Cooling the roots.

Jeffrey Michael Stein (steinjef@student.msu.edu)
Wed, 12 Jul 1995 15:59:48 -0400 (EDT)

I've recently been placed curator of the carnivorous plants collect at
the MSU Botany Teaching Greenhouses. The collection consists of a
modest number of plants, the majority of which are Nepenthes. A room is
in the process of being totally dedicated to the growing and propagation
of CP. A humidifying system has been installed recently. It consists
of a large enclosed fan, and a water pump. The water for this system is
stored in a 100 gallon tank, which is covered. After noticing that this
water is always alot cooling than the surrounding environment, I had an
idea. The pump used for the humidifier was definitely not being used to
it's full potential. Therefore, I devised a way (using styrofoam
containers and hoses) to have a circulating water system which runs cool
water by the plants' roots. The system was finally debugged today and
is running smoothly. Some live Sphagnum is being used as a test to see
if this will work. I plan on placing Darlingtonia and other plants that
enjoy cool moving water at the root level into this system.

Does anyone know of specific plants that are known to enjoy such an
environment? And to avoid a possible unnecessary net clutter of short messages,
any possible suggestions can be sent to me and I'll compile a listing for
posting.

Thank you.
Jeff Stein
steinjef@student.msu.edu