FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey guys, I thought this silhouette of the baby pitcher inside the mature one was pretty cool. I started taking progress pictures but I dropped the ball and now it's opening already. I'll dig those up later. Here's the most recent ones for now. Heliamphora heterodoxa x minor "Cherry Top". March 26th
April 15th
April 16th
And a group shot of what is turning out to be a Heli shelf. Mostly H. minor recently removed from the chunk of wood in the terrarium, divided, properly potted and hardened off to house conditions. Minus the lights of course. There's also a H. heterodxa x ionasii, H. pulchella (Acapapa tepui) and a seemingly miserable "Burgundy Black". THAT'S my slow grower!
Thanks for looking,
-@.

iamjacksplants wrote:Hey guys, I thought this silhouette of the baby pitcher inside the mature one was pretty cool. I started taking progress pictures but I dropped the ball and now it's opening already. I'll dig those up later. Here's the most recent ones for now. Heliamphora heterodoxa x minor "Cherry Top". March 26th

heliamphoraminor.JPG

April 15th

helicherrytop03e.jpg

helicherrytop04e.jpg

April 16th

helicherrytopopeninge.jpg

helicherrytopopeningeclose.jpg

helicherrytopopeningecloser.jpg

And a group shot of what is turning out to be a Heli shelf. Mostly H. minor recently removed from the chunk of wood in the terrarium, divided, properly potted and hardened off to house conditions. Minus the lights of course. There's also a H. heterodxa x ionasii, H. pulchella (Acapapa tepui) and a seemingly miserable "Burgundy Black". THAT'S my slow grower!

heligroup01e.jpg

heligroup02e.jpg

Thanks for looking,
-@.

Really beautiful! Do you grow those inside all the time? They looked like porcelain artwork to me. They look really fragile. I would be afraid of animals messing with those. I have deer and they might taste good.

Sent from my KYOCERA-C6742A using Tapatalk

Thank you! Hahaha, yes they are inside all the time. "standard house conditions", just a few inches from the light. I imagine that they PROBABLY taste like something out of the candy meadows in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"... If I had to guess. In my neighborhood I worry more about snotty girls named Violet than any deer. Haha.

Cheers,
-@.

New pitcher starting on the H. heterodoxa x ionasii. Noticed it when I went to remove an old dry pitcher and decided to get some quick pics. Nothing special, just a cellphone camera so the colors probably aren't true. I was trying to get the focus on the whole plant but either the new pitcher or the rest of the plant was slightly blurry no matter what, so sorry for that.
The pitcher on the left was there when I got it, but not red at all. The one on the right came in under my care. Pretty odd the variation in pitcher shape. Maybe the wide mouth is juvenile? I really like the wide one, haven't seen too many like that. Anyone else with this cross, please feel free to post pics so we can see the variations of the cross.

Thanks for looking,
-@.

Your sphagnum moss looks great

Picked up some more recently. They arrived bare root. First pic is just potted in the mix. Second one is top dressed with some moss.
And the beast of the group,
Thanks for looking,
-@.

iamjacksplants wrote:Picked up some more recently. They arrived bare root. First pic is just potted in the mix. Second one is top dressed with some moss.

pottedgroup01e.jpg

pottedwithmoss02e.jpg

And the beast of the group,

tateixpelchella01e.jpg

Thanks for looking,
-@.

What type of light do you use inside. I am trying to grow darlingtonia Californicas and would love to grow heliamphora. I am considering a small set up in a window with a light. I have a few DCs and a cephalotus in a window right now and they are ok with 6 hours of direct sunlight. And I leave a LED light on. Not sure what 500 lumens does but seems to help.


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I don't grow darlingtonia so I can't comment on that, however I believe that the amount of sunlight that seems to satisfy a Cephalotus could still be inadequate for most Heliamphora. Especially if you are looking for the bright reds and an active nectar spoon.

If your Cephalotus is coloring up and getting all reds and purples and not much green than you might be able to get a nice Heliamphora going.

