What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Growing intermediate/highland plants HOT

  • Thread starter Vidyut
  • Start date
  • #21
The photos are bad. these guys are way super. Fresh microgreen color with some pales and some wannabe reds.
 
  • #22
Though bad news for my sole kinnabaluensis seedling grown so far. I.... lost it. The pot toppled on its side - I still don't know how. No one had gone to the balcony. There is netting so birds can't get in. Hasn't been windy... anyway, when I straightened the pot, I can't find the seedling. I searched through the sphagnum that had come loose, it isn't there, I searched the pots below the shelf if it had fallen through... can't see it. Will continue the search, but unless I find it soon, I fear I've lost it.

Unless..... a few years later I find a kannabaluensis popping out in the middle of Drosera x Andromeda...
 
  • #23
i wish you luck with your highlanders! I grow in intermediate conditions (85F day 65F night) and grow hybrids and highlanders pretty well.

i tried the highland mix seeds as well and mine look about same as yours. was warned after that they are probably a very low value species sold as a mix to get higher price and interest. we shall find out eventually!

Have you posted photos anywhere? I'd like to see and observe.
 
  • #24
This nepenthes sibuyanensis seedling sent a tendril that managed to lift a single strand of sphagnum it tried to hide under to make its pitcher. lol.

D_RO8mmU4AkZ0Vl


Another seedling was not as shy. The pitcher was in the depression next to it. I lifted it out to click photo.

D_RPBHFU4AcdxNX


The blackened pitcher had come with the plant. It was sort of squashed and hung around for a while before dying.

I'm planning to click photos and update daily or every few days to keep myself encouraged.
 
  • #25
This nepenthes sibuyanensis seedling sent a tendril that managed to lift a single strand of sphagnum it tried to hide under to make its pitcher. lol.

D_RO8mmU4AkZ0Vl


Another seedling was not as shy. The pitcher was in the depression next to it. I lifted it out to click photo.

D_RPBHFU4AcdxNX


The blackened pitcher had come with the plant. It was sort of squashed and hung around for a while before dying.

I'm planning to click photos and update daily or every few days to keep myself encouraged.

Your photos appear to us as broken links - no images.
 
  • #26
Dang. Let me figure out uploading. I was tweeting the photos and using links to the images to embed here. Clearly I see them because I'm logged in or something :/

For now, the photos are attached to this tweet https://twitter.com/Vidyut/status/1149630701693571074
 
Last edited:
  • #27
Pleasant surprise with the TC edwardsiana I'd got. Arrived in brilliant condition though without roots (usual for TC plants). Been raining steadily and cloudy when not. Can't do much about the temperatures, but figured breeze is better than covered and humidity hasn't dropped below 90%. I mist it on and off by hand. Misting system is off. It is sitting in live sphagnum in open air and doing good so far. Not yet seemed to form roots, but it is early, of course. May have to put it in a bag if it still isn't rooted by the time monsoon ends or if rains stop for several days...

It gets bright cloudy light often and has got direct sunlight a time or two too before I realized and "saved" it. Not for any long time though. There was one time when I thought "now i've killed it" but if I killed it, it didn't notice. Looked the same. I suspect this is what they call "TC vigor" though the nights are finally no longer in the 80s at least...

Two weeks in, so far, so good.

n-edwardsiana-tc.jpg
 
  • #28
Please anyone trying to grow highlanders in lowland conditions, don't take this thread as your sole guide. You'll KILL TC plants for certain planting them out unless your weather is like mine currently is. This is like living INSIDE an evaporative cooler - not even like gettting its breeze. Humidity is mostly 95-97 - not a lot different from a bag with holes. Just a bigger bag. Like the whole area...

Also the hot weather mentioned earlier - with a misting system that flash cools briefly every 5 minutes in summer and 15 in non-monsoon rest of the year. Not exactly like growing them in sweltering Bombay weather. Before the misting system, it was NORMAL to lose half my plants in the summer. This may not be a cold terrarium, but it isn't exactly completely unaltered hot climate either.

Keep a hawk eye on the humidity, use very very well draining media so that you can use watering to cool roots if needed.

Using evaporative cooling as your main trick for plants that want it cooler works - I suspect - because the method also dumps humidity into the air. But with it come other challenges. If air is stagnant, fungus will grow (also evaporative cooling won't work well). If your media is heavy, it will keep the roots permanently soggy and you'll have root rot. And after all this, the temperature drop will be a few degrees at best. This thing takes a lot of attention and tweaks based on minute observation. Not plug and play.

This experiment is going ok so far, but it is standing on the shoulders of a lot of dead plants in the past.
 
Last edited:
  • #29
I am not posting a lot of photos yet, because the plants are small - there aren't any showy pics as such. They are doing well, putting out new leaves, acclimatizing to conditions they weren't made for... I suspect it will be a while before the showy pics happen.

Also, I'm not planning to call any plant a "success" till I've grown it well for a year at least, through all the seasons. Another reason to not put out too many "brag pics" or "baby pics" more like. Plants growing here in the monsoon is no "achievement". We have torrential monsoons, brilliant humidity, coolish weather. In fact, the humidity of monsoon is so high, that when it ends, it is almost like acclimatizing soft plants to normal conditions. Pitchering will get grudging, leaves will wilt... Then in winter humidity will drop, night temps will drop too and evaporative cooling will be more effective. Real challenge is 9 months away - the summer. By then, I hope to have these somewhat acclimatized and growing strong enough to let the momentum take them through to better weather in monsoon.
 
  • #30
I am not posting a lot of photos yet, because the plants are small - there aren't any showy pics as such. They are doing well, putting out new leaves, acclimatizing to conditions they weren't made for... I suspect it will be a while before the showy pics happen.

Also, I'm not planning to call any plant a "success" till I've grown it well for a year at least, through all the seasons. Another reason to not put out too many "brag pics" or "baby pics" more like. Plants growing here in the monsoon is no "achievement". We have torrential monsoons, brilliant humidity, coolish weather. In fact, the humidity of monsoon is so high, that when it ends, it is almost like acclimatizing soft plants to normal conditions. Pitchering will get grudging, leaves will wilt... Then in winter humidity will drop, night temps will drop too and evaporative cooling will be more effective. Real challenge is 9 months away - the summer. By then, I hope to have these somewhat acclimatized and growing strong enough to let the momentum take them through to better weather in monsoon.
I am very interested how all of this turned out. It should be long enough now for there to have been some major growth so please give an update if you have a chance!
 
Back
Top