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Darlingtonia californica varieties

  • #22
Afternoon all
Just as a little aside to the thread, I think that some people worry about the root temperature a little too much and go overboard with the ice cube watering methods,
This plant is grown in a greenhouse (in the UK ) all year round with no special watering techniques, and the temperature in a greenhouse must be high for a large proportion of the summer.
Link
http://icps.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=darlingtonia&action=display&thread=2894

sorry Steve but he really doesnt even give us an idea of his temperatures and methods, atleast that i saw....
the ice cub method is only for times where the roots cannot be cooled by other means IMO, especially when its a tray of water in full sun... it depends on the climate as well, i can grow Darlingtonia with no special care, but down south you have to provide special care to keep it alive, as many people on here have learned and have proven....
 
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  • #23
I mentioned it before and I'll repeat: Dr. Leo Song (one of the founders of the ICPS) found that the maximum root temperature this species will tolerate is 81F (27C). Exceeding this maximum is fatal to the plants.

I germinated some Darlingtonia seeds over a heating pad set to ~81F - accuracy of the thermostat is probably +/- 10% - and some at room temperature in the same room. Guess what? The seedlings on the heating pad died.
 
  • #24
I had my best success with Darlingtonia californica while I was living in La Mesa, California (a suburb of San Diego). I kept it in a large terra cotta pot, sitting in a deep saucer of water, where I kept its pot sitting in about two inches of water. It sat on top of a short, block wall and in full sun. The media was LFS and perlite. I did not know the provenance of the plant, but it grew quite well in my conditions, producing many offsets by rhizome runners and it bloomed each year.
 
  • #25
I had my best success with Darlingtonia californica while I was living in La Mesa, California (a suburb of San Diego). I kept it in a large terra cotta pot, sitting in a deep saucer of water, where I kept its pot sitting in about two inches of water. It sat on top of a short, block wall and in full sun. The media was LFS and perlite. I did not know the provenance of the plant, but it grew quite well in my conditions, producing many offsets by rhizome runners and it bloomed each year.

Wow, that's exactly what I'm doing except I'm using a plastic white pot to hopefully reflect more of the heat off.
 
  • #26
The cooling effect of the terra cotta is mostly due to evaporation from the sides of the terra cotta. Are your white pots porous to permit cooling by evaporation? The white may reflect enough light to keep the pots cooler than darker surfaces, but if they're not porous, I would be concerned that they might not be cooler than the surrounding air. Evaporative cooling is quite powerful. Perhaps there is a white coating that can be applied to terra cotta that is also porous.

Perhaps a thin coating of "Plaster of Paris" on the outside of a terra cotta pot would provide both a white surface to reflect light/heat, while remaining porous for evaporative cooling.
 
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  • #27
The cooling effect of the terra cotta is mostly due to evaporation from the sides of the terra cotta. Are your white pots porous to permit cooling by evaporation? The white may reflect enough light to keep the pots cooler than darker surfaces, but if they're not porous, I would be concerned that they might not be cooler than the surrounding air. Evaporative cooling is quite powerful. Perhaps there is a white coating that can be applied to terra cotta that is also porous.

Perhaps I'll repot then. The lfs: perlite slurry has been getting slimier and grosser by the month, so I think it's time anyway.
 
  • #28
I've gotta agree with dethcheeze - Long Beach and Darlingtonia DON'T mix! I lived outside of Belmont Shores down there, and all of my carnivores thrived there EXCEPT for Darlingtonia. I believe the reason is the summer heat - Long Beach and surrounding areas get downright HOT in the summer, which is when I always lost them - after 2 plants I gave up! And cold water and ice cubes made with distilled water and packed around the base as well as around the plants did not work. Unlike other coastal areas in LA / Southern Calif., Long Beach sits in further and is not affected by June gloom in LA like just about everywhere else - BUT!...What I think would be cool to try, for those with ponds, and don't go nuts on H20 conditioners and the like, would be to get one of those floating baskets, line with sphagnum, and plant a few Darlingtonia and see what happens - the roots would be constantly wet, along with water actually moving across it's root system.
 
  • #29
I mentioned it before and I'll repeat: Dr. Leo Song (one of the founders of the ICPS) found that the maximum root temperature this species will tolerate is 81F (27C). Exceeding this maximum is fatal to the plants.

