A few heli pics

[Av8tor1]

Some that normally don't get the spotlight

H. chimantensis (Wistuba)
Notice the nectar glands, these are mentioned in McPherson's book.

H. folliculata
First growth from a recently acquired division

H. tatei var. tatei (EP)
Seems to be some H. ionasi influence going on here

H. sarracenioides
This is a robust grower, it developed it's first mature pitcher only 2-3 months ago IIRC.

Couple top shelf group shots

Thanks for looking,
Av

 

[Devon]

 

[RL7836]

What is that heli on the right with a nectar spoon that's able to swallow Texas?

 

[F R e N c H 3 z]

I didn't know you had a Heli collection?

Seriously though, beautiful plants and pictures Butch. Always raising the bar for the rest of us

 

[lizasaur]

What is that heli on the right with a nectar spoon that's able to swallow Texas?

In the second to last picture, right? That's my question too lol.

Av- You have a very intense and most impressive collection. Everything is gorgeous- I hope we can do some trades in the future

 

[killerplantsguy]

Very impressive! I especially like the H. folliculata -- vibrant color!
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Av8tor1]

Thanks for the very nice comments everyone...

I hear ya Yannbo

What is that heli on the right with a nectar spoon that's able to swallow Texas?

Ron that the the mother of the NASC auction plant
H. tatei var.neblinae x hispida

I can stick the top of my thumb in that nectar spoon, it's massive... and oh so productive LOL

Butch

 

[Jayson16]

I didn't know you had a Heli collection?

Seriously though, beautiful plants and pictures Butch. Always raising the bar for the rest of us

Ha thats for sure! Great collection as always Av, thank you for sharing.

 

[BigBella]

Beautiful plants -- all . . .

 

[seedjar]

Top shelf indeed! I'm jealous as always.
~Joe

 

[ElectrCarnvrs]

Av8tor1: Beautiful plants as always. I wanted to ask you, do you have that green house plant stand unclosed? where humidity can build up. Or are you're plants growing just on the stand with the t5s over them in open air? If you had any photos of your set up of the whole stand from your point of veiw I would love too see them. Again thanks for sharing.

 

[Av8tor1]

EC,

It is enclosed on three sides with aluminum foil covered foam panels (home construction). The front is simply covered with clear plastic drop cloth for easy access.

Very simple and utilitarian...

Av

 

[Shimi]

Av8tor1: Beautiful plants as always. I wanted to ask you, do you have that green house plant stand unclosed? where humidity can build up. Or are you're plants growing just on the stand with the t5s over them in open air? If you had any photos of your set up of the whole stand from your point of veiw I would love too see them. Again thanks for sharing.

These are indeed impressive.
I'm also interested in how your system works. Do you use a humidifier and some kind of cooler (fridge/Peltier based)?

 

[Av8tor1]

very very basic...

old pic from before the plants moved into their new home

The front is draped in clear plastic drop cloth for easy access
(T12's in that image BTW)

Airflow system

Two 120mm low Cfm fans on separate power supplies, each is capable of preventing overheating should one fail. Both are on the same timer as the light. One power supply is hanging on the wall (homemade) and the other is the box sitting on the side rack. (A 7 amp supply which is also feeding the LED project)
(excuse the mess, It's a basement and I wasnt expecting company LOL)

Humidification system

A sunpentown su-2000 ultrasonic humidifier with variable output. Hosed output runs into the rack slightly below the fans. The hose runs uphill the whole way so any condensation can run back into the humidifier and get recycled.

Humidifer is also on the same timer as the lights.

Lights, fans and humidifier all run together

Older Video
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eu8wUivwEdQ&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eu8wUivwEdQ&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

The combination of fans, humidifier and fresh air inlet provides evaporational cooling for the rack. As you may have noticed in the "top shelf images" some of the helis are within a couple inches of the T5's

With this setup redundancy is critical IMHO

HTH's
Av

 

[BigBella]

Butch, you make us all look like slack-jawed punks . . .

 

[Av8tor1]

LOL, yeah right..... and I drool over some of these museum looking setups, mine falls into the "shade tree engineer's bargain basement special" category

Kind of like the mechanic who drives the car that you have to shake, wiggle and jiggle to get started....

ummmm come to think of it, Ive had a lot of those too hehehehehehe

 

[seedjar]

Thanks for the behind-the-scenes look - I'm glad to see someone having success with a setup as janky as my own.
~Joe

 

[Av8tor1]

Simplicity has a certain elegance

 

[seedjar]

Agreed. My holy grail of a PLC setup would be a mechanical/analog stand-alone system with a fuzzy logic controller piggybacking and just adjusting parameters as needed. If the controller dies, everything else still works as normal, it just doesn't respond to unexpected circumstances. Ideally, its primary function would be to sound an alarm and maybe shut things off, if something did go wrong. One of these days...
~Joe

 

[Av8tor1]

Joe,

Ive had everything to build such a system for years now... PLC, sensors, drip irrigation system, low pressure misters, solenoid valves etc etc etc

A true closed loop process contol with feeback

But this system just works so well and it's so "comfortable" .... one day Ill put it all together, ummm maybe LOLOLOL

Butch

---------- Post added at 01:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:50 PM ----------

Check out direct logic.... much cheaper then AB

I got the 105 for my project

http://www.aboutplcs.com/directlogic/dl05/index.html