Re: Heliamphora

Peter Cole (carnivor@bunyip.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 03 Oct 1996 11:42:48 GMT

lide@dvddd.com (Laurent Ide) writes:
...
> I bought an Heliamphora. In the store, the Heliamphora's were placed in
> cold greenhouse with the "common" plants like VFT, Drosera's,
> Sarracenia's... The salesman told me that it was sufficient for
> hygrometrics features. The temperature was ambient (in Belgium, 20-25=B0 C
> in the summer).

Temp sounds fine - I try to keep mine under 30C, but they sometimes
hit 35C in the summer with no noticeable ill effects.

> Back at my home, I placed the plant under a dome until 90% hygro with a
> nepenthes ventricosa. But after a short time, the fungi severely attacked
> (botrytis maybe) and destroyed the plant at 80%. So, after a spraying

First and foremost these plants need good ventilation - humidity
is helpful, but 90% is much more than they need. Mine are in a
high- sided but open topped terrarium under bright lights, with a
lot of sphagnum (increases humidity and has a natural anti-fungal
effect.) Humidity varies from 75% on hot days to 60% or less on
cool nights. I mist them most days and water through the pots
rather than standing them in water. I doubt it was botrytis - I
don't imagine a Heliamphora would stand a chance up against the
"hard stuff", or that a single spraying of Benlate would
eradicate it, but there are many moulds out there, and only good
ventilation can prevent them getting a strangle-hold pretty
quickly.

> party-time with benlate, I simply placed it in my own room near the window.
> I spray the plant with water 2-3 times each day for hygro. Actually it
> recovers health, doing new pitchers (but doing sometimes the same, some
> pitchers are dying when the new ones are growing).

It sounds happier like that, but you might need to change the setup
in the summer to stop it cooking in full sunlight. Also I don't know
how well they cope with very short winter days - in the wild they're
pretty equatorial, which is why I grow mine under lights on a 10-14
hour photoperiod through the year. But I know a lot of people grow
them in natural light, so it can't be an insurmountable problem.

> So I'll conclude: no particular conditions for Heliamphora...
>
> Good luck with your plants !
>
> In this store I saw a particular VFT that growed in a particular form, just
> like a little tree (seemed like a byblis for general aspect). Did anybody
> saw that somewhere ? Probably a genetic disfunction ! A "natural
> monster"...

Sometimes plants newly out of tissue culture produce deformed leaves
etc. - my guess is that it would settle down to a more normal habit
after a few months.

> At everybody : are the drosera's "ssp Magaliesburg" and "Gypsicola"
> existing (probably wrong names) ? But if yes, I would have informations
> about their origin and cultivation mode. Thanks.

I don't know D.gypsicola - it's not a valid name, but there are
plenty of badly labelled plants and seeds out there, so it could be
just about anything.
I grow D.'sp.Magaliesburg' and it's a pretty little plant that looks
a little like D.anglica. It seems fairly undemanding - just treat
it like D.capensis. The origin is presumably a place (town?) called
Magaliesburg in S.Africa. Eric, is this one you know more about?

Happy growing,

Peter

snail:Peter Cole,17 Wimmerfield Cr. :mailto:carnivor@bunyip.demon.co.uk
Killay, SWANSEA SA2 7BU, WALES :http://www.angel.co.uk/flytrap/index.htm
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