A highland growing area
Apr 15, 2008 11:58:05 GMT -10
Post by sockhom on Apr 15, 2008 11:58:05 GMT -10
Hello 
.
Growing highland Nepenthes is usually considered to be very challenging. Even in northern latitudes.
One of the best solutions when it comes to indoor growing chambers is to set a cooling-system.
Some of my friends built terrariums in which they have included a cooling-system extracted from a fridge for example.
It is also possible, when you live under a temperate climate, to use a cold room such as a basement or a garage.
Such a place enables the grower to create a range between daily and night temperatures which is very often required when growing highland Nepenthes .
I will show you my highland growing area.
I have the chance to own a large garage in my house and i have decided (make sure you have the wife agreement ;D) to use half of it to stock many terrariums, home of highland tropical pitcher plants, Heliamphora and south tropical Drosera.
Here is a part of the area:
I live in northern France. In winter, we sometimes experience temperatures as low as 7°C minus and in summer, when there are scortched heats, temperatures (seldom) reaches 32-33°C.
This is two of my highland terrariums:
Each terrarium is lit with very bright lights provided by fluocompact tubes (9600 lumens, 110 watts). There are some centimeters of water at the bottom with a tank heater. It warms the water in winter mostly, in order to avoid the temperatures to drop too much and to keep a decent level of humidity.
Thanks to the "natural" cool atmosphere of the room, i manage to have the average temperatures:
- October to april:
Night: 10°C
Day: 22°C
- May to september:
Night: 18°C
Day: 28°C.
The extremes being 35°C and 6°C.
As you can see the temperatures are not always optimal. It is sometimes too cold or too hot. Fortunately, most of the plants have adjusted to those conditions. The very few tricky ones either slow down when the conditons don't suit them or they stop pitchering.
For example, my N. ventricosa doesn't grow that well in the winter period where it's a bit too cold whereas my N. macrophylla is, at that time, producing nice leaves and pitchers. The situation reverses during the summer period.
Of course, it would be great to have ideal temperatures all year round but this garage setup allows me to grow a very wide range of species as the following pictures show.
Besides, i have learnt to adapt myself to my setup too: as a consequence, i never buy a highland plant in summer. I prefer to receive it in fall.
I will soon set an intermediate terrarium where the tank heater will be active even in winter providing thus better conditons for intermediates plants like N. tenuis, eymae, vogellii or sanguinea.
I'll keep you posted.
François Mey.
.Growing highland Nepenthes is usually considered to be very challenging. Even in northern latitudes.
One of the best solutions when it comes to indoor growing chambers is to set a cooling-system.
Some of my friends built terrariums in which they have included a cooling-system extracted from a fridge for example.
It is also possible, when you live under a temperate climate, to use a cold room such as a basement or a garage.
Such a place enables the grower to create a range between daily and night temperatures which is very often required when growing highland Nepenthes .
I will show you my highland growing area.
I have the chance to own a large garage in my house and i have decided (make sure you have the wife agreement ;D) to use half of it to stock many terrariums, home of highland tropical pitcher plants, Heliamphora and south tropical Drosera.
Here is a part of the area:
I live in northern France. In winter, we sometimes experience temperatures as low as 7°C minus and in summer, when there are scortched heats, temperatures (seldom) reaches 32-33°C.
This is two of my highland terrariums:
Each terrarium is lit with very bright lights provided by fluocompact tubes (9600 lumens, 110 watts). There are some centimeters of water at the bottom with a tank heater. It warms the water in winter mostly, in order to avoid the temperatures to drop too much and to keep a decent level of humidity.
Thanks to the "natural" cool atmosphere of the room, i manage to have the average temperatures:
- October to april:
Night: 10°C
Day: 22°C
- May to september:
Night: 18°C
Day: 28°C.
The extremes being 35°C and 6°C.
As you can see the temperatures are not always optimal. It is sometimes too cold or too hot. Fortunately, most of the plants have adjusted to those conditions. The very few tricky ones either slow down when the conditons don't suit them or they stop pitchering.
For example, my N. ventricosa doesn't grow that well in the winter period where it's a bit too cold whereas my N. macrophylla is, at that time, producing nice leaves and pitchers. The situation reverses during the summer period.
Of course, it would be great to have ideal temperatures all year round but this garage setup allows me to grow a very wide range of species as the following pictures show.
Besides, i have learnt to adapt myself to my setup too: as a consequence, i never buy a highland plant in summer. I prefer to receive it in fall.
I will soon set an intermediate terrarium where the tank heater will be active even in winter providing thus better conditons for intermediates plants like N. tenuis, eymae, vogellii or sanguinea.
I'll keep you posted.
François Mey.
.
