I am new to the list, and thought I'd introduce myself. I have always been
fascinated by carnivorous plants, although I never thought much about
growing them. The other day, I was poking around rec.gardens and noticed
the carnivorous plants mailing list. I was very pleased that such a mailing
list existed, and subscribing to the mailing list has renewed my interest
in carnivorous plants.
Since then, I have been actively reading up on carnivorous plants and indoor
gardening, and I have a few questions that have popped up that I have not
been able to find an answer for.
The first questions that I have are about setting up growing conditions for
carnivorous plants. Since the climate that I live in is very dry, and I don't
have room for a greenhouse, I suspect that I will need to set up a terrarium.
I don't really have anywhere to put a terrarium where it will get optimum
light, so I am planning on supplying artificial light.
Since I am planning on growing several species that like a lot of sun, it
seems that flourescent light will not be able to provide enough for the
plants. As a result, I am planning on buying some HID lights. I am currently
leaning towards buying a 175 Watt full-spectrum metal halide light.
Is 175 Watts enough power for a very small setup? I realize that it is not
much more money to buy a slightly higher power setup, but I am concerned
about electricity usage (more for environmental reasons than actual cost),
and I don't want to buy a more powerful setup than I need.
Would I be better off buying a high pressure sodium setup? It seems that
sodium lighting is more efficient, although metal halide has a more natural
spectrum. As a result, I was leaning towards the metal halide setup (I also
don't like the orange glow of the sodium lights).
As far as plants go, I was hoping to set up terrariums with Dionaea, Drosera,
Pinguicula, Sarracenia, and Cephalotus. Does anyone have suggestions as to
species that would be easy to grow for a beginner using terrariums? Are any
of these species easy to start from seed, or should I try to stick with
ordering mature plants?
Is it possible to grow the above species together in an terrarium? I realize
that I probably should not group temperate and tropical species together,
since the temperate species will need to be wintered at temperatures cold
enough to kill the tropicals. Are there other concerns that I should be
worried about?
I would be interested in trying Nepenthes, but it seems that you need to have
a greenhouse for these. Are there any Nepenthes that are small enough to be
grown in a large terrarium?
The final question that I have is with regards to ordering the plants. I got
copies of the sellerlist/suppliers from the list server, so I now have plenty
of sources. However, I am not interested in ordering any plants/seeds that
were collected from the wild, and I was wondering if there is a way to tell
where the source of a plant was. Are there suppliers I should avoid? Will
suppliers be honest about their sources if I ask them?
I apologize for the long posting and the many questions that I asked.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Ron
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Ron Miller, Phone: (415)694-4273 Synopsys, Inc. FAX: (415)965-8637 700
East Middlefield Road Internet: rmiller@synopsys.com Mountain View, CA
94043