A beautiful culmination of hobbies

A beautiful culmination of hobbies#449173

By Dejavert -  Mon Apr 01, 2024 9:06 pm
Location:  Western Washington, USA
Posts:  19
Joined:  Mon Apr 01, 2024 5:57 am

- Mon Apr 01, 2024 9:06 pm #449173

Hi folks, a little bit about myself:
I've been collecting houseplants for a year or so with a special interest in aroids. When I was younger I thought I couldn't keep any plants alive but once I discovered grow lights and soil ammendments I was hooked. Carnivorous plants seemed far too ambitious when I couldn't keep anything else alive, but since everything else is going so smoothly I decided to give it a try. I've been keeping reptiles for over 10 years so I always have an extra tank hanging around. This seemed like a great opportunity to start a bog so I strapped some T8 lights to the top and decided to get moving.

I'm mostly just working on planting out my tank right now, experimenting, and reading literature about carnivorous plants online. I maaaay have sort of jumped off the deep end, but luckily I do have plenty of room under other grow lights in case I have to pull anyone out of the bog. Here's what we have so far:

I'm certainly open to constructive feedback and hopefully I can grow and change while my plants grow and change too! Right now I'm very interested in starting to grow from seed.

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Re: A beautiful culmination of hobbies#449176

By Dan J -  Mon Apr 01, 2024 10:30 pm
Posts:  33
Joined:  Sat Mar 23, 2024 7:07 pm

- Mon Apr 01, 2024 10:30 pm #449176

Welcome to the form from a fellow newbie!

I don’t know much about terrarium set ups, but yours sure looks nice!

Dejavert liked this

Re: A beautiful culmination of hobbies#449179

By Panman -  Tue Apr 02, 2024 12:04 am
Location:  Atlanta, GA USA Zone 8a/8b
Posts:  6411
Joined:  Wed Mar 04, 2020 8:41 pm

- Tue Apr 02, 2024 12:04 am #449179

It's a beautiful setup. Just be aware, terrariums for carnivorous plants are tricky. There is no flow of water and the bott layers of the soil start to sour. I'd like to know what media and rocks you have in there. Carnivorous plants are very mineral sensitive and the wrong soil or rocks can poison them.

Dejavert liked this

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Toes in the water, ankles wet, and knees damp.

Re: A beautiful culmination of hobbies#449185

By Dejavert -  Tue Apr 02, 2024 1:53 am
Location:  Western Washington, USA
Posts:  19
Joined:  Mon Apr 01, 2024 5:57 am

- Tue Apr 02, 2024 1:53 am #449185

I've been wondering about that. I'm considering adding some sort of tube that I can siphon water out of to flush it occasionally. I have a layer of pumice at the bottom because I figured that may help provide somewhere for the water to settle instead of having like 4 inches of substrate and nowhere for water to escape to. I'm currently using 1:1 peat and pearlite with probably another part sand but honestly I was just eyeballing it. I've heard they some people add charcoal but I wasn't sure if that was a good idea.

Re: A beautiful culmination of hobbies#449279

By andynorth -  Wed Apr 03, 2024 7:27 pm
Location:  Federal Way, WA
Posts:  1412
Joined:  Fri May 12, 2023 9:08 pm

- Wed Apr 03, 2024 7:27 pm #449279

Dejavert wrote: ↑Mon Apr 01, 2024 9:06 pm
I'm certainly open to constructive feedback and hopefully I can grow and change while my plants grow and change too! Right now I'm very interested in starting to grow from seed.