I germinated some Darlingtonia seeds over a heating pad set to ~81F - accuracy of the thermostat is probably +/- 10% - and some at room temperature in the same room. Guess what? The seedlings on the heating pad died.

This is very good information! I am confident that the soil temperature will never exceed this maximum...at least the water won't...probably it'll be about 60 degrees in summer. I will consider of using a pump to run it over the media if it climbs in temperature in the summer. This should keep the plants alive.

Now that I have the temperature under control, my only other problem is light. I feel the plants can survive in the east facing location, but it isn't ideal. @ Joseph Clemens: I'm sure your lily didn't have this problem in the least!

I was originally thinking of planting mine in a terra-cotta pot like Mr. Clemens did, but we had this empty pond sitting here...just waiting...and I can fit many more plants into it :). I will let everybody know if it works out!
 
  • #30
If you're worried about light, could you possibly paint an adjoining wall white to reflect the afternoon sun? Not sure exactly what your accommodations are like, but indirect light is better than nothing. If it makes you feel any better, I think that my plants have actually suffered this past year for lack of a substantial shady period during the day.
~Joe
 
  • #31
If you're worried about light, could you possibly paint an adjoining wall white to reflect the afternoon sun? Not sure exactly what your accommodations are like, but indirect light is better than nothing. If it makes you feel any better, I think that my plants have actually suffered this past year for lack of a substantial shady period during the day.
~Joe

Well, if you can see in the pond pic, the walls are painted whitish. Which is good. Now that you mention it, a few light loving plants grew where the bog is. They were happy enough, but now we've got be palm trees taking over! Maybe that's why they didn't do well last year.

Well, I hope they get enough. They'll probably do well but not develop much color.

I know it doesn't mean anything to you guys up north, but I felt the bog today and it was really cold. This is winter, I know...but our winters are nothing...even neps survive outside without any protection.

So I'm just going to plant the rest of the coming cobras and hang on for the ride...and provide pics when the plants start producing pitchers!

Thank you all for your help!
 
  • #32
I think you've got a shot at making it work. Worst comes to worst you can always dig the plants back up and put them in terra cotta for transpiration, and then do a Slack-potting type of arrangement with water circulating through. But I think the shading and depth of the pond should help a lot. You might want to plant some bog grasses and other tall marginal plants around the water to shelter it a little more - providing shade not only keeps it cooler, but helps with other aspects of water quality too.
~Joe
 
  • #33
Speaking of you, thanks for the plants and moss! The bog looks much better :boogie:
 
  • #34
Long awaited photos of now:

Cobra+Lilly+Bog+1.JPG


---------- Post added at 04:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:21 PM ----------

Doesn't look like much yet.
 
  • #35
Yes it does that is COOL! I wish i had one! How much did all that cost estimate?
 
  • #36
Yes it does that is COOL! I wish i had one! How much did all that cost estimate?


Well, I already had the pond setup. See this pic "BEFORE"

new+and+old+turtle+pond+pictures+003.jpg


Here's "AFTER" again:

Cobra+Lilly+Bog+1.JPG


It cost me $30-40 to convert it and make it as-is.

---------- Post added at 07:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:18 PM ----------

One more thing:

Notice how the pond is rotated and moved closer to the light? It took an hour or two to do that.
 
  • #37
Hopefully they will take off! Looks like a good set up.
 
  • #38
Had to cut down a tree didn't you?
 
  • #39
Hopefully they will take off! Looks like a good set up.

I'm very glad you think so. The main thing is that half of the pond/bog is a water reservior, with watter-filled 2 litre bottles packed into the bottom, water between the bottles, then shadecloth covering the bottles and soil resting on top of the shadecloth...and then there is that watering tube to pump water out, etc.

The reservior is cooled greatly by the cold earth (cold in that spot for obvious reasons) and that transfers over to the plants. In fact, I now have a nice place for rotundifolia and such plants!

Had to cut down a tree didn't you?

Nope. I did have to do some re-landscaping, and a major hole digging (a precision hole to fit the shape of the bog. That's why it took so long.)
 
  • #40
Here is an update. Do you think they have a shot at doing well? Each pitcher has gotten consecutively smaller...much smaller for the most part.

DSCN0160.JPG
 
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