Pouty Lowlanders In The Winter Greenhouse.

[lizasaur]

So, here in Florida, we're suddenly getting real seasons
Which means it's terribly cool right now. Too cool for happy Lowlanders.
So I rigged up a mini greenhouse thing for them, with a fluorescent light, and 24-heat via incandescent bulbs (one day, one night).
Most of them have stopped pitchering.
The Khasiana are booming and the Raff is still working on its pitchers like nothing ever happened...everything else though...I miss my pitchers
I had it when my Mirabilis's newest leaf is about half the size of it's previous one.

The temps and the humidity are perfect.
Which leads me to think that lighting must be the downfall.
1- They're freaking cause they've never had so much direct light in their lives before or
2- Irregular schedule is killing them (hopefully not literally).

The schedule is a problem because I don't have a timer. And frankly, would need more than one. So, pretty much, lights go on when I wake up (which can be anywhere from 8:30 am to 3pm), lights go off either an hour after sunset if I woke up early, or about midnight if I woke up late. I never thought the inconsistency would be such a huge problem as long as they're getting like, about twelve hours of light a sitting, but I'm starting to think maybe it is?

 

[lizasaur]

I have a third theory that perhaps the temperature drop between changing the incandescent bulbs might be a problem...
thoughts?

 

[seedjar]

I suppose it could be. Can you time them so that they overlap? Seems easy enough to test out.
~Joe

 

[lizasaur]

The only thing I could do is leave the fluorescent on during 'cool down'. It alone doesn't keep it up in the 90s but it provides *some* heat, so the drop is less severe.

---------- Post added at 02:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:47 PM ----------

Also:

That is on the newest/second newest leaf of my mirabilis. Something similar just happened on my Sang.

 

[seedjar]

Why can't you leave the daytime heat bulb on until the nighttime one warms up? I'm not sure I understand your setup.
~Joe

 

[lizasaur]

Oh! One fluorescent fixture, one "clamp lamp"- I don't have room for two.

 

[Dexenthes]

My suggestion:

I don't know how large your setup is, but depending, you would need an adequate form of heat during the night and to possibly supplement during the day, just a tad, right?

All your lights can be on a timer, there's no reason they can't. Get a three prong timer, and an plug a power strip into the timer. There's no reason all of your lights shouldn't fit on one timer.

Your alternate heat source, depending on how large your enclosure is, can be a few different things.

In my case, I use a heat pad on the underside of my terrarium. Of course, that is a terrarium and I've envisioning that your setup is much larger. If that is the case, and the idea of laying a heating pad, maybe two on the bottom of your set up seems like it would be ineffective, then perhaps heat coils that plug into regular lamps are the answer. You could have one or two heat coils plugged into the same adapter, and those you can plug/unplug whenever it's night time in the box. but really I think just one heat coil or large heating pad could help significantly. I just have trouble buying that Florida is THAT cold right now.

 

[lizasaur]

It's a 2.5' cube, so large heat panels actually would work.

I dunno that I need any more heat- the day bulbs brings it to the 90s during the day, and at night, it's high 80s. Although if I could lose the night bulb, that'd be great- heat panels sound like a good idea, and chances are, they wouldn't use as much electricity, either.

You're right though, Florida's not freezing, there's no frost on my car, yet, but it's definitely cooler and drier and way below optimal for my LLers.

It's entirely plausible, since they're not pouting, they're just not pitchering- they're still spitting out leaves like mad...that they're just adjusting to the increase of light levels.

I'll mull it order. Money will be the biggest factor.

 

[Dexenthes]

Great, that box sounds plenty small enough. Timers cost less than ten dollars at any retail store. A heating pad will be the most expensive part at around 20 dollars. but if it's 80 at night then that should be more than fine. Maybe even a little too hot? I find that seventies is good for the night temps.

If your temps are adequate then it must just be your light cycle.