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  • #21
Very nice set up. Your humidifier is the same kind that I use. I see you have a tube on the exhaust...may I ask why? Does it help in directing the mist better? I'm interested because I have mine on the shelf below my plants and would like to bring the mist above the plants and was thinking of something like what you have. What did you use for the tubing and how did you connect?
 
  • #22
Very impressive, and yeah, watch out for rust
 
  • #23
I love, love, love your D. nitidula ssp. omissa x occidentalis. I'm just getting into dews and I think I need this one. Thanks for the awesome photos! Your setup looks beautiful.
 
  • #24
Great pics and plants. Thanks for sharing.

I had to laugh, your setup is darn near identical to my first one. Same wrack. I enclosed 3 sides with mylar, the front with clear cellophane. Humidifier pumped in through a duct. And you know what? My plants grew better in that setup than any other I've tried! Ruined some light fixtures though haahah (rust).
That's funny, but yeah, the plants seem to be doing really well. I'm impressed so far. I'll definitely have to stay on the lookout for rust. I wonder if there's something I can spray them down with to sort of seal them...?

How do you give dormancy to the fly traps that are in there with the tropical dews?
This is actually the first year the bog has been going (first year I've been in the hobby, in fact), so I'm about ready to start thinking about what to do with them. I was sort of considering the fridge method since I don't have a garage. However, I will have a garage starting on the sixth of next month, so I was also debating whether or not I should just wait until then. Haven't decided yet, but I'm definitely open for input!

And thanks, everyone, for the comments!
 
  • #25
Just got a new shipment of plants and got them all situated. Who doesn't love getting new plants!?

Cephalotus!
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P. moranensis 'Tehuacan'
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D. prolifera; I decided just to get this one into the minibog, assuming it'd do well based on the D. adelae in the minibog.
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  • #26
Ooooooooh, very nice! :D
 
  • #27
Your mini-bog looks great, no doubt about it. But really, yeah if this is your first year growing, you want to get into the hang of giving your flytraps dormancy. Unfortunately for your setup to work well in the long run you will need to remove the Dionea and put them in either their own mini-bog, or in their own pots which you can place in and out of your existing mini-bog.

The flytraps don't necessarily have to go in the fridge. One thing you can do is put them on your window ciel - assuming it's cooler than the rest of the house. Even if it is not significantly colder, the shortened photoperiods will help give them dormancy. I imagine it's very cold there already, but it's also not a bad idea to maybe even put them outside.

Like I said, your mini-bog looks really stunning. But you've made a mistake that will be detrimental to some of your plants in the long run.

You can't really successfully grow tropical plants with temperate plants for the long haul. Your fly traps look terrific right now, but if not given the break they need, they will suffer with a few months. Likewise, I don't think your gorgeous dews would appreciate any kind of cold/dark dormancy.

I've heard a lot of mixed messages as far as the fridge method goes. If I were you, and seeing as you seem to have a natural feel for the hobby already, I would make yourself a Temperate mini-bog, and a tropical minibog. You've already got the Tropical one well established. Now you just need to make a second one that all your flytraps and the Sarracenia you will undoubtable accrue can reside in. :p
 
  • #28
Thank you, guys.

Dexenthes, I was actually planning on doing just that - taking the temperates out and keeping them in pots in the grow rack during growing seasons (possibly even outside; just bought a house and will have plenty of outdoor room to give them a try) and the garage for winter. The bog, I was going to make a dew-bog, nothing but dews. I think I have a pretty good setup for dews in there. It's a 1:1 peat and perlite mix, it's got 81 watts of 5000K CFLs and 54 watts of 6500K CFLs, for a grand total of 135 watts of CFL light over it, and it's automatically watered every day via pump for thirty minutes, the excess water allowed to run into the reservoir and maintaining an inch of water about four inches down from the soil line.

I was initially reluctant to try plants outside since Colorado is, indeed, a mile closer to the sun than their natural environment and is also pretty dry. The wicked thunderstorms we get around here during the summer also scare me since marble- to golfball-sized hail is not necessarily uncommon. Those factors mixed with the fact that I simply didn't have a lot of outdoor room this year, being in a townhouse, and I just decided to stick them in the bog for this year. I had 4 Sarracenia species outside for the summer and they did pretty well, so I'm definitely going to try others, like the Dionaea, outside this coming spring. They did well in the minibog this summer, however, both the Dionaea typical and 'Red Dragon' flowering. I'm also allowing them to flower right now in order to have a nice reserve to experiment with this coming spring, both indoors and out.

