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Acclimation

I am attempting to acclimate my vfts to the outdoors since they simingly do NOT like it in my terrarium, my drosea on the other hand love it. So, the question is this, most of my plants are of course from lowes and HD, how long does it take to acclimate these guys to the outdoors? I am in N. VA and it gets hot here. I was thinking about putting them in the shaded part of the porch for a bit. I also wonder if they will decline and then rebound with bigger better growth? For whatever reason, these guys are giving me a time and a half with getting them to grow right. I don't know if maybe if they are weaker plants or what. any help would be appreciated...
 
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (mcrwt644 @ Aug. 20 2003,5:44)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">.... how long does it take to acclimate these guys to the outdoors?[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
It can take anywhere from 1 to 3 (rarely) weeks.  The temps aren't the problem so much as the drop in humidity and getting them adjusted to an increase in the amount of direct light they get.  The longer you take to get them acclimated, the less likely you are to put them in shock or damage the leaves with dryer air and bright sun.  While you can acclimate them to lower humidity and more sun at the same time, it sometimes makes it difficult to determine which one was overdone if the plant's leaves start dieing.  I usually start with acclimating plants to a lower humidity first then work on gradually introducing them to more sunlight later.  I like to use an old ziplock bag (a clean one) to put the plant in.  Place in bright indirect light.  I cut a small bit of two corners off.  If the plant is doing ok after a day or two I cut a little more of the corners off.  If it's looking like its getting wilty I'll hold off cutting the corners for another day or two.  If it looks really bad, Ill tape one of the corners closed again and wait for it to start looking better.  Eventually you can remove it from the bag and start giving it increased amounts of direct sun.

Other methods I have used successfully (more or less):
1)  Planting it outside in a planter as it finished dormancy.  The plant became adjusted from the get-go.
2)  The 'Tahe11wit it' method.  I waited a day or two after removing a VFT from the terrarium, got impatient and said, "Tahe11wit it", and stuck it outside in partial shade.  Not recommended for one of a kind plants.  Mine lost most of the old leaves, growth slowed down, and it was the next year before it had traps bigger than ¾".
 
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