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Well, im going to set it up next wednesday or thursday. :3 the grow rack is just one of those mini GHs you buy at lowes for like 40 dollars, i figure id put some use to it....more than just my outdoor neps, as the plants will need to be moved in very soon anyway. Basically. the rack is going to have 3 lights, 2 on the bottom 1 on top, toprack for the lower light loving neps. The container on the top rack, something i thought of, and it will hopefully work well. is a plastic tub or a baking dish of some sorts that contains water, when the light is turned on, it will heat up the water causing it to evaporate, raising the humidity level in the growrack (yes it is covered) the fan in the middle keeps the air circulating in both levels. it blows against the opposite side of the of the rack causing air to move both up and down. While cooling it down and circulating the air. Each light will have a plastic cover over the top of the light itself to keep water from dripping down onto the light and shorting it out. The plants will have a tray of some kind under to catch the water that comes out of the pots after watering, and will also help raise the humidity.
plants that will be grown on this rack
2 Rajah
1 Talangensis
3 Hamata
1 Tentaculata
1 Aristolochioides
1 Talangensis
1 Bongso
1 Lowii
3 Ventrata
1 Sanguinea
1 Spectabilis
1 Mikei
1 Densiflora
and my Splendiana x [(Veitchii x Maxima) x Veitchii] seedlings
as well as various Drosera and Utricularia

highlandgrowrack.jpg
 
everything is ready :3 i will set it up today(since its 1:11AM) . the only thing that has not arrived yet is my fan. New plants will arrive soon as well, and hopefully sometime around the plants. until then i will just use my big box fan and blow it onto the growrack to help keep it cool. Hopefully that will work :3 i will post pics as i am setting it up.
 
its done!!! ^^ The only thing different is the raised lights...i still need my fan and i ditched the water tray idea. the fan should be here soon, more plants tomorrow :D and i still have some more i need to add to the rack. for now...im taking a break
growrack.jpg
 
lookin great Kris, I would try to pull the mylar tighter to get the wrinkles out...if you want. Good job!
 
gonna try and do that...some places are just double layers of mylar from it being wrapped. currently however. im lazy.
 
I would have put the mylar, cut to fit, around the rack and then put the plastic on top of the mylar. It would look better.

Crystal
 
dont really care how it looks...as long as it works lol!
 
Well thats for sure...lol jk. Whats your conditons now in the rack and do you plan on raising the humidity?
 
Seems great :) In the middle part, on the left, are those the two rajahs? Just wondering :p
 
  • #10
mmhmmm those are the Rajahs. The humidity is pleanty high on its own xD
 
  • #11
The plastic might reduce some of the effects of the mylar since the light has to go through the plastic and back again to reflect back into the greenhouse. Just a thought.
 
  • #12
dont really care how it looks...as long as it works lol!

It will work better if the plastic is on the outside, so the light is not defused, twice (once from the light to the mylar, and once from the mylar to the plants). I'm not sure if the difference is significant or not; but I'm pretty sure it does make a difference based on some reading I did in one of the seed threads about covering seeds with plastic to increase humidity.

xvart.

edit: shoot, didn't see the second page (again!). Good point, Crystal! lol.
 
  • #13
Can you clarify how many lights? The photo is unclear and your description lists 2 shoplights on the bottom with 1 on top? personally I would go for at least 4 tubes on each shelf. 2 is barely enough, you can't overlight nepenthes with normal shoplight tubes, they simply aren't strong enough. Looks like you could put some lights under that first shelf also for the plants way on the bottom. As for low light liking highland Nepenthes... there are none. If I could give mine full blazing sun all day long and still keep the temperature down and humidity up I would. 4 normal shoplight tubes wouldn't even come close to that amount of light.

Tony
 
  • #14
The plastic might reduce some of the effects of the mylar since the light has to go through the plastic and back again to reflect back into the greenhouse. Just a thought.

+1

It would look better and would perform better.
 
  • #15
if i feel like it later on ill change it. the mylar was on the outside of my terrarium and it worked fine...i dont see it being much different than this. the plastic is thinner than the glass anyway. But like i said...if i feel like it, ill change it later.
 
  • #16
Well its been a few days...and im glad to say, everything still seems to be growing just fine!!!

there are 4 tubes on the bottom shelf, 2 tubes on the top shelf
 
  • #17
A few days isn't enough time to determine "everything still seems to be growing just fine".

You can do what you want but in my opinion your lighting is very insufficient except for the one shelf with the 4 tubes. And even on that shelf I would raise the plants closer to the tubes! Sure the plants will grow long term.. They aren't going to just keel over from poor lighting. They will however never fully grow to their best potential and produce the leaf and pitcher size and pitcher color they could under proper lighting. It will take months and months and months to gage accurately how the plants are doing long term.

Tony
 
  • #18
Well tony the plants under the bottom lights are about 5 inches from the lights, if that. the bottom rack plants are all vines and reaching just under the shelf, i was simply stating they seem to be alright because there was no shock from the conditions.
 
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