About three months ago I ordered a heliamphora minor from an on-line dealer. The plant was cheap, and so very tiny. It also arrived with more than half of its pitchers broken, maybe a third of which were practically snapped in half. There wasn't any brown, so it probably happened in transit. I figured life was terrible enough for it as was, so I just kept it in the sphagnum it was shipped with, stuck it in a new pot and put it under its own little cloche with no air holes and set it 6" below my 6500k T5 HO light. It sits in a little dish of distilled water. Sometimes I open up the cloche for about an hour so it gets fresh air and I rinse it out about once a week. In the evenings, when I remember, I will set it next to a tiny humidifier for maybe ten minutes. Everynight without fail, I set it next to a window for the night to give it the temp drop. I think the Heli experiences daytime temps of 72-75 degrees, followed by evening temps of 60-65 degrees.
In this way, it has hung on for these past three months. By now, all but one of the original pitchers has blackened and been trimmed off. The lone survivor, though, has stayed a nice neon green and it even put out two tiny new pitchers, so while I wouldn't say the plant was thriving, it has clearly been surviving. This all changed in the last three days, though. It's true that these last three days I have been more dilligent in humidifying it and airing it out, but I think it might be the near-freezing evening temperatures we've been having. Whatever it is, the oldest pitcher has gotten noticeably bigger, the two new pitchers are shooting up like weeds and even some of the trimmed-down "dead" pitchers have started growing again. Assuming it's the dramatic temp drop, I'll try to start moving the plant into the garage or something, once the cold snap ends.
Will post a pic tomorrow.
In this way, it has hung on for these past three months. By now, all but one of the original pitchers has blackened and been trimmed off. The lone survivor, though, has stayed a nice neon green and it even put out two tiny new pitchers, so while I wouldn't say the plant was thriving, it has clearly been surviving. This all changed in the last three days, though. It's true that these last three days I have been more dilligent in humidifying it and airing it out, but I think it might be the near-freezing evening temperatures we've been having. Whatever it is, the oldest pitcher has gotten noticeably bigger, the two new pitchers are shooting up like weeds and even some of the trimmed-down "dead" pitchers have started growing again. Assuming it's the dramatic temp drop, I'll try to start moving the plant into the garage or something, once the cold snap ends.
Will post a pic tomorrow.