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I want to build

What things do i need
how big for room for the highlanders to grow a lil bit tall and to spread out there leafs
what lighting and how big
what do i use for heat
what do use for humidity
what plants would be nice for it
what kind of decor should i put (rocks sand beach or even some branches for some to curl around)
what
is the perfect cheaper soil
should i use pots or not
should i have a little side seed room and what kind of things should be in there
I would like a pretty big one something that wont have to be changed out because of the plants got to wide
so something that is wide enough to hold some of the bigger leaf spans
i dont want a gh because it is a lil expensive
Plus i want to have them in a better controled enviroment
 
PLZ i need some answers so that i could build it sooon
 
I think the first thing you need to determine is the temperature range you want to have between day/night. The plants you wish to grow will determine this!!! This will also seriously impact how easy or difficult the set up needs to be in order to provide these conditions based on the temperature of the surrounding air. IE the closer the temperatures are to your own climate the easier it will be to reach your projected goals for your plants.

Since you said highland I will figure you mean 80-82 during the day and 55-58 at night. Warming them during the day is not usually a big issue since the lights will normally provide enough for that. Cooling at night is the hard part. Particularly if your trying to get a large drop from surrounding ambient air temperature. Assuming you can't just open a window and let your room reach 55 degress every night, Ice bottles will work for smaller set ups but it can be tedious and you have to find a way to get the ice in there without damaging the plants. Next your stuck with either some sort of refrigeration/Airconditioning. While more expensive and more technical to put together, you can build larger setups and cool them effectively.

My personal opinion.. a used chest freezer with the lid removed and replaced with plexiglass to allow lights mounted over it. That and a remote bulb thermostat set on a timer to keep the night temperature inside the unit at a nice 55 degrees.

Tony
 
Thats a bit costy! Does anyone have any other ideas for a large highland terrarium?
 
Key word: Highland.

These are the Nepenthes that are usually the "pain in the rear" to grow because of thier requirments. You could do it with ice, but that's a pain. The chest freezer is great like Tony said and not too bad in price IMHO. The only other option I see is a greenhouse which you don't want.Do you have a basement? They are usually cool enough for highlanders.
 
J,

As I recall, you live in Colorado. If you don't have a basement or other room that naturally cools to the mid to high-fifties, then I'd just grow a lowland nep. I'm having good luck with a few in an terrarium just using the fluorescent lights for heat, and letting it cool to room temperature at night. Get as big an aquarium as you can, and make or otherwise get a glass lid for it. This will keep the humidity in.

I use pots, since they are easy to remove, clean, or just shift to another spot. Plus, I can keep different species that require different soils that way. A good, cheap soil would be sphagnum peat, perlite, and orchid bark in equal proportions. Add long fibered sphagnum moss if you can.

The easiest lighting to set up is fluorescents. I made a lid for mine out of two two-light strips from Home Depot (total of 4 tubes.) These provide good light but not too much heat. Good luck!

Capslock
 
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