Wardian case terrarium

[Cjam]

Hi all

I was gifted a wardian case for Christmas and figured I'd try and turn it into a nep and drosera terrarium. When I used to live I the UK it was easy to grow a number of plants in plastic propagators on our windowsills with the central heating.

However, I now live in NZ. Lots of cps aren't available due to biosecurity, and many that are are rare and very expensive. Add on to this very bright sunlight (hole in the ozone layer etc) and poorly insulated houses with small windowsills, options are a lot more limited.

Despite this, I figured I'd try a lowland nep (ampullaria), and drosera adelae, away from a window and using an LED light setup.

Given the cost of the plants I'm looking for advice and or reassurance the set up should work.

Theres a pumice base for some drainage, and then the substrate is mostly LFS with pumice and a little washed orchid bark thrown in. It will be topped off with green sphagnum and milk moss next week and hopefully the light should arrive next week also.

The plan is to put the ampullaria on the left side, whilst on the right side I've put a food grade plastic tray under the moss to act as a water reservoir, as I believe the drosera adelae likes to sit in a little water.

My main concern is that I should probably fill the tray with pumice or perlite. As it is there's moss in there, so I'm imagining that the moss might just wick the water out and saturate the tank anyway? With a layer of pumice in there this might reduce the effect? Anyone with experience of a similar set up?

 

[hcarlton]

While adelae will do fine in such a case, pretty much every Nepenthes you could easily get ahold of will rapidly outgrow that space. I'd recommend sticking with smaller, somewhat shade-tolerant species with similar soil preferences.
A drainage layer will be wise if keeping things that don't live in true swamp environments, but avoiding putting enough water in to actually have a lot sitting in the bottom will also be needed to avoid things turning stagnant and sopping anyway.

 

[Cjam]

Thanks. My understanding was n. Ampullaria or n.bellii would stay small for quite some time? And once they were too big, tha5d be cutting time?

 

[bluemax]

Eventually, any Nepenthes species will get too big for your enclosure but some species/forms can take quite awhile to get that big if added while small. You could take cuttings and keep a small plant or two in there while they grow. I've seen one or two wardian cases that were really lovely so I think it is a worthwhile project. D. adelae seems like a good choice, partly because it does well in lower light than most sundews.

 

[Cjam]

Yeah, these will be very small plants, from tissue culture. I would expect to get a year or two at least before they outgrow, and if they do get too big it just means I'll be able to get cuttings!

 

[hcarlton]

N. bellii makes relatively small pitchers, but it's not a small plant; you won't get even properly mature lower pitchers until it's pushing over a foot in diameter and might have a vine a foot plus long (that's before it starts making internodes long enough to be really worth even thinking of cutting). ampullaria is one of the largest species, even a small mature plant can be over 3 feet in diameter and vines grow fast (and you want a vine going if you want its characteristic basal rosettes to show up, and stay rosettes rather than become the new vine). And healthy plants, if they're not minute seedling size to start, tend to grow a lot faster than most people realize; a good leaf jump might give a plant an immediate gain of 3-5 inches in diameter especially for anything lowland.