All my "open shelf" plants are under 24 inch twin tube T5 "grow lights" from Home Depot. That particular fixture may be discontinued. The first one I bought was 50$, 6500k lamps included. A few months later I went to get another one and they only had two left and they were discounted to 30$ each, so I got both.

I have 2 shelves. Top shelf has 2 of these fixtures about 20 inches from the plants. Bottom shelf has one fixture. That's where the Heliamphora live. They are only about an inch or two under the lights depending on the size of the plants. The larger plants are in hanging pots just under the lights on the top shelf. Honestly, they could probably deal with a good bit more light.

Not sure about LEDS, I don't use them. Too much product variability.

If you DO decide to start some Heliamphora, remember that they naturally occur in habitats with MUCH higher humidity and light than Cephalotus. For this reason I would highly recommend using the "bag method" to slowly harden them off to house humidity.

They are also a little less forgiving of higher temps than Cephalotus and seem to be happy with larger night time temp drops as well. However, with both plants, root temperature is more critical than plant temperature. This is why I top dress my Heliamphora with live moss and top water twice daily. Seems to keep the crown and top of the root system a little cooler. You need a really loose, fast draining mix under the moss to be successful with this method. I also recommend a large tray underneath the shelf or rack to catch the water runoff. My tray is as long and wide as the shelf and is just a few inches under the plants. I don't drain it, so it usually has about an inch of water present. I'm starting some moss colonies in the tray. Call me crazy, but the water tray sitting on the cool kitchen floor and evaporating throughout the day seems to help with humidity and temps. RH day/night in the room is 30/50 roughly. Temps are as high as 82, sometimes 85 in the day and 65 at night. Usually closer to 78-80 days. Critical root temps for these plants is said to be 76F. I would not recommend that you let the room get above that temperature, at least at first.

Hope this helps. Sorry it's so long.
Cheers,
-@.

Some quick updates of the new pitchers.

Heliamphora heterodoxa x minor 'Cherry Top' 5/20/18
This is the fully formed and opened pitcher that was just a silhouette in the first photo in the first post. Now with a little silhouette of its own.
Heliamphora heterodoxa x ionasii 5/20/18
Pitcher from the previous photos of this plant just about to open.
Newer addition Heliamphora chiamatensis 5/11/18
That's it for now. Thanks for looking.
Cheers,
-@.

Quick update for the H. heterdoxa x minor. It has opened three new small pitchers it sent up all at once and one large one still forming. Kind of taking off. Pictures 7/30/18
Thanks for looking,
-@.

Stunning! I have to agree Heli are definitely starting to be one of my favorites. What do use for media? I have one or two to repot from when I got them.

Thank you! For the most part I'm using roughly a 40/60 peat/perlite mix. Fast draining since I WAS doing a lot of top watering to keep up with the moss. I ditched a lot of the moss because even with frequent top watering the moss wasn't looking well. It has remained presentable in this specimen and that makes me reluctant to repot this one. I'll have to no matter what pretty soon but I'm putting it off for now.

The fast draining mix isn't working too well for the plants in taller containers and watering with the tray method. I think a 50/50 mix would be better for taller containers. I also have a few plants in pure LFS. Trying to determine if there is any difference in growth between pure LFS and peat/perlite mixes.

Oh and I inoculate with Great White like biweekly although not so much lately.

Cheers,
-@.

Long overdue H. heterodoxa x ionasii update. Lots of pictures, a few months of growth. I'm really likeing how this one is progressing, but I love the one very ionasii pitcher. Hopefully it hangs in there until I can get a pure one. Anyhow, here's the pics. Hopefully in order.
Pesky fly! The fly is back! I'm not going to lie, I tried repeatedly to knock it into the pitcher with a stream shot from a spray bottle. I'll get it one of these days..... The next few pictures are some small divisions putting up the first adult pitchers.
Thanks for looking,
-@.

Latest "Cherry Top" pitcher.
Happy growing!
-@.

Amazing, simply amazing.

You truly have a magic touch, I tried a heli and it simply just dessicated. While I have better humidity than you, I think I'm lacking light (T8s) and a big enough temp drop (80 to 60, if I'm lucky)...

Keep it up and I'll grow helis vicariously through you!

Austin