EXD wrote: Do you know if transpiration happens in sphagnum? Because if so, I don't have to keep misting my Nepenthes Hookeriana!!
Are you referring to transpiration as a way to increase humidity around your plants?
To me this question is similar to using humidity trays. Trays with pebbles in it filled with water to increase localized humidity around orchids, violets, etc... In my opinion, with the air movement around a typical room humidity trays do nothing productive. They might make your set up of plants look a little more decorative.
Again, here is my opinion and certainly depends on your specific growing environment which is different for everyone. What works great for me could not work for someone down the street. If you have sphagnum growing, yes the sphagnum will do better in clumps. I believe the clumps hold in more moister so it reduces evaporation keeping the moss from drying out as quickly, which gives it time to grow. If you have sphagnum moss growing in your pot I would assume your conditions would be acceptable for growing hookeriana without misting it. My opinion again, misting plants in a dry area doesn't do much unless you continually mist them throughout the day. It can't hurt but I'm not sure how much benefit it has. In an environment that is fairly humid you'll have a slower evaporation rate but in a dry area evaporation will happen relatively quickly, within a matter of minutes. The idea of misting plants is to increase the humidity around the plant but if the moisture drys up in a matter of a few minutes due to a drier environment how much benefit does misting actually do. It only increases the localized humidity for a small period of time. If humidity was really an issue you would have to re-mist your plants at the least every half hour. I would think a small room humidifier would be a better option then misting. With good air flow sphagnum can dry out quickly so you'd have to keep it watered well, but if your sphagnum is growing where it is once you have a pot full of sphagnum a good watering once a day will keep it happy. In my experience if you sphagnum is happy a common Nepenthes will be as well. Especially, easy growing hybrids.
I may have just been rambling and if anyone else has a different opinion please offer it. Like I said what works for me doesn't always work for someone else and someone else may have completely different experience with humidity trays and misting plants. I do mist my plants down once in a while but they grow well in the environments their in. I mist them more to clean off dust and to give them a little shower. I also like the look of the water droplets on the leaves.
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