Re:Winter

From: John Brownlee (jonnie@chronic.lpl.arizona.edu)
Date: Sat Sep 13 1997 - 11:39:58 PDT


Date: Sat, 13 Sep 1997 11:39:58 -0700 (MST)
From: John Brownlee <jonnie@chronic.lpl.arizona.edu>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg3521$foo@default>
Subject: Re:Winter


        Hi! Out here in Arizona, I cannot grow my Neps outside at all, the
summer will fry them as readily as the winter because of the usually low
(~10%, sometimes lower!) humidity in my growing area outdoors. I've been
growing several species (N. gracilis, mirabilis, and madagascarensis
amongst others) under 4 40-watt tubes in a 60 gallon aquarium for about a
year now continuously, and they grow like gangbusters. I use only
cool-white tubes too, and I have a stackable "floor" that raises some of
the plants closer to the lights when they're smaller. I have a timer that
mists the aquarium floor-level once a day for about 3 minutes to keep the
plants moist and the soil wet.
        If I had any recommendation at all, I would say that you should
invest in a temperature/humidity sensor for 17 bucks at Radio shack or the
consumer electronics shop of your choice. You want high high humidity,
akin to whatever your summer growing conditions are like as Nepenthes do
not like changes in environment. I highly recomment using
filtered/distilled water for indoor growing as there's less of a chance of
"bugs" being in it, possibly infecting the tank. I used to grow with rain
water, but I would always get gnarly ooze growing in my tank. Keep the
light levels at your plants leaves as high as you can without frying them
(keep the temperature under 90F). Other than that, if you keep them fed
and watered the plants will do the rest.

                                                        John

John Brownlee
Lunar and Planetary Lab
University of Arizona
jonnie @ lpl . arizona . edu



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:31:10 PST