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  • #21
Hmm.. that just gave me a thought. If the plant could survive this way, you could find a magical temp/spectrum combination of light bulbs to inhibit red pigmentations development in the plant.
 
  • #22
What lights are you using? kelvin ratings?
 
  • #23
I am using a mixture of a T5 and HPS fixtures. The T5 Fluorescent Grow Lights are 6500K and the HPS is probably about 2000K. It is a nice mixture of warm and cool. I use a light meter to dial in the correct height of all the plants from the light, 600-800 foot candles.
 
  • #24
I'd love to see a pic of the entire set up Michael. I've been trying to picture it in my head and it's just not happening.
 
  • #25
Fantastic plants Michael. You got to show us a pic of the whole growspace man. Absolutely fantastic. :)
 
  • #26
Dang! Great collection you've got there. Love that N. lowii x truncata. Hope mine looks like that some day. I grow all of my Neps indoors as well. What do you use to give your ulta-highlanders a significant temp drop at night??
 
  • #27
Ahh your lowii x truncata is nicccee!
 
  • #28
Michael, is the edwardsiana the AW clone or is it one of the seedgrown plants from "you know who" (will not mention his name for the same of him not being bombed by emails and requests)
incredible plants man :)
i hope the lowii x truncata wide peristome turns out great... ive got one that has some good size to it now...
 
  • #29
Here is a quick overview of my closet setup. This is for the highland plants.

This is the view looking into the closet. What you are looking at is a GrowLab Grow Box turned on it's side. There is a sheet of poly-plastic on the top that seperates the lights from the plants clipped down with binder clips. This is important cause the lights get super hot, so be keeping the lights outside of the setup I can keep the inside cool. You can see there are three fixtures overhead, two t5 fixtures left and right and then a single HPS in the middle to fill out the spectrum. To the right you can see a window air conditioning unit that I have rigged. There is a funnel made of box cardboard wrapped in waterproof white tape that funnels the air output directly into the chamber. This is how I can achieve night temps sometimes as low at 48 depending on how warm I can keep the window a/c unit. The A/C unit is positioned on a plastic crate overtop of a platic tub that collects access water from the A/C. Also note that the A/C intake which is in the front is positioned outside of the chamber. If it was inside this would probably ruin the A/C cause sometimes the A/C would be sucking in 100% humidity air in. On the floor you can see the timers utilized for turning the lights and the A/C on and off as needed. The truly great thing is that this chamber runs itself.

nepenthes-grow-chamber.jpg


Here is another important component. On the inside far right of this grow chamber there is an ultrasonic humidifier with a fan mounted on top. The humid mist comes out and is blown horizontally across the grow space. The picture is bad cause this is in the early morning when the lights are popping on and the humidity is 100% at this point. During the day as the chamber heats up the mist inside will burn off an stabilize at around 70% humidity.

nepenthes-grow-chamber-fan-humidifier.jpg


This setup took me a while to get right but now it seems to be working efficiently. I can grow any highlander in here with ease and requires little work on my part.

Thanks for checking it out.

---------- Post added at 11:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:18 AM ----------

@SirKristoff. Neither of those sources.
 
  • #30
one of the seedgrown plants from "you know who" (will not mention his name for the same of him not being bombed by emails and requests)

We all "know who".. and getting contact info on him isn't as easy as one would think. ;)


OMG Michael.. it all seems so.. simple. I didn't think those basic window units produced that low of temps. What about all of the excess water from the humidifier? Where does that go?
hmm.. now I'm really curious to see the entire view of inside the lab.
 
  • #31
What an efficient set-up! Obviously the plants look great so it must be working well. I'll have to keep that in mind if I ever move to a different climate. Luckily right now I live in the Bay Area, CA so the temp range here is ideal for highlanders/ulta-highlanders. One questions though, is that a special type of Honeywell fan that can handle all of that moisture? I'm surprised it doesn't short it out because of all the water in there.
 
  • #32
We all "know who".. and getting contact info on him isn't as easy as one would think. ;)


OMG Michael.. it all seems so.. simple. I didn't think those basic window units produced that low of temps. What about all of the excess water from the humidifier? Where does that go?
hmm.. now I'm really curious to see the entire view of inside the lab.

Mass, we dont all "Know Who" but many people do, and getting contact info for him is very easy so your probably thinking of someone else.
 
  • #33
Posting a few more plants that looked good this morning.

Nepenthes aristlochiodies from wild seed. This plant is 7 years old from seed in 2004.
n-aristolochiodies.jpg


An interesting Nepenthes glandulifera
n-glandulifera.jpg
 
  • #34
Stunning! Thank you so much for sharing :)


That aristo is very nice, definitely can see some differences between the other ones out there. Nice N. glandilufera, not a common species.
 
  • #35
absolutely beautiful
 
  • #36
Your elegantly simple set up is absolutely inspiring!
 
  • #37
Spectacular plants Mr Smith. Wow!! I love those two...aristo and glandulifera. Man! I missed out on a chance to get that. :(
 
  • #38
Thanks guys. I will post some more plants soon.

@carn You are right there are definitely differences. I have a BE aristo the same exact size and I am seeing a lot of interesting differences in growth, color, speed, etc. and these two plants are growing side by side.
 
  • #39
WOW! Everything seems to absolutely love you and your setup.
Can we see the BE aristo for comparison? Be interesting to see how these two vary after 7 years to however old the BE is.
 
  • #40
Awesome setup! Your plants seem to be loving it. Have you had any problems with plants getting too tall for the chamber?
 
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