However, speaking of the Sarracenia I have, I currently have them sitting in a window sill with the wiindow slightly cracked. It's much too cold these days to leave plants outside - even the native Colorado plants are saying their goodbyes as we're getting into the low 20s overnight now. I think I'll put the Dionaea that are not flowering in the sill with the Sarracenia and as soon as those that are flowering are done, they'll join. Do I not need to cut anything back on any of these plants? Just let them do their thing, go dormant?

Thanks for the advice, it's super, super appreciated by such a newb. ^.^

You do raise a very interesting point, however. If I find the temperates to be able to deal with the harshness of Colorado, I'll definitely be doing something specifically for them. I don't know how "mini" it will be, however. >;D Then again, the dew bog will probably also end up expanding if I find dews do well outdoors here. Time will tell!

EDIT: I just stuck my temperature/humidity sensor in the window sill with the Sarracenia because, well, numbers are never a bad thing. ;p
 
  • #29
Is that humidifier like a humidifier for child care? I had never though of that. It would work. I wonder if a vaporizer would work for highlands. Or iis it a more powerful vaporizer and if it is where did you get it?
 
  • #30
Details on the humidifier here. It works out pretty well for me and was relatively cheap. You'll be using 2 55g tanks, yeah? I imagine one of these on each of those tanks, maybe even one for both if you get creative, would work out pretty well. It is a humidifier like those you'd use for child care, but it's important that it's ultrasonic. The steam ones don't work for obvious reasons, but the ones with a "wick" rely on evaporation which breaks down at higher humidity levels. Ultrasonic humidifiers use a disc that vibrates at an ultrasonic frequency. This breaks the water molecules apart, making a very nice, thick, and most importantly cool mist, regardless of relative humidity. They work very well on highlands, as far as I know. I'm no expert, so definitely look for other advice, but I've only had it a short while and my highlanders are seeming to absolutely love it. I have it on a digital timer that runs for 10 minutes every hour and twelve minutes. Holds humidity levels pretty well.
 
  • #31
Excellent set up and I like that soil station! Good to see another Adelae lover, they grow like weeds for me!
 
  • #32
Got a new camera the other day before leaving town for Thanksgiving, but now I'm back and ready to learn how to use the thing. It's my first DSLR (Canon Digital Rebel T1i), so any advice on photographing plants, in particular, would be perfect, but any advice on DSLR use in general is also very much appreciated. Waaaayyyyy more options than the P&S I had, LOL.
 
  • #33
Having read around here and getting terrified of the Cephalotus/humidity/circulation dilemma that seems to plague a lot of people, I decided to throw a small desk fan in my rack. It blows 24/7 and definitely adds a nice bit of circulation to the inside of the rack. Time for more pictures!

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The rack with the humidifier running and the fan swirling all the fog around.

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An up-to-date shot of the minibog.

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The cluster of Nepenthes loving the fog.

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Nepenthes inermis x bongso. This hasn't pitchered for me since I got it in July and the above pitcher has since died off. However, with the addition of the humidifier in the rack, it looks to be growing a few new ones. Yay!

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Taking pictures, complete with my DIY remote shutter release, XD

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My home-made remote shutter release for the camera. Made with things I had lying around the house. Beats spending $50 on the "official" thing any day!
 
  • #34
Wow, how beautiful! Can adelae take that much light?
 
  • #35
Excellent set up and I like that soil station! Good to see another Adelae lover, they grow like weeds for me!

Yeah! that Adelae is cool!

Do any of you happen to have seed? I'd like to grow some from seed.
 
  • #36
nice thinking on the remote shutter! Nice gig you got going on there.. looks great!
 
  • #37
Wow, how beautiful! Can adelae take that much light?
Haha, apparently so! Those started as one small plant and less than a year later, that's what I've got.

Yeah! that Adelae is cool!

Do any of you happen to have seed? I'd like to grow some from seed.
If mine ever flower, you'll be the first I contact!

nice thinking on the remote shutter! Nice gig you got going on there.. looks great!
Yeah, it makes things a little easier to get clear shots. And it packs up nicely, LOL.

Thanks, everyone!
 
  • #38
They are gorgeous, your aldalae!

Seed is only produced when individuals are cross-pollinated, to my knowledge.

I was hoping to start a bunch from seed and then have enough different specimens to help places like the ICPS with seeds...and trade them too, of course.

Are your plants genetically different?
 
  • #39
Mmmm, no, they're not. I wasn't aware of that requirement for adelae. Maybe I'll have to pick up the next death cuber to have two different ones. ^.^
 
  • #40
Nice pics! I want to have a bog garden just like you when I grow up:).
 
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