FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I went ahead and repotted my Cephalotus follicularis (Oct. 25th) and my juvenile Heliamphora minor (Nov. 9th) into dried LFSM. To my surprise the Cephalotus only lost one tiny pitcher and still continued to grow even though I was expecting a setback switching from a peat mix to LFSM. Both the ceph and heli had nice root systems that were much larger than I expected given the size of the plants.

H. minor pitcher by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

H. minor pitcher by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

I was not able to remove the old, dead pitchers that were lost between shipping and adapting due to not having anything small enough to remove them carefully. All of the new pitchers look healthy to me, but I shall see how well it adapts to the new media as well.
Repotted H. minor by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

The newest ceph pitcher opened this week.
IMG_5972 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

IMG_5987 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

IMG_5949 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

Drosera spatulata
DSC_0265 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

Finally, this is not carnivorous, but here is my Lachnocaulon minus that is in the process of flowering. This is a full grown plant that is made up of around five plants as far as I can tell. Once it is done flowering I will uproot it and divide it.
Lachnocaulon minus by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

Lachnocaulon minus by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

Lachnocaulon minus by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

beautiful!!

tish wrote:beautiful!!

Matt wrote:Very nice!

Thanks guys!

Woah, your plants look amazing!! Esp the ceph!!! Thank you for sharing.

How do you maintain the humidity in the tank?

Also how did you decide which fan to buy? I am kinda confused at the specs to look for. I prob need a super low power fan since my tank is only 10 gallon. I am thinking of getting a fan that blows at both the lighting fixture and into the tank, do you think that would work? The idea is both cool the lights and provide air circulation into the tank.

thanks

ps3isawesome wrote:Woah, your plants look amazing!! Esp the ceph!!! Thank you for sharing.

How do you maintain the humidity in the tank?

Also how did you decide which fan to buy? I am kinda confused at the specs to look for. I prob need a super low power fan since my tank is only 10 gallon. I am thinking of getting a fan that blows at both the lighting fixture and into the tank, do you think that would work? The idea is both cool the lights and provide air circulation into the tank.

thanks

Thanks!

The top of the tank is almost completely closed off with the exception of a small gap in the back where cords/tubing runs into the tank. There is also an airstone that is attached to an airpump that is large enough for 40 gallons that raises the humidity slightly, but it is mainly used to provide fresh air inside the tank since it is closed off. When the PC fan is on the humidity is between 85-90%, but at night when the fan is off the humidity goes up to 99% (probably 100%, but the hygrometer doesn't display that).

As for the fan, the 80mm PC fan in the picture I just had laying around from an old desktop computer, but it gave up and did not provide enough air flow. The 120mm RadioShack PC fan I replaced it with was chosen for the increased air movement (83 CFM, very close to too much for what I have) and to match the specifications (amperage and voltage) of the PC power supply I converted to run 12 volts externally. The overall goal was enough air movement to keep the glass clear and making sure the plants weren't excessively wet for long periods of time. Currently I can heavily mist a plant and have it dried off between 2-3 hours later.

Since it seems that you are wanting to maintain higher humidity in the tank, having an external fan to move air both outside and inside the terrarium can lower the humidity inside the tank significantly if it is fully open. It may not provide much air movement inside either, but I cannot say for sure since I have not tried it that way. You might be able to get it to work for you with a bit of experimenting.

Here is a couple of fans that I found while looking for options for my grow rack that may work for you. I haven't tried any of these, though I don't see any reason why they wouldn't work.
-Dual fan w/variable speed or they have single fan setups. The 120mm setup would give you plenty of air movement at full speed in a larger terrarium if you got a bigger tank in the future, but could be dialed down for your current terrarium. Though there is some complaints about excessive noise at lower speeds.
http://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-AI-80 ... uctDetails

-Clamp-on aquarium cooling fans
http://aquatek-california.com/cooling-fan-series/#2-fan

I didn't mean to make that so long, that was probably far more than you were asking for .

Over the past couple of weeks I have been slowly putting together my grow rack. It is far from finished, but I have began using it for some of the plants. A majority of it is going to be used for seed germination through the winter. I also received my Sarracenia seedlings from Dionae today and got them all potted.

New Grow Rack by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

The same new Cephalotus follicularis pitcher from last week, but it is starting to get more color and has opened more. There is also another adult pitcher getting ready to open soon. The bulb change makes the coloring a bit odd looking.
IMG_6039 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

Sphagnum Moss by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

Finally, the seven seedlings from Dionae. These are only a few hours out of the package and freezing weather, and look great!
DSC_0330 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

DSC_0332 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

DSC_0333 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

DSC_0334 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

DSC_0337 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

DSC_0338 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

DSC_0339 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

I decided to play around with stitching photos to show progression. In this case it is the color change in a pitcher on the S. purpurea OP hybrid, either as a result of pigments produce for photoprotection, the pitcher maturing, or a mix of both, presumably.

11/21, 11/23, and 11/27 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

Next is one of the Drosera spatulata that I decided to stress. I repotted this last weekend (11/22), drastically dropped the humidity (from roughly 90% to just above 30% RH), and increased the light level to see how it would respond. Not surprisingly, it did not seem phased much at all. Some leaves lost dew for around a day, but then it rebounded quickly. The color it has taken on is pretty nice as well. I'm sure it is still stressed to some degree though.

Drosera spatulata by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

Drosera spatulata by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

Wow. Look at that redness!!

This is the first time I have ever got the D. spatulata to grow that red. I like it though . It seems like the purpurea will have some nice coloration to it too.

This is exciting for me, I finally got to add to my Heliamphora collection (or lack there of) with a nice H. heterodoxa x nutans . As a plus, the new pitcher that was forming when I got it yesterday opened up today. It still needs to fill out more so the new pitcher looks like the others. I am still waiting for the other Heliamphora to ship though. The other thing I found when I got home is that the pitcher that opened recently on my Cephalotus was drooling all over itself (I don't mist my plants, so it is all from the ceph). Finally, the new Sarracenia seedlings from Dionae have all been growing new pitchers, but the first to open a few days ago was the S. flava var. atropurpurea x S. flava var. atropurpurea. Once the others open up on other plants I will add photos of those as well.

DSC_0381 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

DSC_0378 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

DSC_0385 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

Its a nice heliamphora you got there (Like all your other plants). You are talented, well done

very nice collection! I've been meaning to ask you. (Edited out)

Maiden wrote:Its a nice heliamphora you got there (Like all your other plants). You are talented, well done

Thank you! Hopefully someday it can be as nice as your Heliamphora are .

tish wrote:very nice collection! I've been meaning to ask you. (Edited out)

Thanks!