Frozen bottles!...wow!

[TomV]

Hello all,

After growing cp's for approx. one year, I just stumbled upon this forum. I read almost every post in each topic area over the last few days...so I'm all caught up!...you people give wonderful advice. What struck me as a wonderful idea, however, is the use of frozen water bottles to drop evening temps for highland nepenthes! I always thought suitable conditions for these plants were out of reach for me. I am now thinking of trying this in a 10 gallon tank/plate glass cover with a few highlands. I'm sure the whole changing the water bottle thing will get to be a pain, but right now it seems to be a fair tradeoff. However, I have two questions:

1) Should the terrarium be completely sealed at night to prevent the loss of cool air?
2) In case one decides to go on vacation, generally how long can most highlands last without a drastic night time drop in temperature?...without feeling any ill effects, of course.

Replies would be greatly appreciated, and again...wonderful forum.

Tom

 

[lithopsman]

The terrarium does not have to be completely sealed, but I reccomend at least partially sealing it to save humidity... Just my $0.02 WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!

 

[PlantAKiss]

Hi Tom

Welcome to the forums! Glad you found your way here and hope you stick around. Always nice to have new folks to join in the discussions.

I can't help you out with highland nep advice...I just wanted to say welcome! However I'm sure Nep G and some of our other nep specialists will be along to give you some tips.

I don't have any highland neps either but sometime in the future I'd like to.

Good luck and happy growing!

Suzanne

 

[Pyro]

Well to be fair the only highland Nep I am growing using a modified technique is a baby hamata (I mainly use my set up for my epiphytic Utrics and Helies) so I will not claim to know everything about it. I do not use a sealed set up, generally finding that the cool air gets where it needs to be with a little bit of tinkering. As far as vacations and such go, I have left my plants uncooled for 2 weeks with no real problems, but do bear in mind your own local conditions and don't just do it because I said I can

 

[lithopsman]

I will give you a little bit more information on highlanders now:

Natural elevation: 3000+feet

Temeratures: day 70*-80*F Night: mid 50*s to low sixties*F

Prefer a lot of light, usually as much as possible without burning.

Feeding: small, suitibly sized insects every few weeks, but fruit flies manage to constantly enter my tank with no help, so I don't supplement. The only food I ever give is every time a new pitcher opens, a few drops of milk, preferably whole milk.

Humidity: I keep them at 65-80%RH during the day, and 85-100% Relative Humidity at night.

What kind of Neps do you grow/are you getting? If you haven't ordered yet, order a Nepenthes ventricosa from here, they are easy, and produce showy, beautiful pitchers!

GOOD LUCK, enjoy CPs!

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. If you need to know anything else, just ask!

 

[Spectabilis73]

Welcome to the forums!
I've tried the frozen watter-bottle meathod on my rajah, didn't work for me. In fact, my rajah grows BETTER in lowland conditions then in highland conditions!!!

But I wouldn't reccomend anyone to grow rajah in lowland conditions...

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Spect 73, the reason your N. rajah "seems" to be growing beter in lowland conditions is because it is being exhausted. Want any highlander to grow fast? Then pop it in 80F with 75F at night, it will grow and exhaust itself. Highlanders are a strict range of growing conditions and generally the slower growing plants are healthier because they can develope a leaf better and stronger, rather than a gracilis which grows everywhere with paper thin leafes. I hope you can see my viewpoint.

TomV, Welcome!

A sealed enclosure is great to ensure high humidity. If you plan to use ice bottles then that is fine, but in 1 or 2 years you may need a bigger enclosure. My rajah is now sitting in my greenhouse after 2 years of growing and is 7-8 inches across. This si just an example to show how fast and progressive some "slower" Nepenthes can be. Good luck!

 

[D muscipula]

I plan on setting the 2-liter-bottle terrarium my new hamata lives in on top of the AC vent. Does anybody know if highlanders do ok with it constantly cold, rather than with a much warmer day?

 

[mindmaze128]

Just so you know, I did the frozen water bottle routine and for 3 months it worked great... after that it became a PIA to do.

I recommend that you start thinking of a more permanent solution to your cooling problem right now. You'll save yourself lots of trouble in the longrun.

Jœl

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

D. muscipula, unless you own an N. lamii or N. villosa the plants are going to want 50's in the nights with temps AT LEAST in the 70's in the day. Constantly cool temps could result in slower growth, disease possibility, etc.

 

[TomV]

Thank you all for the helpful information. I'm sure I'll have to select more serious cooling methods as time goes on...but I'll give the frozen bottle thing a shot for now. Thanks again for the helpful replies.

Tom