FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I'm getting ready for a 10-day trip and looking for tips on watering without ability to be hands-on. I can sit everyone in water but I'm wondering if that's too long for neps and cephs.

My setup is passive ventilated indoor terraria for neps - separate boxes for lowland and highland. One heli in with the highlanders too. Ambient humidity, temperature, and light should be fine with no intervention. I live in a warm temperate climate and the trip is in March so cephs will be outside with sarrs, drosera and VFTs.

I have self-watering spikes in some of my neps, but haven't gotten the impression those are able to provide enough. Also I have many neps that are seedlings or very small that I don't think would be able to suck water from the spikes.

Cretaceous wrote:I can sit everyone in water but I'm wondering if that's too long for neps and cephs.

Can't speak to Neps, but I did kill my very large pot of Hummer's Giant a few years back by overwatering it before leaving on a 10-day vacation. I came home and the entire pot had collapsed and I couldn't salvage it. But I heavily top watered it before I left. I think if you leave the pot sitting in just a bit of water and it is a fairly tall pot, it shouldn't be an issue for the Cephs.

Cretaceous wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 9:01 pm I'm getting ready for a 10-day trip and looking for tips on watering without ability to be hands-on. I can sit everyone in water but I'm wondering if that's too long for neps and cephs.

My setup is passive ventilated indoor terraria for neps - separate boxes for lowland and highland. One heli in with the highlanders too. Ambient humidity, temperature, and light should be fine with no intervention. I live in a warm temperate climate and the trip is in March so cephs will be outside with sarrs, drosera and VFTs.

I have self-watering spikes in some of my neps, but haven't gotten the impression those are able to provide enough. Also I have many neps that are seedlings or very small that I don't think would be able to suck water from the spikes.

1. Lower your light levels temporarily. If that means lowering your shades, do it.
2. Block all vents in the Lowland and Highland chamber to prevent evaporation
3. Cover all of your sundews, cephs, and pings with a plastic bag, to keep humidity.

On arrival, you WILL have to re-acclimate but that helps me survive 2-3 week trips.

Agree with HC. I left for over a week and did something very similar. I ended up taking out half my bulbs on my light fixtures. Plants I couldn't seal up for whatever reason were wrapped similar to shipping. It was a tedious process but considering the months and years of effort that goes into them, it was worth it to me. Keeping a lower photoperiod should help a lot and with sealed environments you'll probably have no trouble. This might sound like a really weird idea but you could line the bottom of your "chambers" with Sphagnum moss and water that as well. It would provide a "wicking" effect without a threat to your roots. That should be ok for your cephalotus. That idea is inspired by some live plants I keep in my live sphagnum container. I water that tray very seldomly and keep a couple plants resting on the bed of moss.