Save me from an error

[steveo]

Thanks for your advice here, as always.

Time allows even poor planners a chance to get it right, and I've been delaying buying plants in order to catch the bigger errors.

I've just now brilliantly realized that the temperature in my planned "subtropical" terrarium will drop 20-30 degress at night, when the lights blink out. Will subtropical sundews like a drop from 80 F to 50 F, then back up to 80 F again the next day, ad infinitum?

The only plant that might like this that I know of is cephalotus, but I don't know about sundews and that is what I am hoping to grow.

If not, what could I grow in such a terrarium? I'm a little leery of heating the tank. I can ditch the lights altogether and put it in the sunlight with completely different plants, with or without a lid, at this point. I just want whatever I grow there to live.

--Steve

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

I grow many species of Droserae and have had no losses with similar conditions. As long as they are not always cold, I believe they will do fine. Watch your plants, they will tell you if they are unhappy. Many tropical varieties experience cold nights: it depends on the the elevation where they are endemic. You can't make general assumptions like all tropicals want very warm conditions, or temperates want to be always cold. There are seasonal variations to consider as well. Which species are you going to try to grow? I can help you with particular requirements for many Droserae species.

 

[steveo]

Tamlin, you are a lifesaver. Cherry, I think--or maybe that tropical punch one.

I have four 24" 20W bulbs (two cool white, one warm, one gro) sitting on top of the 20 gallon "long" tank, which has an adjustable plexiglas top. With the top almost closed, and lights on, the temp is 80 F and the humidity goes tropical. Off, and the temp drops to room temp, which at night is around 50-60 F.

I've gotten a lot of enthusiastic suggestions here about what I could put in the terrarium. Looking at what is actually available from this list, I think that I will end up with one each of capensis, spathulata, aliciae, and adelae. I might also get a dielsiana, intermedia (Cuba), madagascariensis and brevifolia.

PFT/EG only sells two of them (the spath and the adelae), and I will get those here if they are suitable. Another dealer, to whom I feel I owe something due to some reading material they have provided me for free, offers a subtropical grab bag of sorts that might get me any of the others I listed, and quite possibly more spaths and adelae.

Sorry about all the variables.

--Steve

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

These are all good choices for your conditions. They are all easy growers, with the exception of brevifolia which can experience a summer dormancy. since I have always failed to bring it back with success from this dormancy for me it is a short lived annual.