FlyTrapCare Forums

bombsboy wrote:Do you grow them outside or in a terrarium?

I don't grow any plants in a terrarium. I don't like terrariums; although I know that some people do like them, I feel that they're too problematic and fussy.

I grow my Heliamphora in the greenhouse. Although I do frequently put the Heli's outside for the day, I keep them inside the greenhouse during the hottest, driest part of summer, just to be a little gentle on them while I'm learning about them. Matt sends me unhardened (unaccustomed to natural conditions) heliamphora just out of tissue culture, and those I grow inside under artificial light for some months, until I think I can introduce them to greenhouse conditions.

In both cases, like Matt, I use a growing mix that is airier and faster drying than the Venus Flytrap mix. In my case, I use a coir (coconut husk pith) mix with sand and orchid bark for the greenhouse, sand and perlite for the artificial light environment to compensate for the fact that the growing medium dries more slowly under the LED grow lights in an enclosed room with only slow ventilation.

Steve,do u grow your helis under filtered sun or direct?

If filtered,hw many % is the shade cloth shading it?


Thanks!
Harris

I was wondering, john(snapperhead51) when he was recording his plants, i saw Helis growing in pure Live moss, would this be a good media since, if not compress, it gives the heli high humidity, good aeration, and the right amount of water that live moss retains for the helis.
What do you think?

I definitely agree with Mat and Steve, I have also noticed that the roots seem to follow the small margins along side the pots and have actually left the pots and crept down out of the pot into the grating they sit on. Never in water. I flush the soil several times a week but there is always a large amount of air entering the terrarium i have setup.
For lack of better words the tank i setup is a small greenhouse with the amount of air circulation being let in the from outside. The only reason i use an ultra sonic humidifier is to keep the air coming in at the right humidity to not dry the soil out to fast.

With this being said, i have also potted them all in very deep pots. I think this helps air the soil out while also keeping a nice temp too.
Algae blooms and other problems that have risen from my previously poor tank design and nutrient build up don't seem like a something you want to have to fight off every other week until you get it right. The rocky/nutrient deprived conditions (like Steve mentioned) in nature are on the verge of impossible to create in the home. I have thought about running a UV sterilizer in the reservoir the sprayers are connected to but have never build a sound system i can bet on. If this were the case then a solid flushing every other day/ everyday like in nature may be possible without killing the plant in the long run do to the build of noxious gas.

Like Matt also said, i have them growing a bit like a succulent and they seem to love it! Bright light! A little on the dry side when it come to the medium.

Steve what are your Winter temps like, as mine are usually in the minuses.

How do they take winters? How hardy are they? Can they take near, if not freezing temps?

i think the main thing for Heliamphora is just Coldness maybe..and a little higher humidity.

if they can stay in a cool place (15c-25c),i think thats cool for it??

Interesting to hear that some people like to grow there Heli's on the dry side. I like to run some water through their pots 1-3 times per week and if I have the time - every day (would seem to mimic the natural environment where they get fresh oxygenated water frequently). When I repotted / divided several a few months ago, the root systems were massive - much larger than I ever would have guessed.

When I 1st started to grow them several years ago, I tried to grow 2 divisions from the same plant in 2 different media. One was based on live LFS & the other was a peat-based mix (both had sand, APS and some chopped orchid bark). The plant in LFS-based media grew like a champ and the one with peat barely grew at all. I now use only LFS-based media and (knock on wood) all of my plants are growing well.

On the high temps, iirc, Bob Z. reported that he would frequently lose plants divided in the summer (even though his temps never get really high). Andreas F. believes that the cause of Heli SDS is a fungus which becomes active above 28*C. Others dispute the temperature claim and some growers believe that periodic inoculations with Trichoderma can prevent fungal issues. Here's a good discussion with links.

As an FYI - there should be a bunch of Heli's offered in the NASC auction starting this Saturday.

VERY interesting thoughts and comments, Ron. Thanks!

Daniel_G wrote:Steve what are your Winter temps like, as mine are usually in the minuses.

How do they take winters? How hardy are they? Can they take near, if not freezing temps?

...

I can't comment much about Steve's winter weather. I know it gets down to freezing, but I believe Steve keeps all of this plants inside his heated greenhouse when it's freezing outside.

But yes, Heliamphora can take temperatures down to and into freezing. I've never let mine get that cold (mine only experience temperatures into the mid 30s F or near 0°C), but I know of one grower that had a power outage during the winter and everything in his growing room froze solid. It killed all of the Nepenthes but the Heliamphora were just fine.

So I guess nobody has a heli....

dantt99 wrote:So I guess nobody has a heli....

I just repotted about 100 of them a week or so ago. They look like they're settling in nicely. I'm going to give them another week or two and then we'll create a product listing for them in the store and start listing a few for sale as they look nice. There are already several very nice looking H. nutans and H. minors ready for a good home.

Matt wrote:There are already several very nice looking H. nutans and H. minors ready for a good home.

Awesome! I'll keep my eyes peeled

Cheers Matt!

Put me down for a nutans .