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  • #21
It looks like you have taken on huge project. Your dedication to both doing it right and asking questions about is commendable. The bale shown, is the same kind I use and it is twiggy. Haven't found any fossilized remains, but Barry recently made a comment about falling through some sphagnum bogs in his adventures in the North, so be VERY, VERY, CAREFUL! One thing I do with the bale is to separate the twigs and debris when I have just some free time.

The children may even have fun doing this, but I will caution the side of a conservative and say, these children should not be the overative ones, like me, but be able to sit for a period of time on the floor with news paper and put the debris in one pile, and the moss in the bucket/container. Saves time later. There was a comment made about it turning green and growing.

It does, but it is SSSSLLLLLOOOOOWWWW! VERY VERY VERY SLOW! In my opinion, but good things are usually worth the wait. My only comment on receiving gifts from the forum members, I BELIEVE WE ARE A GREAT WONDERFUL GROUP OF ENTHUSIASTIC HOBBYIST/PROFESSIONALS [AKA: PHILLIP, BARRY, ETC] THAT DERIVE ENJOYMENT FROM OUR OWN COLLECTIONS AND FIND GREATER ENJOY IN THE SHARING THERE OF. I HAVE SEEN THE SMILE, FOLLOWED BY THE SCREAM OF EXCITEMENT WHEN A CHILD DISCOVERS NEW WONDERS OF NATURE, AND LOOK FORWARD TO TALKING ABOUT CARNIVOROUS PLANTS IN THE SPRING EVERY YEAR AT SCHOOL. THIS YEAR I PUT A COLLECTION OF PLANTS IN THE CLASSROOM SO THE KIDS CAN WATCH THEM GROW.

If people don't want to share they won't. People to want to help, they won't.

I believe here, WE ALL WANT TO HELP AND SHARE WHAT WE CAN. Let us without regret or reservations.

[stepping down off soap. tripping over orange crate, crashing into tomatoes, ahh man, . . . . . ]

rick
 
  • #22
Hi Tamlin, the plants the school currently has all came from 3 members.  Incredible isn't it!  The school also has seed from other members which is going to be awesome!  There is another member sending plants from a recent trade and then a young person contacted me to send a "No Kill" Nepenthes to the kids. The school is on it's way!  

Tamlin, I do have one comment... Most schools plan their budget for the following year round about now.  Approval for projects such as this are often times like extracting teeth with pliers.  Funds are hard to come by unless a parent, or somebody else, volunteers to foot the bill. I had to contribute all of the school's supplies for this project to get them to authorize it. If you are able to get the District by you to want to try some CPs, you let me know and count me in to contribute materials to help them keep their CPs alive.

I totally agree with you, we gotta get them while they're young!
 
  • #23
Hi Laura

Yes that is the correct moss.  Its usually not labeled "long fibered"...typically it says Sphagnum Moss.  Just don't confuse peat moss with LFS.  Peat moss is the ground up, somewhat powdery version usually sold in tight brick-like bales or smaller, looser bags.  I buy the large bales.  Wisconsin LFS is fine but tends to be rather "trashy" with sticks, roots and weeds.  Don't be surprised if you start getting ferns growing.  I get baby ferns (looks like Boston ferns) growing in most of my tanks.  If I'm putting LFS in small pots, I usually take a pair of scissors and chop it up (i just stab the scissors into a container of it and chop away...or hold a hunk in my hand and snip the ends).  Doesn't take long to get it chopped enough not to have long, unruly threads.  For smaller plants or seeds I'll mill small amounts in the blender.  Lowes has started selling Chilean LFS and I like it...its blonde and usually very clean.

Yes, I use those same containers too BUT...you can find lots of free ones if you pay attention. To-go salad bar containers are good...deli food containers from grocery stores...fruit containers like strawberry or blueberry containers (I like these for vented containers). I also make larger, custom pots out of nice food containers like Chinese soup containers or macaroni salad containers. Any time you are around food that travels...look at the container and think if you can make it into a germination tray or plant pot (might have to melt some drainage holes in the bottom). But at least these types of containers are FREE.
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You can be creative...your working materials don't have to come from a garden center.

You have jumped in with both feet Laura and are doing very well at it.  
smile.gif
 
  • #24
Well, I just got back home and opened the bag.  I just paid $18 for what appears to be 50% twigs. I am spreading it out on the kitchen table and picking out what I deem to be the obvious.  Sorry Rick, no time for the Jr High kids to descend upon the bale and besides which... I don't feel too hot and wasn't in the mood to drive back to the school to watch them get silly and start stuffing it down each other's shirts and such.  They are just young people and they do get silly every once in a while which is perfectly normal and healthy I might add.  I need to get it in on Friday and I took off this afternoon to get it taken care of. Good news, no human remains so far.

Hi Dino, looks like I got the right moss despite myself!  Yes, I have a drill!  My very own and I know how to use it!  Vroom vroom!  

Hi Plant A Kiss, I learned a long time ago that most mistakes aren't fun enough to want to make a second time.  I already had my little disaster outside with the squirrels.  I am somewhat familiar with peats. The thing that threw me for a loop was the term long fiber. I kept looking for bags claiming the contents were long fiber.  I hate to say it but I would be thrilled to learn there had been fern spores in the moss.  I like ferns and any that came up would most probably be indigenous to my area.  I will make a mental note to let the teacher know to be on the look out for ferns as I am claiming those.  The moss is from Wisconsin so now I'm hoping I get a baby Marginal wood fern or Northern maidenhair fern!

