Hey everyone at Terraforums,
First off, I want to say, I love you all, and I love what you all are doing.
I started off as a young kid in the early 2000's getting lost in these forums and reading Peter D'Amato's book "The Savage Garden" and being bewildered by the endless amounts of strange and beautiful plants that were out there. When I was by myself, I would get lost in the pages and reading about the environments they grew in, and bookmarking so many pages in that book. I remember being at my grandparents house, and using their dial-up to shop online at ****** Carnivorous plants. When my mom would let me spend 20 dollars on a nepenthes and a drosera to grow at home, that was a big deal to me. But, they always managed to die. Something was never right about the environment that I put them in, and over the next decade I found myself being obsessed with trying to build the perfect environment for them, and reading as much as I can about native CP habitats.
In high school, I build a very large terrarium (~100 gallons), completely from scratch, glass, wood, and all. I had the glass custom cut, and I formed the silicon seals, and I designed and built the stand. It took a few years to finish it out, but I eventually fitted it with dual spectrum HPS and MH lights, a custom-built ducted humidifier, and more as part of projects in college.
I eventually went on to study mechanical engineering and continued to experiment with ideal CP environments, and LED lights, as they were just starting to become popular as a quality lighting source. I was always fascinated by internet of things and connected devices, and built a few in my dorm room. I still remember the first CP I grew under an LED was a Drosera Adelae, and man how beautiful it was. But all the devices and systems had the same problems - they were either unsightly, required too much maintenance, or simply needed more work on the design.
Over the following years I continued to build more devices that support plant life, and finally started to find ones that just "worked" - no maintenance required and ran for years, and didn't need to be watered often either. You can check out a sampling of some of my devices here (there's even more I haven't posted yet): https://www.behance.net/natehollis
Fast forward to three years ago, and I build something small, something that I could put at my desk - something fool-proof - something that didn't require constant maintenance or watering - something even my mom could use to grow carnivorous plants and not kill them ! It had a pretty sweet lighting system, is Wi-Fi connected and computer controlled, automatically turns on and off based on the time of day, and a really sweet water sensor design I had invented that just worked
- and for many years - because it was optical, not electrolytic. This is something I always wish I had as a kid. The device, which I called my "OrchidBox" looked like this:
And the results speak for themselves (these sundews were grown from seed inside the box):
Fast forward to earlier this year. I quit my high-paying job in engineering to pursue this dream full time, so that I could bring a device like this into the hands of the generation coming after me, so that young people can get interested in carnivorous plants and Orchids - my highest hope for conservation. But not just young people, I think virtually anyone can enjoy a device like this.
This is what "OrchidBox" looks like now.
We're currently live on IndieGogo and the reception hasn't been great, even though we're really passionate about this. I know the device is too small for a good chunk of CP's, but I like that it's small.
What do you all think?
First off, I want to say, I love you all, and I love what you all are doing.
I started off as a young kid in the early 2000's getting lost in these forums and reading Peter D'Amato's book "The Savage Garden" and being bewildered by the endless amounts of strange and beautiful plants that were out there. When I was by myself, I would get lost in the pages and reading about the environments they grew in, and bookmarking so many pages in that book. I remember being at my grandparents house, and using their dial-up to shop online at ****** Carnivorous plants. When my mom would let me spend 20 dollars on a nepenthes and a drosera to grow at home, that was a big deal to me. But, they always managed to die. Something was never right about the environment that I put them in, and over the next decade I found myself being obsessed with trying to build the perfect environment for them, and reading as much as I can about native CP habitats.
In high school, I build a very large terrarium (~100 gallons), completely from scratch, glass, wood, and all. I had the glass custom cut, and I formed the silicon seals, and I designed and built the stand. It took a few years to finish it out, but I eventually fitted it with dual spectrum HPS and MH lights, a custom-built ducted humidifier, and more as part of projects in college.
I eventually went on to study mechanical engineering and continued to experiment with ideal CP environments, and LED lights, as they were just starting to become popular as a quality lighting source. I was always fascinated by internet of things and connected devices, and built a few in my dorm room. I still remember the first CP I grew under an LED was a Drosera Adelae, and man how beautiful it was. But all the devices and systems had the same problems - they were either unsightly, required too much maintenance, or simply needed more work on the design.
Over the following years I continued to build more devices that support plant life, and finally started to find ones that just "worked" - no maintenance required and ran for years, and didn't need to be watered often either. You can check out a sampling of some of my devices here (there's even more I haven't posted yet): https://www.behance.net/natehollis
Fast forward to three years ago, and I build something small, something that I could put at my desk - something fool-proof - something that didn't require constant maintenance or watering - something even my mom could use to grow carnivorous plants and not kill them ! It had a pretty sweet lighting system, is Wi-Fi connected and computer controlled, automatically turns on and off based on the time of day, and a really sweet water sensor design I had invented that just worked
- and for many years - because it was optical, not electrolytic. This is something I always wish I had as a kid. The device, which I called my "OrchidBox" looked like this:
And the results speak for themselves (these sundews were grown from seed inside the box):
Fast forward to earlier this year. I quit my high-paying job in engineering to pursue this dream full time, so that I could bring a device like this into the hands of the generation coming after me, so that young people can get interested in carnivorous plants and Orchids - my highest hope for conservation. But not just young people, I think virtually anyone can enjoy a device like this.
This is what "OrchidBox" looks like now.
We're currently live on IndieGogo and the reception hasn't been great, even though we're really passionate about this. I know the device is too small for a good chunk of CP's, but I like that it's small.
What do you all think?
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