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My terrarium dormancy experiment worked (pics!)

R

RandallFlagg

Well, I had no idea if I would be successful with simulating dormancy for my plants in a terrarium. I'm in Denver and we had a moderately cold winter. If I'd simply placed them outdoors, they surely would have died. However...
vft1.jpg

This is the VFT
pp1.jpg

This is the pitcher

It's a small 22"X13" tank with three 18" flourescent tubes bolted to the makeshift lid:
setup.jpg

And I keep a thermometer/humidity meter in it at all times:
humidtherm.jpg


I'm even getting the beginings of a flower on the VFT! I just took them out of the back (cooler) section of my house on the first of March. The VFT already has nine traps and the PP has more young pitchers than I can count. Thusfar, it worked!

Need to feed the little fellas, though!
 
how did you simulate dormancy for them?
 
The back of my house has a kind of "Closet" with a door. I placed the terrarium just inside the closet and rigged the door open about two feet. The sun wasn't needed because of my lighting being timed. I'd check it twice a week, keep it watered and maintained the temps at about 35-45 degrees, and collected lots of snow to run through a coffee filter and store.

I honestly had no idea if it would work. I put it off until mid-December.
 
hmm.. You think if I could do that same by putting them in my garage.. but keep a fluorescent light on them for maybe 10 hours a day?
 
The amount of light should be dependant on how much and how close. One 18" tube wasn't enough. I'm currently using three, but during winter I was using two for 14 hours. Basically, the less light, the more time; the more light, the less time.
 
I'm debating whether I should use the terrarium method, the windowsill method or put them in a terrarium outside. I live in Fort Worth, TX where the winter will be very mild so I'm not to worried about protecting them from a deep freeze. I've had my flytraps and pitcher plants for about 2 months now and they've been doing great on a south window sill but I'm worried about making sure they go dormant. Is light the most important factor or do I need to seriously consider putting them outside also for lower temps? Knowing my roommates, they are going to want to hyper-heat the house once it gets cold (probably will be too hot for this HUMAN as well) but I'm hoping that the temps will be lower next to the window. If temperature is not much of an issue, my other concern is about whether is it OK to have lights on briefly after the sun has gone down. I have supplemental florescent lighting on them with a timer set to go on at dawn and off at dusk (around 6) but when I get home at 8 or so I like to spend some time with my CPs and other plants. Does anyone know if 30-45 min of additional light (after they are already sleeping) will prevent them from going into dormancy. I REALLY don't want to put them outdoors, mostly because I won't get to see them as often, but I'll do it if that is the best way to keep them healthy.

Thanks,
Jason
 
Hey Texas represent!! I'm in Dallas and all Sarr's can live outside year round here. Well everything except those oddball Sarr's (Heli's. Ceph's). Don't worry about light after dark, as long as the light is not RIGHT up on them it should not bother them.

-Rail
 
Very neat. What kind of soil are you using?
 
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