I don't have a Lowes around me BUT... perhaps I can call and see where the closest one is for the blonde LSM. Right now I've got enough for the class.  I'll forward this information about containers to the teacher.  I'll give her what I have and let her go for the rest.  She's got some seed now and more coming and then there is the order for seed that I placed from Lowries so she is going to need a lot more containers.  Let her ask the kids to start contributing containers from home. She's probably got a month before the order from me comes.  Plenty of time for them to amass!  

Say what do you all think about very small gooseneck lighting fixtures with gro lite bulbs in them?
 
  • #25
[b said:
Quote[/b] (LauraZ5 @ Nov. 10 2004,4:35)]Say what do you all think about very small gooseneck lighting fixtures with gro lite bulbs in them?
If you don't have room to hang a 4' fluorescent shoplight then I would go with the compact fluorescent bulbs that screw into regular incandescent fixtures. Choice of fixture is yours.. just get a nice high wattage compact fluorescent bulb .. or 2 or 3.. hehe

Don't bother with the growlight fluorescent tubes OR the growlight incandescent bulbs. The former are not worth the money, the later will roast whatever you put under them with the heat they make.

Tony
 
  • #26
I actually purchased 3 of those 4' shop lights but I want a lighting fixture for a Nepenthes that the kids are going to be getting that will not be in the same area as their other plants.  That's why I was sort of thinking of a stand alone gooseneck lighting fixture.  Ihave one of those in storage somewhere so I wouldn't have needed to buy one. I also bought a few of those single clamp on lighting fixtures with grow bulbs. Oops.  I can probably easily get compact fluorescent bulbs to go in those fixtures.  Do me a favor, tell me exactly what to buy... I am starting to feel like a CP accessory warehouse. Thanks much, Laura

I won't be able to use those 4 footers as the ceilings in the classrooms are very high. Shoulda Coulda wished I had taken a good look at the ceilings before I bought them.  I had actually been thinking of placing them under a shelf unit but can't quite figure out how to get them hung.
 
  • #27
Couple small eye bolts on top of the shoplight and some light chain would do for hanging them from a shelf unit.

As for compact fluorescent, you can use the regular soft white kind from the hardware store. If you can find a daylight type that would be better. The important thing is get the biggest you can find..40+watts if possible.

If you want really nice bulbs then you would have to go for something 65watt 6500k bulbs

Something like this would work. Not quite what I mentioned above with only 55w and 5000k/daylight. But still a nice bulb
55w 5000k
 
  • #28
I have seen those before!  Thanks, I know exactly what to buy now.
 
  • #29
Is this LSM cleaned well enough?
0ea98d37.jpg

I would like to hydrate this tonight and get it ready for some seed that should be coming soon.  I hand cleaned it all and lost about 50% of the bag. I was not able to break it apart with my hands but scissors worked quite well.

By the way, I found the "to go" salad containers at Wendy's to be better than any small food storage containers I bought at WalMart. The free Wendy's salad trays have clear tops and are about an inch deep which should be more than adequate.
 
  • #30
Hi Laura,look at the plant shelf in the pictures.I made this with 1" pvc pipe and fittings.It might give you a idea with the lights you bought.My shelf


Jerry
 
  • #31
Laura, your seed IS from Allen Lowrie of Australia. The BACPS gets seed from him, and gets it with the necessary phytosanitary certificates, and the proper CITES permits for ESA listed plants. Anything Allen has sent mentioning Georgia as its origin is totally wrong. Insert the word Alabama into every Georgia goof Allen made. Boaz is in Alabama. Marshall County as a matter of fact. I have seen that stand. Very nice! DeKalb County is in Alabama, too, and the oreo's come from the Sand Mountain Plateau. Some incredibly beautiful oreo's come from these sites. As Pyro mentioned, there is a DeKalb County, Georgia, but Atlanta ate it! I have a mess of seed from him now, and they are on to boil, having spent their 6 week striation time in the fridge. Should be 3 to 6 weeks for germinatrion. A 6 day soak in gibberillic acid will net 85 to 100% strikes, and some folks freeze the seed for exactly 48 hours then put it down. 75% strikes on that method, but I won't use it. Don't trust it. And yet, I will freeze D. linearis seed for 5 months, but won't freeze sarr seed for only 2 days. Go figure.
 
  • #32
Well Jerry, I finally made it over to take a peek at your plant shelf after I looked at every photo of CPs in your webshots album!  Nice S.oreophila x leucophlla!  Your plant shelf is very nice also. I got mine out of a dumpster! I'm quite pleased with mine actually and the price was right. Another factor is that I am most probably not as handy as you and would be about as qualified to put something together like what you did as a 2 year old playing with Tinker Toys. I suspect a plant shelf constructed by me would not be identifiable as a plant shelf.

Does my LFS look ok?
 
  • #33
Thanks for the complements on my shelf and my Sarr.That is one of the first plants I bought and it has been a good grower.The shelf is pretty easy to make,just cut the pipe to length and push them into the fittings.It is not glued together.Just like tinker toys.
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Oh the sphagnum moss looks fine to me.

                                            Jerry
 
  • #35
He he he... Missed the comment back here.  I like it all!
 
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