warm weather temperate cp's

From: JWi5770869@aol.com
Date: Sat Jan 16 1999 - 04:41:51 PST


Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1999 07:41:51 EST
From: JWi5770869@aol.com
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg116$foo@default>
Subject: warm weather temperate cp's

Dear All,

>I haven't come across anyone in central Florida who has been able to keep
Darlingtonia alive outside of a refrigerated box! Some growers tell about
starting the seeds in cool conditions, and then allowing an ice block to
melt and drip onto/into the soil around the plant, but eventually they miss
a scheduled ice renewal and the plants are gone. I have never tried it
myself.
- Carl

I know only too well what temps central Florida gets up to but have you tried
growing these plants in unglazed clay pots?

The only other way that I could think of trying would be to bury some large
gauge aquarium tubing in your pots / boxes, connect the tubing to a small,
submersible, aquarium pump and have the pump in a large, cooled sump (there
are various ways to cool the sump), with the return end of the pipe returning
to the sump. The pumps themselves are fairly inexpensive and are inexpensive
to run. The only trouble with this idea would that it would only be 'cost
effective' with a largish collection of Darlingtonias
..
This may seem like a sledgehammer to crack a walnut, but it seems like the
only way (as long as your electricity supplies are dependable!!) of keeping
these plants long term ( the plants would still have to be watered fairly
continuously BTW,this idea only provides the method of cooling them) .
Please note that this is only an IDEA ,I've NOT tried it out, but then again
there's no need for such fancy mechanics at our end of the world, the weather
manages just fine all by itself ( and so do the Darlingtonia) <grin>!!!!!!

John Wilden
Southport
Lancs.
UK



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