still don't know if I will be going with wood or aluminum/metal. Still lots of research left to do. But no matter what I do, as JMurphy and others have mentioned, it's gotta' function to be worth anything.
Well, if my N. Macrophylla is any indication, (See my other earlier "thread", Nepenthes help Needed! :
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=115010
it seems the Terrarium is doing its job well! I've grown a few varieties of Nep's for around 20 years now. They have been hardier and easier for me to grow than VFT's, and yet the "highlanders" with more exacting needs has proven to be a learning experience that books could not provide. It seems there's always something new to encounter (Like gardening), and it's never too late to learn new things!
Take care and good growing to you all.
And thank you again for bothering to contribute. (I will probably be out of touch for a while, but should have some more pics and updates when I return.)
Paul