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Smaller plants?

W

Warped54321

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Are there any smaller nepenthes that won't over grow a small terrarium like the one's i've been reading about.

thanx-warped
 
There are smaller neps out there but how small of a terrarium are we talking? I don't recommend anything under a 55 gallon fishtank size as you can easily fit 160 watts (4 tubes) of flourescent light for the plants over this size tank. Plants with less light than this do not seem to do as well, when it comes to artificial light in a terrarium situation more is better.

Neps are vines so as a general rule they are not small length wise when they eventually mature. The smallest quoted size (vine length wise) I can recall off the top of my head is Nepenthes campanulata vine <50 cm in Clarkes Neps of Borneo.

N. argentii might be the smallest of all neps (pitchers the size of a coin is a popular image I've seen online in several places) I don't recall the vine length but it's price is certainly the largest of all that I've seen so far!

Most of the smaller neps are cool growing true highlanders (inermis, jacquelineae, dubia, talangensis, etc) are said to be viney climbers to around 4 meters in length which means they will eventually outgrow a terrarium pretty much no matter the size unless they are pruned back.

I would say if you start with a 55 gallon aquarium (4 ft x 18" x 12") you should be able to grow a good selection of lowland plants and keep them under control with regular pruning. A Bigger tank allows you to grow plants with wider diameters/longer leaves. My main lowland tank is a 75 gallon aquarium wrapped in tinfoil with 6 x 40 watt flourescents over it, as the plants outgrow this they are moved to a terrarium I made out of a showerstall with a sliding glass door and metal halide lighting. Neps rarely stay small if they are healthy and growing.
 
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