The Story:
The background story goes like this. About October of last year my aquarium heater in my growth chamber broke and being the cheapo that I am I decided against buying a new one. My bical 'red flush' has always been a strong plant even when, "he" I guess, was a little 5 inch plant. Now being a big 20 inch monster who's taking over the chamber, I thought I'd see how he'll do without a heater. It didn't go so well with my raff clone 99 and my two amp, all three dried to a crisp (seriously, the leaves were alive but crispy no matter how much I watered) and stopped pitchering. Then I look at the bical and he's freakin' growing like crazy! He won't stop, the pitchers actually increased in size. The chamber before was at 80F and 80%+ humidity. Now it's at 58-60F and 50-60% humidity. How is this plant doing this with an acclimation time on only 2-3 weeks and for more than 4 months? And why are my easy neps getting wasted? I would've guessed the opposite.
Now:
Unfortunately, I bought a new heater so I can save the struggling 3 that almost died. My bical is back to his normal conditions of being spoiled but tonight I'm going to block off his area and open the chamber door on his end. I'm not letting him go back to the way he was, I liked my tough bical in 50% humidity.
The Future:
Maybe one day he'll be in my living room near a window and just maybe, he'll be strong enough one day for San Jose weather, just him and shade cloth for most of the year.
Anyway just though I'd share, seems cool enough.
Here's a picture from this month
The background story goes like this. About October of last year my aquarium heater in my growth chamber broke and being the cheapo that I am I decided against buying a new one. My bical 'red flush' has always been a strong plant even when, "he" I guess, was a little 5 inch plant. Now being a big 20 inch monster who's taking over the chamber, I thought I'd see how he'll do without a heater. It didn't go so well with my raff clone 99 and my two amp, all three dried to a crisp (seriously, the leaves were alive but crispy no matter how much I watered) and stopped pitchering. Then I look at the bical and he's freakin' growing like crazy! He won't stop, the pitchers actually increased in size. The chamber before was at 80F and 80%+ humidity. Now it's at 58-60F and 50-60% humidity. How is this plant doing this with an acclimation time on only 2-3 weeks and for more than 4 months? And why are my easy neps getting wasted? I would've guessed the opposite.
Now:
Unfortunately, I bought a new heater so I can save the struggling 3 that almost died. My bical is back to his normal conditions of being spoiled but tonight I'm going to block off his area and open the chamber door on his end. I'm not letting him go back to the way he was, I liked my tough bical in 50% humidity.
The Future:
Maybe one day he'll be in my living room near a window and just maybe, he'll be strong enough one day for San Jose weather, just him and shade cloth for most of the year.
Anyway just though I'd share, seems cool enough.
Here's a picture from this month