New N. singalana

[w03]

After seeing everyone else's singalana, I had to get my own. So I did!

That being said, I wanted to ask everyone how much humidity this guy needs. It's currently sitting on my windowsill (next to an open window) at night for cooling.

 

[Wolfn]

Peter D'Amato says this species has been found to grow surprisingly well on windowsills. But I think a terrarium or something may be better because it's more of a highland plant.

 

[swords]

Mine grew really well in 75-80*F days and 50*F nights with 80% RH and six 4 FT fluorescent tubes.

 

[w03]

Thanks wolfn, swords. It's just that I'm a little worried since this is my first highlander. By the way, I do plan on growing it in a cooling chamber (can you say glorified icebox?) during summer, seeing as it gets to be around 90-100+ F around here , and above 70 at night. (Yeah, I know, my raff will go nuts.) Even in the house it still stays at a steady mid 80s during the day and 70+ at night.

However, for now, I can put it off somewhat and just grow it as a windowsill plant for the winter. The night temps are hovering at around 59-60 on the windowsill and about 49-50 outside.

BTW: Is singalana really as slow as everyone says it is? I hope not! (Seeing as I accidentally plucked of a tiny piece of root.)

EDIT: Whoops, I read my thermometer wrong. It was actually 49F! I didn't know it could get that cold in San Diego (on a windowsill). The window was only about 6 in open! I closed the window after I read that it could get to 39F tonight! (Don't wanna freeze my plants, especially the raff on the same grow rack.

 

[swords]

If you can close the window during the day and get the temps 70-80 and have it get to 49*F at night you should be fine temps wise. Summer will not be a plesant time for your plant, though Singalana is one of the more forgiving species when my HL chamber got 85-90*F in July and August the more finicky HL plants like Aristo would not pitcher for that leaf or two but as soon as the temps went down in Sept they resumed normal growth and pitchering. IIRC Singalana was a pretty easy grower and didn't seem to get too large diameter wise as it became a climbing vine, which is nice for a terrarium plant.

If you can keep them well hydrated with cool water (not cold) in summer with daily waterings (in the hottest part of the day) if you're using something fast draining like LFS and Orchid bark/mulch as potting media and that should help a lot. If a few months in summer is all you'll have to fight the heat then you should be fine but do what you can to drop the temps (turn on the AC and put the plant in a bag so it doesn't shrivel up). I don't know what your humidity is, can you pitcher other Neps on your windowsill? I can't do it W/O a grow chamber (for light and humidity) but sure wish I could!

 

[w03]

Well, as I said, I'm planning to use a grow chamber to cool it down at night... Maybe I could leave the cooler on but simply move the plant a little farther away to keep it cool during the day as well. Anyways, about humidity, I do have a humidifier, so it won't really be a problem.

 

[swords]

Yes, if you can have the cool temps during the day at least in the hottest part of summer that would be good. On my new build I'm going to try running the AC day and night during summer, previously I had only ran it at night in the summer.

What method are you going to use to cool your setup? I just have a high velocity 4" PC fan that will blow air into a duct which is humidified and then goes out into the terrariums.