FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi mates,
Two days ago I bought my first CP and it's a Drosera Capensis. It took about 2 days to ring my door bell , and I think it's shocked since it lost all it's dews. Now I want to put it into a plastic transparent container, but it won't be for ever. I plan to buy (or even make) a glass tank and give it a good looking and care for plants in a controlled way. So I plant to use some kind of Raspberry pi to water the plants in a timely manner and control the humidity in tank ( FYI. I live in Iran and it's pretty dry here, right now it's 35°C and 16% humidity). My question in how can I provide and control humidity tank? I was considering some fog maker modules (using Piezoelectricity), but some guy in a Persian CP group said it will produce droplets and not steam, so it will not be useful. How correct is this? Do you have any suggestions for such modules?

If you are talking about taking care of your capensis, you are making it way too hard and spending too much money. Drosera capensis is very happy on a sunny east windowsill sitting in a shallow dish of water.

I'm afraid my apartments natural lighting is not very good, so I've already ordered a growing light. Actually you're right about the Raspberry Pi about spending too much money, it's a bit much for me but I have no choice over it, for some times we leave the apartment for more than a week and I can't say anybody to take care of it, so I intend to use Rpi to take care of it for me (for the technical stuff I have no worry, I'm a software engineer ). And about the tank, since I'm gonna build it myself, it will take maximum of 5$, and I intend to buy some more plants like VFP and some Pingucuilas, so I will need a good tank.

Being a software engineer certainly helps when it comes to setting up self watering systems, etc. Although I am no SE, I have dabbled with Rpi, Stamp modules, Parallax devices and Arduino devices. Being in Iran I am not sure of what you have access to so it might be difficult to make any suggestions. If you have access to Amazon.com they sell some portable USB powered humidifiers, fans, etc. that you could rig up to a terrarium or other container that you end up using.

I would agree with Pan man, I think you were overthinking it. Making this harder than it needs to be.

First, let’s address humidity. I grow indoors for most of the year since the winter is approximately 6 to 8 months. My apartments humidity is typically around 15% or less during that time and Drosera capensis and my Pinguicula do just fine with no supplemental humidity. The important part is make sure that they are standing in water. If you’re going to be gone for a week just make sure that you have them sitting in a tray holding three or 4 cm of water and you should be good for a week or even a little bit more. Before you leave, you could even fill the water level up so it’s even with the edge of the pot in the case of capensis — it will be fine until you return a little over a week later.

Grow lights are unnecessary. If you can get some daylight spectrum LEDs, they will work just fine. It should be substantially cheaper than growlights.