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Lights and humidity,without a terrarium.

Hi all, I need to know what people do to keep the humidity up while useing lighting without haveing to put my plants in a terrarium, or make my room into a greenhouse. I've noticed that some nerserys use a try system but how do they keep the humidity up? I live in San Francisco so it's kinda on the dry side. I've tryed puting the plants outside in the afternoon or late afternoon for about four to five hours of direct sun. And then bring them inside and cover them with a plastic dome. I can't do that with the arttificial lights because the domes are makeshift 2 liter coke bottles they might melt and they might fry my plants. The plants I'm trying them on are a d. capensis (typical), and a d. spatulata does anybody have any ideas about this, thanks......
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The thing to do would be to reproduce your plants until you have spares and experiment. The advice I could give would probably not apply to your climate in SF.

Possibilities include running a humidifier 24/7. If you have hard water, you will need to use RO, rain or distilled. If it is a heat type mister, the humidifier will need regular cleaning with vinegar to remove the lime that will build up as the water distills out. At humidity above 40% cultivation of most CP with the exception of many of the Heliamphora and Nepenthes is possible, provided the light is sufficient (difficult for Sarracenia and tall growing species).

Usually a shelf with lights above it, plants in tray water with a thin sheet of plastic hanging down over the front of the whole thing helps contribute to the humidity enough to grow just about everything, as above.

Another possibility that worked for me is to grow them outdoors in sealed terraria. Here in NY I grew many species of Drosera in a sealed bin, with 3 inches of space between the glass and the substrate, sitting in deep traywater. The bin had substrate about 6 inches deep. There was only 1/8 inch of opening so the unit was basically sealed. These plants remained in full sun the entire season, were occasionally submerged in water for days on end, and throve like no other plants I have ever grown. I grew some 9 species this way, D. capensis and D. spatulata included. The temps. must have hit 120F easily on sunny days. Granting that you have more sunlight, you might need to use some white plastic to cut back the light. The trick is to start early with very young seedlings which are hardened off outdoors under gradually reduced layers of white plastic film screen. Many seedlings will die, but the remainders will be very strong. These are planted in the bin. A photo of these plants is the cover page of my website and may be seen at:

http://home.twcny.rr.com/tamlin/index.html

I hope this helps.
 
I have just taken to putting the plants out where I want them and most of the time they adapt. I had Neps in my living room (outside now that it gets above 40 at night) along with Drosera, Pings, Utrics and even a Heli. D. capensis and spatulata are pretty bomb proof so you can probably go this route
 
Thanks for the info, I'll put my plants outside at my girlfriend's house since she has a patio and she doesn't have racoons around her house, now I have an excuse to by more plants for my indoor lighting system heeheehee........Thanks again guys......
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