FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

So yeah the first photo below is of my empty 100L that used to have fancy Goldfish in but now they've got a 200L upgrade and their old 100L has be retired to the spare upstairs bedroom we use for storage. I would obviously love an extra fish tank set up and the fish to go with it but I'm not feeling that idea as much as using the tank for something new and even more exciting - a terrarium The thing is I don't know how to go about setting the whole thing up, like what sort of equipment will I need? Suppose that might depend on what plants I'm wanting to keep, well nepenthes for sure, been doing some online reading and N. spectabalis and N. ventricosa have came up suitable for people like me who want to take the plunge into nepenthes keeping for the first time. From what I've read nepenthes should be kept in a terrarium with artificial lighting, is that right? What sort of lighting, like wattage? I've also read about some people putting their pitchers on a window but I'm worried about trying that one, I live in North Yorkshire, the weather varies a lot. The second photo is of the back cover of a book I've got called The Private Life Of Plants by David Attenborough, and he's standing next to a bunch of yellow Sarracenia and I'm interested in if anyone could help me identify what species it is? It would look ace in a terrarium along with nepenthes and maybe a orchid. I want the terrarium to be pretty simple for my first attempt or as simple as is possible, I would be happy with the plants all in pots. I might go as far as growing some moss on some branches I was planning on using in a fish tank. Moss is good right? Doesn't it help raise humidity? Anyway any help in getting this future project up and running would be great. One of the things I want to know the most is how would you go about setting this up?

Look forward to your reply's

Hi, those plants are saracenia flava. They can grow up to 3 feet tall, so they wouldn't be suitable for a terrarium. If you want Sarrs in the terrarium, you could go wih purpurea or pssitciana or hybrids of these.flava will do fine outdoors, and any other sarracenia. Dormancy becomes a problem when growing sarracenia in a terrarium, so better stick with tropical species. Ventricosa and spectabilis are good starters, and/or any nepenthes with maxima, alata, ventricosa, burkei in its parentage. Eventually, the neps will start climbing,so you will have to prune them back. The nepenthes listed above would also do fine on a windowsill. The best lights to use are t5 cfls, but they are kinda expensive. You could use LED grow lights(panel type) and they around 20-30 dollars, so much more affordable.dont use green sheet moss, it kill CPs. You could use sphagnum moss or any other as a top dressing. Good luck with you terrarium! I included some pics of my small 5.5 gallon highland terrarium, and some windowsill neps, and really tall sarracenia( flava will grow even taller than these)

Cheers for the reply man. I love your pitcher on your window sill, what species is it? I like how its got little thorns on it and the green paint job in the background is a nice touch. How old is your plant, from what I could see it looked big? It looks very sunny in the pic, is your window like that most days? The only window sill suitable I have like yours, would be in my kitchen and its pretty dull. Grrrrr. Yeah your right about LED's being a good turning point. I recently bought a Hidom LED clip on for my fish tank from amazon for less than £20 and its got 64 LED's.

I was going to buy some Sphagnum moss for my peace Lilly because its a water hungry plant, but it was from New Zealand and the postage was more than the actual price so I passed on it.

Where do you live in the world? Just wondering since you can grow pitchers outside?

Hi! It's a hybrid between nepenths spathulata and spectabilis giant. Very easy grower. The paint is maybe about 6-7 years old, I dunno. I live in the US, in Texas. It's soo hot outside, but my sarracenia can manage. It's usually pretty sunny. I don't know how old the nepenthes is, but it's about 14 inches across. I wish I lived in Europe sometimes. You guys have carnivorous plant vendors like wistuba and Cedric's.