Re: This and That

From: jneps (jneps@gateway.net)
Date: Sat Aug 26 2000 - 20:41:58 PDT


Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2000 21:41:58 -0600
From: jneps <jneps@gateway.net>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg2628$foo@default>
Subject: Re: This and That

I have used the the cooling technique you describe, Peter. In fact,
I mentioned it when speaking at the conference in SF this summer. My
experience suggests that it works fairly well, provided that you have
a number of the cooling packets in a limited space. Just place them
at night, and remove to refreeze them in the morning. Used them
to grow Heliamphora and N. villosa several years ago, before I
had space to build larger, controlled growing areas. Somewhat
labor-intensive, but it is a cheap, workable solution.

Jeff Shafer

CALIFCARN@aol.com wrote:
>
> Hey kids, Peter here at California Carnivores: As for spider mites, I
> reported several months ago the repeated problem we've had here on some of
> our display plants with this pest, namely on Cobras, Flytraps and
> Heliamphora. Over the past two years I had tried Orthene, Diazinon, and
> other insecticides. Even tried spider mite preditors but all they did was
> cost a lot of money. Finally someone gave me some AVID and I must say that
> after two applications not a spider mite in site. Usually with other
> insecticides (and mites are not insects of course) the little tiny beasts
> were back in a week or two. I don't know what's in AVID or if it's available
> overseas, but folks at botanical gardens always told me AVID was the only
> workable treatment, and I must admit that so far it's true. As for
> spider mites disliking humidity and wetness, that is true for only a few
> species. Many others thrive in wet conditions, as my soaked flytraps and
> Heliamphora can attest to.
> I had a fairly large response to my Savage Garden column recently on
> "Chilly Nights". Several people wanted to know about the portable air
> conditioner I spoke about. I recently saw it advertised on the Weather
> Channel, and it's a Longines "Penguino" (as in Penguin). They are
> expensive; about $900 U.S.
> Yesterday, also on this subject of cool highlanders, I received an
> interesting email from Nick Hayward, a customer of ours. He came up with a
> clever idea that I thought I would mention to ya'll, to see if anyone wanted
> to give it a try. He suggested that one could try cooling small to medium
> sized tanks (say up to 55 gallons) by placing in them those Igloo-type frozen
> ice things one uses to put in coolers and stuff. Here in the U.S. there are
> several brands, the most famous I believe is the Igloo brand. You could keep
> them in the freezer and put them in your tank when you go to bed at night.
> Then take them out and refreeze them the following day. Might be worth a try
> for those growers with a small tank that needs to cool down by morning for
> those fussy highland plants....
> Th-th-th-th-that's all folks! Peter



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