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Have a question.....

im bored and have a lil extra plant material and was thinking about doing some experiments. in a different post there was a remark about how some of the terrestrials might not even needing a "soil" substrate. well what would be good substrate to try? ive been thinking along the lines of maybe pure perlite or florist's foam(that green stuff they do flower arrangments in) since i have both of these, any other ideas? also what would be good fairly quick growing species to try? i have livida and sandersonii that fit the bill. from what ive seen my tridentata seems fairly slow growing and i dont have much so i probably wont use it. my tricolor seems to be spreading nicly so i may try it, from what ive been told its fairly difficult to get to flower so some experimenting is needed with it anyway. any other species? ive recently recieved plugs of a couple other species but dont have enough plant material to experiment with yet. any ideas would be good. it seems lots of ppl are experimenting with mixes for Nepenthes and pings but other than for some of the tropical and epiphatic species no one seems to be messing with utrics.

Rattler
 
dont have sand. well none i would dare use for CP's. its one of the things i havent been able to find way up here.

Rattler
 
Well, one thing I want to try is growing them in a bowl of glass beads. Rock wool is a possibility, and I suppose fiberglass might be interesting to try. I am experimenting with osmunda fiber with very good results with the epiphytes.

I think mixes that afford many pockets in the mix are probably good. I think Utricularia colonize in such air pockets since I notice rolons becoming photosynthetic in my clear cups when such are available, and with good dense growth.

I admire experimentation! Keep us posted!
 
glass beads huh. well i guess i could look for some. to bad i didnt have more Phillipsburg sapphires. that would be neat. i only have half a film canister full though. think of it..... U. pauliniae in a lil bowl of uncut gem quality sapphires. wouldnt that be a hoot? hmmmm i think i got a lil bit of heat stroke this weekend.

Rattler
 
Are you a rockhound as well as a CPer? What are those Saphires like? Where do I go to find them?

You just hit on my second major interest.
 
i got them out of bags of gravel from the phillipsburg mine over on the otherside of the state. 40 miles or so from Butte. they arent the nice deep blue of the Yogos but they are fairly high quality. ive found lots of light greens and blues, a few oranges. the bags are around the size of a bag of brown sugar but i usually find 2 dozen cuttable sized stones per bag although they dont guarrentte any more than one and LOTS of tiny ones. now if i would only learn how to cut them. heres the website: http://www.sapphire-gallery.com/
 
Sigh. It's a bit of a jaunt to Montana from here, but I do have an Arizona trip on the docket for sometime before I go to meet Darwin.

Maybe you can point me in the right direction when I come to suck up all your beer, heh heh.

I think I will start a rockhound thread on GD. I know Lauderdale is another with rocks in his head. Maybe we can share some good collecting sites.

I am remarkably lucky in finding stones. I really think it is a PSI thing. I just sort of know where to bash.
 
I have donr the straight sand thing for sandersonii and pubescens. The former is growing like a weed in it the latter crapped out but that might have been due to other issues.
 
  • #10
well ive introduced livida and tricolor to floral foam that i soaked in R/O water yesterday. btw if some one else trys this keep in mind there are 2 kinds of floral foam, one for wet arrangments(freash flowers) and one for dried arrangements. yah need the wet kind. i know te greenhouse recieves geranium cuttings started in this stuff that they pot into larger containers. so i know stuff will grow in it. anyways a brick of the stuff cost me $1.50 at the floral shop. i can get ALOT of Utric experiments out of one brick so i should be busy for awhile
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anyways i cut a slit in the 1in x 2in by 1in chunk of foam. inserted the rolons into it with lolons above the surface and gently squeezed the sides together placed a lil bit of water in the bottom of a clear bag and placed the foam in the bag and set it under florecent lights. ill keep yah posted on how it works and will try other species as i have the extra plant material.

Rattler
 
  • #11
How exciting! I think this is great! You might really have something going with this!
 
  • #12
its what about 2 weeks into the experiment give or take a few days........the livida doesnt seem to like it but it may be due to its getting brighter light than it was in the pot. its still alive though. i believe the tricolor is growing/spreading along the surface of the foam...i think i may try some tridentata. it hates the peat mix im using and i have to repot it in pure sphagnum anyway. its growing on a lil "island" of moss in the middle of the pot and refuses to touch the peat.......more updates will appear as availible.......you are now going back to your regularly schedualed programing already in progress.....sorry for the interuption.

Rattler
 
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