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Highland Nepenthes Temp drop

  • #21
for you, seeing as you have pretty good highland conditions even outdoors, how do they fair and do u find that lowlanders are more difficult for you?

---------- Post added at 11:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 PM ----------

Also they sell dry ice at publix and other supermarkets like that. not sure how much it is over there tho.
 
  • #22
lowlanders outdoors, definitely yes they are difficult, even some intermediates, but most of my plants are highland and do just fine, last year in the greenhouse, they absolutely loved it..
 
  • #23
I've tried a variety of cooling methods including ice, and trust me, changing that ice everyday will get old real fast.

Most growers probably have a wine celler or basement that stays cool, but I settled for a more expensive option of using a 1/15hp aquarium chiller and a small cpu radiator. It works wonders, the day/night temps are 24/12C, and it can get much colder if I wanted. Without the cooling mechanism, the T5 lights in my tank will make the day/night temps of over 30/24C (night temps is room temp). My tank size is 50 gallons, but a larger tank can probably be used since my chiller isn't even working at max capacity.

I have also seen attempts with peltiers, but they only do something to very small tanks.

Of course, the major con again is definitely cost. It will put you back like $500 canadian for the chiller, the aquarium pump, the tubing (from home depot) and the radiator (from ebay).

chiller and bucket to catch condensation from tubing
3824846405_c9521ca87f.jpg


Cooled terrarium. Black thing is radiator with cpu fan. Circuitry controls the fan, cooling only happens with the fan is on so you can do some feedback with a temperature sensor to keep the day/night temps at specific levels (I chose 24/12C).
4101667509_c630c65b0d_o.jpg


And I can't miss an opportunity to show off my rajah ;D (click for larger sizes)


 
  • #24
yea its completely opposite for me thats why im staying away from highlanders, sticking to ll and hybrids. no job, so no way of cost efficiently cooling terrarium down enough for HL.

---------- Post added at 11:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 PM ----------

And Z very nice rajah. see you just further solidified my reason to stay away from HL. 500$ is too much.
 
  • #25
And Z very nice rajah. see you just further solidified my reason to stay away from HL. 500$ is too much.

Haha, I didn't intend to draw you away from highlanders. They are very rewarding to grow, there probably some easier species that don't need a temp drop, like N. ramispina.
 
  • #26
Oh i LOVE them i love the way they look and everything, if i had the funds i would be growing them everywhere! lol.
 
  • #27
I live in TX, but we're moving to North Carolina (piedmont region) soon, wonder if that will be a good temp drop... I'm trying to figure out how I can keep it in a terrarium (to keep up the humidity) and give it sunlight without getting the temps too high.
I heard of someone who successfully kept a rajah on their windowsill without a terrarium.
 
  • #28
well for me humidity outdoors is pretty high (the other night it was 100% lol) but i keep most of my plants indoors and humidity inside my terrarium is around 55-60 during the day and at night it hops up to 70+. i have about 6 pots in there varying in size. The bottom is layered with some aquarium colorful small rocks and ontop of that is live sphagnum moss which i keep slightly submerged in water not all the way but it stays pretty wet. all my plants that are tray fed have they're own trays and the ones that arent still have small trays underneath them so that they are not absorbing any water from the bottom of the tank. this keeps the humidity as high as it is. hope that helps.

-Javier
 
  • #29
Hm how can I use the computer fan to lower the temp? Wouldn't it dry out the rajah and evaporate the humidity?
 
  • #30
I live in TX, but we're moving to North Carolina (piedmont region) soon, wonder if that will be a good temp drop... I'm trying to figure out how I can keep it in a terrarium (to keep up the humidity) and give it sunlight without getting the temps too high.
Direct sunlight + terrarium = solar cooker (not good for highlanders) :0o:
I heard of someone who successfully kept a rajah on their windowsill without a terrarium.
Look up some of elgecko's old posts - all you need is a magic window...
 
  • #31
From where I come from, the temperatures outside are pretty decent for nepenthes highlanders right now. Days around 80 or so, nights at like 55F. Unfortunately, the insulation is very good in the sense the apartment is still warm at night. My highland tank rarely gets to 60s in the past few days. Yesterday I was trying something different...use a humidifier...a fan a bit far away and trying to see if it would drop temps. Inspite of the fact that the windows are open, night temp was like 60F or something, apparently I could only manage 69F. Summer is really a scary 3-4 months for me as I wait and hope for the arrival of winter again. Although, I have a crazy idea of trying to use my air conditioner along with the humidifier this season. I don't think my villosa will appreciate the temps this summer if I don't intervene.
 
  • #32
You should google cool air humidifier.
Should be cheap and simple.
 
  • #34
i think that you'd have to rig a pipe setup to get it into the terrarium, but in theory it should.
 
  • #35
I think I'm going to use the ice packs...
What would be the coldest/longest-lasting brand?
 
  • #36
Alright guys.... misters don't work...the water bottles don't work... I am kind of stuck right now. Hmm...I am planning on trying the air conditioner + mister. I noticed already that my pickier plants such as H. pulchella, N. macrophylla (This one...for sure), N. villosa N. hamata have started slowing down. PLants like N. aristo, N. jacquelineae have started showing spotting on their leaves. Temps are around max of 83F during day...and night I am only able to manage like 69F which is like 20-21C.

I was wondering...does placing ice cubes on plant media work or will the intense cold water shock and kill the roots? Wanted to ask before I do something rash.

thanks,

V
 
  • #37
CO2 is cheaper in liquid form for both gas enrichment and cooling purposes. Also, you can get bigger bottles of liquid than you can chunks of dry ice, and they have handy valves on them which allows you to regulate the flow without resorting to duct tape and shenanigans.
~Joe
 
  • #38
I am living in the topical, Singapore. My room temp can get up to 33C. I have a 140 gallon HL terra tank. Inside housed Jamban, aristo, villosa, macrophylla, hamata, rajah, agentii some heli and more....:-)) This tank has been with me for a year and a half.
I used a half horse power aquarium chiller with radiator. The temp inside during the day with My MH light on is 23C. Night temp is 20C, considered this tank as intemediate. The humidity is constant 96%. All the plants have been growing very well and pitching. I have done 10C night temp before, but i find it waste of electricity.
Ice pack can easily kill the humidity. So do chiller. I used a humidifier to solved this problem.
Constant humidity and moderate temp works for me:)
Heli loves cold water for its roots:boogie:
 
  • #39
Maybe using chunks of dry ice would work. I could hang some chunks above the plant with some netting.
About the ice packs, if I put a layer of moss at the bottom of the terrarium would that keep up the humidity?
 
  • #40
Dry ice is great...but considering that nothing is easier and cheaper than freezing some distilled/RO water as cubes...I am trying to find a cheap method for the current 3-4 months when I need to bother about cooling. During winter opening the window is enough to drop night temps to 49F or so. My plants did great with that.

@MG...yeah...moss at bottom would help...but u need a fan to evaporate the water from the moss.
 
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