newcomer-just came home with plants

[ccrider1016]

hello, i just came home with 4 plants from franks nursery and crafts, butterwort, venus fly trap, purple pitcher plant, and a sundew. i put them in a 10 gal. tank, with a flor. tube light fixture above it, no top, and saran wrap covering the top with the light fixture sitting on top, i used about 1-2 cups of water(tap) in the peat moss, i took out the plants and thier stuff they are in, whole, carefully, and put them in the hand made holes i made, i know now the water was a bad idea, shoulda bought some...

 its been about 4 hrs they have been in this setup, i also made an order from petfly trap for crickets, the hormone mixture, and the 2 dif things for fungus and rot.
i need to know whats in store for me and what else i need to do, im totally new to these plants, please help? the bulb is a stock light tube, all info. will be greatly apreciated, thank you

 

[ccrider1016]

also, the containers had a lot of humidity in them, the tank does not, temp is....78-80 F. and the fly traps barely have any color in the leave type mouths, and i have no holes punctured, just a corner opened up some, i feel the humidity in the tank, but, i dont see it like in the little transport containers, the pitcher plant, 2 pitchers, the larger had a piece of a leave from some other plant in it, i removed it, am i supposed to drop a few drops of water in them? or do they soak it up and transfer it there them selves? oh, i tried really hard not to disturb the pithers when i did this, but i did turn it upside down, did i make problems for them doing all this?

 

[Helena]

Wow, you must be an all or nothing type, never had them then came home with 4...

welcome to the wonderful world of carnivorous plants!

The best thing is probably to keep doing what you are doing (looking on the web for advice) there's loads of posts on this site for the specific plant types if you look through.

Purple pitchers do get filled with water (about 1/2 way), but wait till you've got some pure water, not tap, keep reading the posts, you'll get the hang of it as long as you don't shock the plants with any extreme changes they'll do OK till you get some more background reading done (I'm no expert and I have done OK for *most* of the ones I bought)

but really, you should know they are addictive, it's bad and probably too late for you now, you have more than one, I've never heard of anyone recover after that!

H

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

Hi and welcome to the Forums.  I think you'll enjoy it here

 

.

The only one of your plants that I think will need humidity is the Sundew.  The pitcher plant and the VFT do fine in humidity as low as 40% or so.

For the VFTs to develop color they will need lots of direct light but that's hard to do in a covered terrarium.  The heat gets trapped and cooks your plants.  You can use fluorescent lights to replace direct sunlight.

 

[ccrider1016]

thanks for the warm welcome to the forum helena and bigcarnivourkid

im gonna get (try) distilled bottled water tomorrow, should i take the saran wrap off the top of the tank? i have noticed a rise in temperature since my posting. i live in chicago, should i turn on the lights in the morning and shut down at around seven at night? i see talk about other bulbs, i think the one in my fixture is a 18" its a stock bulb, im gonna look for a better one maybe by this weekend, the tank is by a window that faces my gangway and another house, and i have 2 bags of the mixture coming from this site too. is there an easy way to stablize temp? and should i wait on filling the pitchers for a while, or do it when i get the water?
Thanks again

ccrider

 

[carniverous newbie]

If the window your tank is in gets a lot of direct sunlight this could be your problem. The direct heat from the sun transfers through the glass of your tank and acts sort of like a magnifying glass...and may very well cook your plants. Best thing to do with the tank is put it somewhere that it may not be so close to a window. If you have good florescent lights in your tank, you shouldn't have to fret too much about keeping the tank close to direct sunlight.
(I'm new at this too, just trying to pass on info. I've read and hopefully learned...how am I doing guys? *grin*)

By the way, welcome to the forums ccrider1016! You'll find that as your addiction to these plants grows, so will your addiction to this site. Everyone is so helpful and there is so much information!

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

carniverous newbie - Posted on Sep. 05 2002,7:43
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">(I'm new at this too, just trying to pass on info. I've read and hopefully learned...how am I doing guys? *grin*)[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

You're too modest.  

 

 Your doing good!  I just pass on a lot of what I've picked up on the forums too, though I don't know terrariums too well 'cause I grow all my CPs on my porch rail during the summer.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Hi CCRider

Welcome to the forums! And congrats on your new plants. You got a nice variety there. And yes, hate to tell you but...you just might find yourself addicted.

