Mini Windowsill for Heli

[kath]

Hi. I just thought I'd post what I'm eventually going to use as a Heliamphora Nutans set up in case anyones interested. It's nothing special, but it's an interesting sort of idea. However I'm not sure what you'd call it?

Pretty much the idea is I have a really bright windowsill which I was told by a Heli grower would be suitable for Heli, but it's not humid enough. So I'm sticking a 'mini windowsill greenhouse' on the windowsil, for humidity. However I was worried about a) headroom for the heli, as it isn't too tall and b) heating up too much, so I've come up with the idea of propping it up on a pair of bricks, so there will be a gap for air flow.

Here's a photo of the actual product I'm using:

I've already purchsed it. It cost me 10.00$NZ plus 6.00$NZ postage. It is 26cm high, 15cm wide, and 23cm long. This should be nearly large enough for a H. Nutans, which only grow to approx 20cm, remembering it has to have a pot of soil too!

This is an image I created myself on Paint to demostrate what I plant to do. The windowsill it'll be situated on is behind a fridge, which acts as a reflector, throwing the light back towards the window. The windowsil is also white in real life, so there is a lot of reflecting going on!

 

[HPLH]

cute garden!

 

[sgardner]

It looks like a good idea to me, but you will want to get a thermometer and keep a close eye on the temps. The windowsill greenhouses heat up very easily and if not watched closely could bake the Heli.

 

[Fryster]

That's a pretty good and simple idea. They usually work the best

I, myself would do a simple bottle-terrarium set-up for a window sill. That is kind of how my Ceph is set up.

See: Barry's simple bottle terrarium

 

[kath]

Yeah, cool idea, but over here in NZ we don't have nice bottle's like you! It's hard to find really nice, clear bottle's of the right size, with no funny imprints in them, that aren't tinted! But if I'll keep it in mind if I ever find a bottle like that!

 

[JMurphy97]

I think it will get too hot. I grow mine in a highland setup in the basement.

 

[D_muscipula]

cool air sinks so having some vents at the bottom would what, vent the cool air?
I suggest just growing it on a window and acclimating it to lower humidity. I heard of a grower who grew a heteradoxa x minor on a windowsill and the only thing providing humidity was a small fountain in the water tray.
I bet they can be tougher than we would imagine.

 

[Neps_N_Things]

Aren't the back of refridgerators warm?

 

[kath]

The refrigerator back is sheilded by a curtain with white backing, I just found out that today. The light is also diffused a little by a net curtain. I'm plaaning on making the gap at the bottom larger, or slightly tilting the greenhouse for air circulation, and it may come with some vents at the top, I'm not sure. The whole idea of the cool air sinking is why it would work. The hot air would go to the top, to where the heli isn't, and the cool air would sink down past the plant, hopefully cooling it down. If this isn't enough, I might be able to get my grandad to drill a few holes in th etop too. I'll test it on the windowsill with sun and a thermometer but without the plant and see.

 

[kath]

However the heli grower I'm getting it off thinks it'll work, and since H. Nutans is one of the most heat resistant heli's, it might be ok.

 

[JMurphy97]

Is it growing with higher temps now? Where does the person grow theirs?

 

[kath]

I'm not sure, it hasn't been imported yet! I'm just getting ready for it. I've come up with another idea though, having read an article on how greenhouse's work.

It says, that greenhouse's heat up because the light goes through them and warms up th ground inside them. The wamred up ground then heats up the air, and the warmed up air has nowhere to go, since it's trapped by plastic/glass, and so the greenhouse warms up.

My idea is to put a reflective surface underneath the open bottom of the greenhouse (it's only going on a windowsill, remember) such as mylar, so any light not absorbed by the plant, it's pot, or it's soil will be reflected back out. I'm planning on using a white, china pot, (I've heard it won't heat up very much) and having live sphagnum as a top soil, not sure about the sphagnum, but pretty sure the pot won't heat up, so long as i'm right about the not very easy to heat up properties of china. Do you think thi'll help at all?

I'm still doing the gap at the bottom thingy too. I worked it out with my science book last night. The way I figure it, heat rises, correct me if I'm wrong, and cool air sinks? But when the heat rises, any cool air will instantly rush to fill up the gap left by the air that's risen up to somewhere else. (That's how wind's supposed to work in real life) So this means, if the air in the greenhouse gets warmer than the air around it outside of it (I want it to stay only a degree or two higher than the outside air, and most) the warm air inside will rise, and any cooler air outside should enter the greenhouse to take it's place. Also, once the warm air reached the top of the greenhouse, and it's no longer close to the source that was warming it (the pot or soil) it should cool down, and descend, to restart the process, or it could get pushed out by the air that's entering the greenhouse?

Not sure if it'll actually work like that, but I think it might?