Recent content by grumpypants

In my experience, cheap (think $20-$50) chinese lights have a few problems: the manufacturers typically recommend running them for no more than 4-6 hours a time so they need to be turned off for an hour or so at a time if you want longer photoperiods (which you almost certainly do) while they...

So many great ideas indeed! Madrone, thanks for describing your setup. The use of "catchment" containers is interesting. By the way, what water pump do you have? I'm unsure of where to get started with drip irrigation, but I ran into this relatively cheap drip irrigation system on amazon (see...

humanbian, I'm also looking for something small as most of my plants are indoors. The system you linked looks pretty cool though I wonder if sphagnum would benefit from misting more than from a drip system. nepenthesl0ve, please tell me more! What drip system do you use and on what schedule...

On a related note to the automatic watering thread, does anyone use any automatic misters? I'm especially interested in using automatic misters to keep live sphagnum healthy. I love live sphagnum as it prevents algae growth, provides an early warning in case of TDS issues, and looks cool. I...

Is storing anything on google drive (or similar) a viable alternative? Apparently you can even publish static websites on google drive (without a domain name). Google sites may also be free for personal use.

That kind of maintenance isn't bad at all! I'm curious about the airstone. Wouldn't the plant roots get all the oxygen they need from the air that is forced into the soil as the water drains out? Does running the airstone 24/7 have any advantages ove running it for 30-60 min before flooding the...

Wow awesome replies! adnedarn, are you referring to the watering globes that are made out of glass that you stick into the soil? Having to refill it every 5 to 9 days is already an improvement over regular watering. Do you find that it keeps the media at an appropriate moistness level (not too...

I keep about 4 nepenthes indoors but am thinking about getting a bunch more (I love neps). Watering them takes a bit more effort than I'd like especially when compared to how I water the rest of my plants using the tray method. There are two reasons I'm interested in automatic watering systems...

Assuming you have the Mars hydro 300w, 9 inches is unnecessarily close, especially for sundews and pings. I would keep the light at a height of 18-24 inches above the canopy of your plants. But keep in mind that the light intensity varies according to where you place a plant under the light...

I have humidity/temperature sensors in each of my growing spaces that are logging measurements several times each hour. I'm growing most plants indoors and a few outdoors, so the humidity measurements haven't been incredibly useful as there's not much I can do to change them. Temperature...

Keeping VFTs indoors is tricky. It's simpler and a lot more affordable to keep them outside as you don't have to worry about dormancy or providing sufficient light. I keep my VFTs indoors because I don't have a choice as I don't have a yard. If you are set on indoor growing, you want to make...

Thanks for the advice! Is it important to put the seeds under lights or are they better being in dark/low light? I realize the seedlings will need a decent amount of light once the seeds germinate, but I wonder if it makes a difference for the seeds themselves? On a related note, how do you...

Hey Everyone! I'm new and happy to be here. I've been growing CPs for about a year, mostly indoors under LEDs. I've recently started getting more seeds and have had terrible luck (read: I lack skill) at getting them to germinate properly. Here's my current set up: Nepenthes seeds: sown on top...