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Terrariums

I went with a terrarium. I stuck the pots in an aquarium and then poured aquarium gravel around the pots. Never use colored rocks. Only use gravel meant for fish and clean that very well. I have only had my plants for a little over a month but, the new growth since then is great. Traps are springing up like wild fire. I hope they continue like this. I'm putting pics on to show you. Ignore the four across the bottom. They came from Equilibo. I've had them for a few days. They call those half dead plants 4-5 year old giants. What they are is three 1 year old plants jammed into three pots with one Dente(2nd from left-bottom).

vtf01131.jpg


vtf01132.jpg

Sorry about the crappy pics. Cam is a thousand years old.
 
JB_OrchidGuy, I also try to keep a half inch of water in the bottom. I made a stick with marks on it to jam down the side of the glass. Also so, with no lid and in a AC environment it takes 32oz of water every 3 or 4 days to keep up the levels. Two times I let the water dry out for a day to give air to the root. This is my first attempt at VTF's. Any criticism is welcome.
 
Thanks Lord Humungus. I did something similar to this, but I had my plants in single pots and pushed them down into the gravel from a fishtank. Cleaned of course. It had good humidity and a light. Both plants died. I duno what I did wrong I kept distilled water in the bottom, but never flushed it. I duno if minute impurities built up over time from not draining it or what? Do they need to let the roots get exposed to air sometimes of do they mind always having water at the roots?  

Josh
 
When I worked for a tropical fish wholesaler, I bought a VFT and put it up in one of our plant tanks, creating a high humidity terrarium. It was seemingly doing well and even flowered. it then promptly died. I didn't know why at the time, but there were several things going against it. The water, though dechlorinated, was still from the tap. I also had no air circulation. By air circulation, I meant the above ground portion of the plants, not the roots, NEEDS to be exposed to the air. I learned that humidity is an overrated factor. Another problem was lighting. We had overhead fluorescent lights, but they were a few feet away. When you put all the factors together, the energy-draining flowering process was like the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back". VFT's only appear to be good terrarium plants, especially in the short run. They REALLY do best when kept outdoors, either in a mini-bog, or open tray. What open tray provides is a flushing out of salts that are lethal to these plants as well as provide air circulation, so they won't mold, as well as allowing maximum light for the energy that they need. They get adequate humidity by sitting in a container of distilled water. They need all the natural sunlight that they can get. Then there's dormancy.....
 
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