Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 12:57:06 -0700 (PDT) From: Philcula@webtv.net (Phil Faulisi) To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2214$foo@default> Subject: RE: Housing Nepenthes
Dear B. Wiley,
Although I myself own a large greenhouse, it is primarily for growing my
highland/intermediate orchids and nepenthes. I wanted to also grow a
large collection of strictly lowland Nepenthes, so taking into
consideration their ultimate size I constructed a huge indoor Wardian
case. It is 8 feet long, 5 1/2 feet tall and 3 1/2 feet wide. The front
is made of two hinged plexiglass doors and the roof is made of pure
clear plexiglass. The back, sides and floor are 3/4 inch plywood on a
sturdy 2x4 frame. The interior sides and bottom are lined in 1
continuous sheet of 6 mil poly. I have 6 separate banks of 4foot shop
lights that sit directly on top of the roof on the outside. I use 2 /40
watt cool white/warm white bulbs per light unit which gives me an
intense amount of light, very sufficient for the collection. I also have
the entire interior lined with reflective silver bubble insulation to
increase illumination.
The unit is set on a timer that illuminates for 17 hours dailey with no
change during the year. I do not try to duplicate the changing light
durations according to the time of year, and judging from the size of
pitchers I am getting on everything it seems to work favorably. For
additional heating I wired 1/4 inch hardware cloth to the entire back
inside of the case and to this I attached a 30 foot soil heating cable
pre set at 70 degrees. I also installed a small 1 gallon hot mist
vaporizer and once every other week or so I give the plants a very humid
sauna. The plants all sit in heavy plastic trays set on top of a tiered
bench system. As plants grow to the top of the unit I just lower them.
Even down on the floor of the unit which is 4 feet from top to bottom,
the unit sits on 1 1/2 foot legs, I get enough illumination to get deep
coloration on ampularia giant red, rafflesiana of every type, a super
heavily pigmented mirabilis echinostoma, numerous Tiveyi, deep orange
and red biclacs and so on.
Watering is done by use of a 3 gallon pressurized poly tank and plants
are heavily misted daily. Once or twice per week the pots are watered
thoroughly and 'ALL' plants are hand fed live crickets according to size
of pitcher. I do not experiment with fish food or plant fertilizers at
all. I do not use these ever on my Nepenthes. I feed only live insects
and this I do very often. Under these conditions pitchers get gigantic.
I have every bit of faith that I will be able to comfortably grow plants
such as bicalcarata and merrilliana to full size. I will say that my
investment was several hundred dollars, but it was so worth it. During
the winter many of my greenhouse plants are placed in here, (burbidgeae,
macfarlanei, etc) I have found that these species grow extremely well
with days above 60 and my greenhouse is heated to a minimum of 50 during
the winter.
As time goes on I will probably make some adjustments here and there,
but for the most part my indoor greenhouse is fully operational and
functional. I hope you are some day able to implement a similar system.
I would be lost without it. I'm sure I could grow highland/intermediate
plants in here exclusively if I eliminated the heating elements and
installed a cool mist humidifier with a thermostatically pre set air
exchange system. Units such as these can get as elaborate as the owner
desires. Good luck to you and happy growing.
Phil Faulisi
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