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Would a Heliamphora minor be a lost cause?

So I have a bit of money for Christmas laying around, and I was thinking of picking up a Heliamphora Minor and maybe a typical Cephalotus.

But I'd hate to just, you know, kill them.

Here's my current setup:

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That's a southwest facing window. Plants get really good sun most of the day, and the windowsill is still an option if needed. Think that's an environment that would keep a Heli or Ceph alive?
 
Aw, killing $100 plants is what it's all about dude! :D

IIRC "they" say H. minor is one of the easier ones (meaning it can deal with warmer temps I guess) but I had mine in a HL chamber so it did fine, slow but fine.

I have a Ceph but it's in HL conditions and pretty much on hold til warmer temps or I move it, but it's alive and kicking just kinda "drowsy" (I didn't use "dormancy" since that word sends people into a tizzy). I water my ceph like a nep or an orchid, enough to keep the soil moist but not sopping wet like on a tray. There are some who do put them on a tray so perhaps it's amenable to experimentation.
 
I find Heliamphora hybrids containing heterodoxa to be quite tolerant. I grow a Heliamphora heterodoxa x minor in my living room, under a CFL.
 
i grow ceph reg and now ceph hummers giant, with my other cp's in my south window and they seem to thrive ,
just try and keep the humidity up a little most homes are a little low. i have a similar set up w lots of cp's , so im able to keep my humidity up to 45 to 65 per. all the time , and im on a heat pump which is very drying, do be careful to watch the standing water, keep the crown from staying constantly wet too. water around the edge of the pot, twice a week , the twice a week may need to be watched though, some water more ,your conditions are yours , everyone's are different, dont let it dry all the way . and i do mine aut in the full sun Zone 7 all summer , after acclimating them slowly , little more sun each week, and after night temps reach and stay above 50.
 
I use tall (rose) pots for my Cephalotus which I grow on my kitchen windowsill. I fill a pot saucer with water and re-water when the saucer empties. I notice that many people on this forum have a preference to being quite sparing with watering Cephalotus but I've always found the above saucer/tray method to work very well for me.
 
If you have $100 to spend on your plants, I would suggest getting some nice lights. You can always hunt around and find a Heli or Ceph cutting for trade, but high-quality lights generally aren't up for trade. Improving your setup will do much more for your collection than a couple of expensive plants that you aren't sure you can keep alive. This is not an opinion that everyone here shares with me, but I think it's a lot better to have your easy plants growing well than to just focus on filling up your growlist. A big growlist is impressive, but you can't do well in trades if you don't have happy, healthy plants. You've already got some durable species, so if you were to give them the best conditions they can handle you'll be able to make tons of clones and divisions for trade. It might take a while to find an opportunity to grab a Heli or Ceph, but in between you'll bring a lot of other great species into your collection.
Like mobile, I use a tray for Cephs, but after three years I lost my last one to soil compaction. I like to use really tall containers and, at the bottom, I put a layer of just aggregate (perlite and pumice in this case) a little deeper than my watering tray so that the rest of the mix never really gets saturated from sitting in water. Also, some people have discovered a trick of building a little hill in your pot and planting on top of it. This allows air into the mix from the sides. Cephs like to make offsets downhill from the crown of the plant, so planting on a mound encourages the plant to multiply naturally. If Cephs are anywhere near as fickle for you as they are for me, I'm sure you'll appreciate having extras to fiddle with.
I recently got a new juvenile Ceph cutting, and even though it was less than two inches around with a four inch rhizome, I put it into a pot that's nine or ten inches wide and a foot tall. I filled it about three quarters full and the rest is a mound about six inches wide by three or four tall. I used extra chunks of pumice on the outside to help it hold together, in addition to strands of live Sphagnum and some sand. The sand doesn't stay in place much when I water, but hopefully the Sphagnum will remedy that once it gets established. I covered the crown of the plant with a plastic cup (cut the bottom off the cup so that there's still some air flow) and I water it by drenching the surrounding strands of Sphagnum with my spray bottle. It's only been here a week, so don't take this as an expert method - still very much experimental. :D
~Joe
 
If you have $100 to spend on your plants, I would suggest getting some nice lights. You can always hunt around and find a Heli or Ceph cutting for trade, but high-quality lights generally aren't up for trade. Improving your setup will do much more for your collection than a couple of expensive plants that you aren't sure you can keep alive. This is not an opinion that everyone here shares with me, but I think it's a lot better to have your easy plants growing well than to just focus on filling up your growlist. A big growlist is impressive, but you can't do well in trades if you don't have happy, healthy plants. You've already got some durable species, so if you were to give them the best conditions they can handle you'll be able to make tons of clones and divisions for trade. It might take a while to find an opportunity to grab a Heli or Ceph, but in between you'll bring a lot of other great species into your collection.