Not sure how electronically inclined you are, but Arduino and Parallax make some sensors, etc. that might help you out with the water situation. There are many ways to go about it depending on how sophisticated you do or do not want to get. Link below is to a pump at Amazon that would give you a start. There are several various options from the same seller.
As for starting CP's from seed, I have had nothing but great germination rates using straight LFSM, ground to fine/medium fine. Good luck and welcome to the forum.
https://www.amazon.com/Gikfun-Peristalt ... 9idGY&th=1

Thank you:
andynorth-s-grow-want-list-t58612.html

Andy North

Re: A beautiful culmination of hobbies#449686

By Dejavert -  Mon Apr 08, 2024 2:37 am
Location:  Western Washington, USA
Posts:  19
Joined:  Mon Apr 01, 2024 5:57 am

- Mon Apr 08, 2024 2:37 am #449686

andynorth wrote: Not sure how electronically inclined you are, but Arduino and Parallax make some sensors, etc. that might help you out with the water situation. There are many ways to go about it depending on how sophisticated you do or do not want to get. Link below is to a pump at Amazon that would give you a start. There are several various options from the same seller.
As for starting CP's from seed, I have had nothing but great germination rates using straight LFSM, ground to fine/medium fine. Good luck and welcome to the forum.
https://www.amazon.com/Gikfun-Peristalt ... 9idGY&th=1

I'll have to check it out, thanks! I'm not very electronically inclined, but I know just enough to have a fighting chance to learn lol.

I'll have to give the ground LFSM a try! I set some seeds up in regular LFSM that I rinsed and sterilized, but it was a bit difficult to get it to lay down how I wanted in the container. Do you just use a dedicated coffee grinder or what?
Carnivorous plants are so addictive, I'm hooked. The community is probably the best out of all the hobbies I have, too.

Sent from my SM-A536U1 using Tapatalk

Re: A beautiful culmination of hobbies#449695

By Intheswamp -  Mon Apr 08, 2024 1:59 pm
Location:  N31°43'59" USDA 8a/b
Posts:  3455
Joined:  Wed May 04, 2022 2:28 pm

- Mon Apr 08, 2024 1:59 pm #449695

I use our food blender...when my wife isn't around.

Re: A beautiful culmination of hobbies#449698

By andynorth -  Mon Apr 08, 2024 2:24 pm
Location:  Federal Way, WA
Posts:  1412
Joined:  Fri May 12, 2023 9:08 pm

- Mon Apr 08, 2024 2:24 pm #449698

Dejavert wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 2:37 am
andynorth wrote: Not sure how electronically inclined you are, but Arduino and Parallax make some sensors, etc. that might help you out with the water situation. There are many ways to go about it depending on how sophisticated you do or do not want to get. Link below is to a pump at Amazon that would give you a start. There are several various options from the same seller.
As for starting CP's from seed, I have had nothing but great germination rates using straight LFSM, ground to fine/medium fine. Good luck and welcome to the forum.
https://www.amazon.com/Gikfun-Peristalt ... 9idGY&th=1
I'll have to check it out, thanks! I'm not very electronically inclined, but I know just enough to have a fighting chance to learn lol.

I'll have to give the ground LFSM a try! I set some seeds up in regular LFSM that I rinsed and sterilized, but it was a bit difficult to get it to lay down how I wanted in the container. Do you just use a dedicated coffee grinder or what?
Carnivorous plants are so addictive, I'm hooked. The community is probably the best out of all the hobbies I have, too.

Sent from my SM-A536U1 using Tapatalk

If you choose the Parallax route, they have a really good forum dedicated to their products. Arduino has a pretty large following and also has a forum. You can Google or Duckduckgo it.
This is the dedicated grinder I use. Chops it fine very quick.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BTX ... UTF8&psc=1

Thank you:
andynorth-s-grow-want-list-t58612.html

Andy North

Re: A beautiful culmination of hobbies#449766

By Brock -  Tue Apr 09, 2024 3:19 am
Posts:  16
Joined:  Mon Apr 08, 2024 1:32 am

- Tue Apr 09, 2024 3:19 am #449766

Nice terrarium. I know nothing about the soil souring. Would some type of carbon filter help like you mentioned charcoal? I never liked the chords hanging out of the tanks. I grew up keeping reptiles. What kind do you have? Do you have any plans on combining both?

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