It happens to the best of us. But there are lots worse things to be addicted to.

Pardon me if I repeat something someone else said. My head was spinning reading all the info.

You have done very well to read over the forum threads...seems like you've already picked up on some of the basics.

The only one of your plants that likes fairly high humidity is your sundew. Do you know what kind of sundew it is? Most like good strong light but some, like d. adelae, prefers a little lower light. So knowing what kind it is is helpful for its care.

As for artificial lighting, I use a mix of 1 Gro-Lux and 1 Cool White tube (can get both at a hardware store). Some people use SunSticks. Everyone has their own preferences on bulbs. As long as you don't use incandescent light, you should be ok. They produce too much heat.

If you wish to grow your butterwort, flytrap and sarracenia in the tank, that is fine. But you don't HAVE to have them in a tank. One issue you need to bear in mind is dormancy. Depending on what types of plants you have, some will need dormancy and some might not. The VFT for sure will need its rest period and the sarra also. I grow my VFTs and sarracenia and some sundews outside. My tropical CPs are in tanks indoors. My indoor tanks are covered with glass but partially open for air circulation. Don't keep your tank completely sealed as you may invite mold and fungus.

And you will need distilled or rain water. But I think you already caught on to that.

You're definitely in the right place for help. Stick around and you'll learn lots and will certainly add to your new collection of plants.

Suzanne

 

[ccrider1016]

ok, i pulled the saran wrap half way off, back to the light fixtures edge, so half of the tanks top is open now, should i just pull it the rest of the way off? the only part its covering now is the part the strip lights on! lol. and i hope the tap water i put in wont cause any damage, with the move from the store , then planted into the tank, also, the sundew, should i just leave the plastic cover that came with the plant over it, to help with its humidity? the plants came with no scientific names except the VFT. Spathulata is the sundew species too. my VFT has about 5 stems with heads, a couple are small, new it looks like before i got it, will these plants survive dormancy so close to changes? is the sundew a tropical, that can handle warm weather all year? also, i have AC running too. but not always. my window is facing south that it sits in front of, and im on the second floor, the sun rises from the back of the house and sets in the front of the house. i have a digital cam. how do i put pics here for you to see? thanks

 

[ccrider1016]

by the way, thanks for the warm welcome everyone, and yes, i am already addicted, hahahaha! ive already been at the tank 30 times today, looking, and you can see how many times ive already come back here, shoot, PFT.com is already in my favorites!

i thinks me an me pet plants, are gonna have a nice, warm, cozy home here

thanks again everyone, i really do appreciate this( oh, and i want to get to the experimenting part like some others too, i cant wait! but i will

thanks again!

 

[carniverous newbie]

Hey, when I started (which wasn't all that long ago) I only had a small 2 gallon plastic gerbil tank that we had here to humanely catch the mouse that had been running around our kitchen. Since then I must have spent more than $150 dollars on my new addiction! I upgraded from that to a 5 gallon tank with florescent tubing for lights, I've bought and lost 3 venus fly traps

and I'm getting more in the mail today I hope *crossing fingers*. I'm getting whole bunch of sundew seeds a couple full sundew plants, and now I have a 23 gallon tank with all the trimmings! This has all transpired over only a few weeks time. Now THAT's an addiction!

BTW...thanks bigcarnivourkid, I appreciate the comliment!

 

[ccrider1016]

ok, check this out. i made a cabinet/ canopy with the lights built into the top, got the dual light strip, a G.E. broad spectrum plant and aquarium tube, and a sunshine tube. i put aluminum foil in the crack between the wood, and the fixture, the foil arcs down towards the tank, i got rid of the saran wrap altogether, and put a glass aquarium cover on top, without the plastic cover strip in the back. i have distilled water now

too. theres a 5 inch opening at the bottom of the back of the cabinet, and the front is open for viewing. the bulbs cover both spectrums, the sunshine covers the blue spec, and the G.E. one covers the red spec, balanced light i think, very bright! i mean bright! lol but no heat

the bulbs are 24". i used wood for the cabinet because the wood can help in retaining the humidity

i live in chicago, IL. and my house is old and super dry. i cant wait to see what these changes bring me, does anyone have any comments on these changes? oh, a couple of things popped up too, dont know what yet, just thin stick like stalks, and a new VFT head is forming

,also are these plants young? they came from franks nursery CCrider