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Hydnophytum & Myrmecodia

Hey folks I scored one each of these rarer ant plants and I was wondering who else here might also be growing them?

Hydophytum formicarium
Myrmecodia tuberosa

I have three environments in which I can grow them, cold highland, (on Wistuba's site he shows some family of these ant plants growing epiphytically on top of a mountain). I also have space in my intermediate and true lowland.

I do want to maximize growth so I can divide them and give starts to my uncle who is a lifelong plant freak. He gave me my first Nep cutting about 6 years ago. I spent my child hood growing up and peering into his hundreds of small terrariums (hippies made terrariums out of anything glass) and hiding behind huge specimen plants scattered about his house. He's always talking about rare ant plants but only owning the common one from the plant shops but never gutsy enough to order anything through the mail. I hate to think of the things he's missed over the years.

Anyway, I plan to mount them epiphytically on some dried branches but any tips you can give on cultivation and propagating them would be greatly appreciated!
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The species you mentioned like it quite warm, but don't seem to mind drops into the 40's and 50's once and a while. An intermediate or lowland enivronment would by good. Personally, I wouldn't put them into a nepenthes terrerium. They need to dry out between waterings and get plenty of air movement and a bit less saturated humidity. Grow them like most heat and light loving epipytic orchids (eg. vandas, oncidiums etc) and they will do well.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Anyway, I plan to mount them epiphytically on some dried branches but any tips you can give on cultivation and propagating them would be greatly appreciated!

I've grown my M.tuberosa (3 years) in a 2:1 perlite:peat mix watered with distilled H2O and allowed to dry slightly between waterings , 4" under 80W cool white fluorescent tubes (14h photoperiod), 70-80F, 50-70% humidity.

I've grown my H.fornicarum in pure LFS with the same cultivation conditions except it's 10" under 160W cool white lights. It flowered and fruited a few months ago and all the seed germinated--I'll post pics tomorrow of the seedlings. If yours ever fruits, take the seed out of the orange fruit and immediately place them over moist LFS (uncovered)--they'll germinate in a week or so and grow quickly.

Ant plants are wonderful. You should also consider getting your hands on some Dischidia spp. ant plants. D.pectinoides and albina are two of my favorites.

Good luck with your plants.

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Here's a pic of my H.fornicarum seedlings.  Aren't they cute?!  
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I grow Hydnophytum as a house plant on a sunny windowsill, in low humidity, watered when it dries out, temps about 15-20C, but as low as 4C with no adverse signs. Tried one in a lowland tank once and it rotted very quickly...

also try ant ferns, Lecanopteris, very easy as a house plant!
 
Wow, I never noticed anyone responded to my post sorry for my delay!

I recieved the plants and the leaves on the Myrmercodia were bad looking so I cut them off and potted the plant in orchid bark charcoal and milled LFS. It's coming back with two new leaves.

The hydnophytum is doing fantastic in the lowland chamber under metal halides! the caudex has seemed to double and is now covered in arieal roots/protrusions and lots of leaf/stem growth It came stuffed into a 2" pot but after about 2 months it's almost filled a 6" pot!

I have a bunch of Lecanopteris species coming from Wistuba this summer, I hope they grow as fast as the other. I've owned the Dischidia before but it makes a mess when those little firecracker flowers dehiss and shoot that fluff everywhere. Especialy if your neps are all covered in nectar and the fluff gets glued to them! You wake up and find furry Neps! That's why I got rid of my D. pectinoides.
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[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I've owned the Dischidia before but it makes a mess when those little firecracker flowers dehiss and shoot that fluff everywhere. Especialy if your neps are all covered in nectar and the fluff gets glued to them! You wake up and find furry Neps! That's why I got rid of my D. pectinoides.

I know the feeling. One one occasion, mine decided to release its seed all over my terrarium. It took an hour to manually collect all of the dandylion-like seed!

Sounds like your myrmecodia & hydnophytum are enjoying their new homes. Good luck with them.
 
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At first I had no idea what did it. I was totally perplexed as to how dogwood of dandylion fluff had gotten through the screened windows and into the nearly sealed grow chamber.
 
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