Here is where I grow my N. rajah N. villosa etc.
First of I want to say it was not my original idea it was Jeff Shafer's.
Second I want to say I'm not the greatest of writers so I hope you can make since of all this.
If the building one of these results in any type disaster to your self or your plants I'm in no way held responsible bla bla bla...
I read his article about it in the CPNL (I think it was the March 20003 issue but not for sure I cant seem to find right now) I had always wanted to cultivate N. villosa successfully but Jeff had convinced me my greenhouse would get to hot so I waited. I was so elated when that issue came. My family had needed a new freezer for quite some so time now we had an excuse to actually buy one. I got the old chest freezer it is 48 inches (121.92 centimeters) wide, 29 inches (73.66 centimeters) deep and 32 1/2 inches (82.55 centimeters) tall, that is 14.8 cu. ft. If you are building one the freezer is by far the most expensive item one would need. It looked just like this
http://www.ajmadison.com/ajmadison/images/large/FFC15C8C.jpg except used. The first thing I did was removed the lid. It was very easy just two or three screws. The next step was probably the most difficult installing the thermostat. I remover the cover of the control panel (if you look close you can see what I mean in that photo it is on the bottom, side of the freezer) then figure out which wires do what and hook them up accordingly. The thermostat I used is a LUX just like this one
http://www.luxproducts.com/thermostats/lv1.htm I drilled a hole on the side of the Plato like thing on the side of the freezer that the control panel is on (Jeff did not recommend drilling a hole in the freezer because water might get it and it could be very dangerous. I used silicon to keep it water proof so I hope that works). I also put duct-tape on the top of the thermostat to keep water from dripping in (so far it has worked) One thing I have learned is that if you were to set the thermostat to 50F it would not necessarily get to 50F before it goes off, mine would get to 30F or below before it would turn of it I had it sent at 50F. So you would have to tweak it a little before you put any plants in. Then I had a peace of 1/8 inch Plexiglas cut to the dimensions I needed. If I did it over I would use glass because the Fluorescent Lighting I use scratches it really bad. I use three fluorescent light fixtures just like these
http://www.lowes.com/lkn?act....-338-52 45 . I use 4 Philips 40 watt lights and 2 Sylvania GRO-LUX 40 watt lights I think to combo of the grow-lights and the regular lights seem helps. I few thing I would have noticed, when the freezer come on it seem to suck a lot of the humidity out of the air and onto the walls. I have a small humidifier in the freezer that I have sent to come on for 8 minuets every 2 hours. Also water will start to build in the bottom of the freezer make sure you have a way of removing it.
thanks
-Jeremiah-