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Cooling highlanders

I have a few highlanders which were supposedly tolerant of lowland conditions (think the easiest highlanders), however they are on a steady decline since I put them in my terrarium. Besides investing in heavy cooling machinery, is there an alternative way to cool them? Ice? Someone on this forum mentioned that it is possible to grow N. rajah (not saying that I have it) with ice once, Nepenthesgracilis, if I am not wrong.

Also, I read recently that Highland Nepenthes will stand the heat if their roots are kept cool. This led me to a question: are there particular parts of the plant (ie. roots) which lead the Nepenthes to thinking it is in a highland habitat? Or at least some parts are more important to be kept cool than others? Because providing a root cooling system (something like Darlingtonia?) would be much easier than terraforming a fridge (tried that).

Thank you for your suggestions.

-Jason-
 
Jason, yes it was I whom chilled with ice for a few years. Time consuming but effective if one uses a fan to blow the air on the ice, hence cooling a small enclosure. I'm not so sure if the roots are kept cool, versus the entire plant. I'd sway more towards a cooler air temp than soil temp. I've not experimented with this idea, but perhaps someone like Hamish,Trent,Tony or Neps could enlighten you here.
 
I can only speculate on this question, but I doubt that keeping the roots cool would make a huge difference if the plant itself was too warm. The example of darlingtonia is very specific, it grows in very particular ecosystems where there is always cool water running through the substrate. Nepenthes roots wouldn't be subject to such extreme conditions, their roots would be at whatever the ambient temperature of the soil in which they're growing is at, which would not be as affected by air temperature. So I agree with Dustin, I think air temperature is quite important as well as not letting the roots get too warm. But as I said, this is just speculation based on casual observations, and not on any controlled experimentation. Unfortunately (or fortunately), most of my rare species are seed grown, so I don't have tissue cultured spares to play with.
 
Alright, Thank you all for your views. Maybe its time to get a mini fridge, then...

Anybody who has experienced other than this is still very welcome to post!
 
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