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trashcan

O:-)
Hello,

I'm moving into dorms in about three months. Unfortunately, this means I won't have room for my 4' lowland terrarium. Most of my plants will be taken care of by a close friend, but I'd like to hang on to one or two so I'm not completely Nepenthes-less. I'm looking for advice on how to move them from the terrarium.

The plants I'm considering moving are:
N. truncata (6" leaves)
N. rafflesiana (3" leaves)
N. campanulata (3" leaves)
N. gracilis (only one 2" leaf at the moment, but growing quickly)

I have not had much luck growing Nepenthes outside of terrariums, even ones that many consider easy, like N. x wrigleyana. I believe this is because of the low humidity and lack of direct sunlight in my windows. Hopefully the dorms I'm moving into will get more direct sunilght, but humidity will most likely be even lower since it will be air-conditioned.

I'm also curious as to what the proper procedure is for hardening plants off, because I didn't have much luck at that stage either. I know that I need to gradually adjust the plants, but can anyone share how they did it (like how long they left plants out before returning them, how much longer they left them out each day, etc)?

Advice I have already (from forum member NepsAroundTheHouse):
Consider using sphagnum moss
Tray method for watering to help with humidity

Absolutely _any_ advice would be deeply appreciated before I undertake this.. Your advice could save the life of my plants!
smile.gif


Thanks,
Pat
 
try getting a small tank, 10 gallon ones with lights and a hood (2 compact flourescents) is all together like 35 bucks or so.
 
I have several. I'd like to move the plants out of the terrarium.
 
I have a fairly good sized N. x Mixta in a very dry house right now. I grow it in LFS and I have it in a pot that is raised inside an undrained container. I water it so that the excess water drains from the pot into the container and it pools at the bottom. When the water completely evaporates from the bottom container, I water it again. I used to mist it everyday so that it would adjust to being outside a terrarium. I then misted it less frequently and now I barely do.
 
You should primarily worry about lighting. Nepenthes, for cps, have relatively low humidity requirements, especially planted in lfs that's kept moist.

Hardening off will depend somewhat on the conditions they are in now versus what you can provide at the dorm. Whatever the main discrepency is, that's what you want to try to harden against, which is usually temperature. I'd just make sure I had proper lighting and hope for the best.

Capslock
 
Pat,
I agree with capslock. Lighting is the most important issue. You can substitute humidity with a ceramic (non-glazed) saucer for watering. This will increase humidity while not subjecting your Nep to "bog like" conditions. Plastic saucers retain water much longer. Lighting is the most important. Hopefully you have a southeast, southwest, or west facing window for diffused lighting. If not, substitute with an overhead growlight. I would be prepared for some pitcher drop off and leaf shock. When I moved my lowlanders from their closet habitat to houseplants, some of them went into deep humidity shock. However, truncata and rafflesiana were not one of them. So don't be surprised if some of your plant's leaves curl up and brown up at first. It may take a few months for them to adjust or they may do just fine. I'd experiment with the cheaper guys first.
Good luck,
Joel
 
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