I agree with seedjar. If you have $100, a better light system can improve the quality of your collection. I do think that it is better to have a few plants that are doing very well over an expansive collection on the verge of mitchondrial collapse. Large fast-growing plants does not necessarily equal healthy plants. Plants exhibit a lot of tendencies that we'd associate with plant health as mechanisms in response to a lack to proper lighting.

-Hermes.
 
Er, I guess it was swords who brought up the $100 amount. But I think the title of your post should tell you a lot. If you don't know that you can take care of a plant, you probably shouldn't spend money on it. Wanting a plant is a reason to put it on your want list. If you're going to add something to your grow list, you should have some reasonable assurance that you can actually grow it.
~Joe
 
The Savage Garden says that Heliamphora Minor can actually thrive in a hot-house.

I'm thinking of getting one to grow on my porch here in Florida.
 
  • #10
Doesn't d'Amato also define a hothouse at the beginning of the book as a greenhouse that's not allowed to drop below 50 or 60 degrees F? Not necessarily lowland conditions. The Savage Garden is a great resource but certainly not definitive; there are some outright errors and it was written in the mid-90s. I would definitely double-check information in it related to the lesser-known genera.
~Joe

PS - Er, where'd I get lowland? Now I'm the one putting words in people's mouths. H. heterodoxa does great for me even in the peak of the summer heat - it might be worth a try. I think it appreciates a nighttime drop but can cope with just a small drop or periods of muggy nights. You might have more success if you have an air-conditioned room to stash it in during heat waves.
 
  • #11
Well, I do have my 4' wide T8s, but I put them away due to moving into a very small (6'x8') room at a friend's house. Could reinstall them I suppose. My plants are doing ok with the south facing window, although they're nowhere near as red as before, unfortunately.

You guys make a good point though. I think I'll concentrate on getting my Drosera and Pings doing well before working on anything else. Have a Ping. 'Titan' that is finally coming back from dying back to a 1mm wide sprout, and my P. Gigantea finally flowered.
 
  • #12
Your Nep appears to be doing quite well, too. Neps are great plants to focus on because they've got a lot of value in trade. If you got some nice hybrids or desirable species going in your collection you could trade for a Heliamphora or Cephalotus with little trouble. With your setup, you might consider buying a small HID lamp; I've seen compact ones marketed at orchid growers for as little as $80. HIDs tend to be intense enough that you can have a few feet of distance from the plants, so you could continue to use your rack and just supplement with artificial light at noontime or during a part of the day that the window isn't getting direct sun.
~Joe
 
  • #13
The Savage Garden says that Heliamphora Minor can actually thrive in a hot-house.
Where did you see this? In glancing through SG, I have a somewhat different take. D'Amato mentions that some H. minor grow in the lowlands and later notes that lowland varieties will do well in a hothouse. Right above this, he notes that Heli's will do well in a coolhouse or warmhouse - near swampcooler or misting system (pg 116). Unless I missed something (quite possible) ???, he doesn't recommend growing all H. minor's in a hothouse - just lowland varieties.

Brian Barnes (Drosera5150) grows several varieties in Florida & I believe even wrote a tutorial on keeping them - either here or over on the ICPS forum iirc.
 
  • #14
Where did you see this? In glancing through SG, I have a somewhat different take. D'Amato mentions that some H. minor grow in the lowlands and later notes that lowland varieties will do well in a hothouse. Right above this, he notes that Heli's will do well in a coolhouse or warmhouse - near swampcooler or misting system (pg 116). Unless I missed something (quite possible) ???, he doesn't recommend growing all H. minor's in a hothouse - just lowland varieties.

Brian Barnes (Drosera5150) grows several varieties in Florida & I believe even wrote a tutorial on keeping them - either here or over on the ICPS forum iirc.


It says under "Hot House" that the lowland Heliamphoras can be grown in a hot-house. H. Minor and H. Heterdoxa are lowland Heliamphoras.
 
  • #15
It says under "Hot House" that the lowland Heliamphoras can be grown in a hot-house. H. Minor and H. Heterdoxa are lowland Heliamphoras.

Wolf, the term lowland is relative when dealing with Heliamphora. Most H. minors are 1900-2500m and most "lowland" heterodoxa are 1100-1400m
(McPherson et. al.,) neither of which I would really call or treat as a "lowland" plant.

There is currently a conversation going on about the only "true" lowland Heliamphora... (newly identified)

and it's by some of the true gurus of Heliamphora
http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=35062&pid=260426&st=0&#

HTH's
Av
 
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