FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

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By triffidlover
Posts:  29
Joined:  Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:22 pm
#5138
Hi
I am a relative newbie to carnivorous plants. Please post pictures of your terrarium set up for me to see. I will soon be getting some plants from Kheen's Carnivors - I have a ten gallon tank with a mixture of half perlite and half peat moss. But I am aware that some just put the plants, pot and all, into an empty fish tank and add water before putting on the top. Do you just let them sit in the water all the time? Do you change the water occasionally? How often do you add water? (I use melted snow or rainwater). I am hoping that by using an arrangement where I put plants into water it will help plants not to get transplant shock. Show me how you do it. Thanks!
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By Matt
Location: 
Posts:  22523
Joined:  Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:28 pm
#5148
Hello triffidlover,

I think it's best to keep your plants in pots if you decide to put them into a terrarium. Growing them in a terrarium is hard to do and it really is only a matter of time before you'll see fungus or mold in the terrarium. If you don't have them in pots where you can easily take one out with mold on it, then you have to dig them all up.

Also, why are you choosing to use a terrarium? What kind of plants are you growing? If you're just growing Venus flytraps, you can just set them on a sunny windowsill. Here's what I do with my plants when it's too cold outside for them:
http://www.flytrapcare.com/carnivorous- ... ogger=Matt

That's a south facing window that gets about 8 hours of direct sunlight this time of year. The room is unheated, so the plants are able to experience dormancy.

For the few plants that I do grow in my terrarium, I have them in separate pots sitting in a plastic lid to a storage container. I let the plastic lid dry out completely for a day or two between watering. I don't have a great photo of the setup because it's hard for me to take one where the terrarium is sitting. In any case, here's what it looks like:
http://www.flytrapcare.com/carnivorous- ... hotoid=448

Hope that helps! If you have more questions be sure to ask.
By triffidlover
Posts:  29
Joined:  Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:22 pm
#5152
Hello Matt
I live in an apartment with no balcony and no windowsills. So I can't place plants on a non existent windowsill. My window faces east, so I can't give my Venus Flytrap or other carnivorous plants the light they need unless they are in a terrarium with a floresent light. Also, terrariums help when it comes to giving my carnivorous plants the humidity they need. I have one Sundew, three gemmae and a small neph in addition to flytraps. From the picture I saw through the hotlink you gave, you have Flytraps in the sort of white plastic container you can get at Walmart! Is that enough? What about the amount of light that gets? Remember my east window. I have been thinking about making a terrarium of sort out of a five gallon plastic jar (with lid) to use for the purpose of growing carnivorous plants from seed.
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By Matt
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Posts:  22523
Joined:  Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:28 pm
#5153
triffidlover,
That's right, I think I remember now that you posted before saying that you don't have any windowsills. Sorry that I had forgotten.

With regards to humidity, I don't even worry about it. Drosera, Dionaea and Sarracenia seem to have no problems with lower humidity levels. I live in Boulder, CO and the humidity here is very low in the summer and I grow all my plants outside and they do well. It may be that Drosera and Dionaea grow so close to the ground that they create their own micro-climate from the moist soil.
triffidlover wrote:From the picture I saw through the hotlink you gave, you have Flytraps in the sort of white plastic container you can get at Walmart!
Yes, that's partially correct. They actually just sit on top of the white container so that they can be closer to the lights. Again, in my terrarium I don't worry about humidity all that much. If you keep the humidity lower, then you have to worry less about mold. I think the humidity level is usually around 40% in my terrarium, but it gets down into the 20% range pretty often.
triffidlover wrote:What about the amount of light that gets?
I keep my terrariums on a 16 hour photoperiod.
triffidlover wrote:I have been thinking about making a terrarium of sort out of a five gallon plastic jar (with lid) to use for the purpose of growing carnivorous plants from seed.
That should work well. That's a pretty large jar though. How much seed do you have?!? I usually use the small square plastic food containers for germinating seeds. Or I just put them in 3 inch pots and set them in the terrarium or a sunny window and don't bother with keeping the humidity high. They take a little longer to germinate that way.
By triffidlover
Posts:  29
Joined:  Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:22 pm
#5157
Hello Matt
I will soon be receiving 2 Sarracena, 2 Pings, one Venus Flytrap and two Drosera from Kheen's Carnivors. I am also part of a group order from a grower in Chechosolovakia where I will get one Venus Flytrap, three Drosera, 1 Genlisea, 1 Sarracena, one Pingularia. What do I know? Precious little. I had to get the library to bring in a copy of Savage Garden as none of the libraries in Kitchener and Waterloo had it! And Kitchener/Waterloo has a collective population of 225,000! I am setting up a twenty gallon tank for the cp's, and wanted to use the set up where the pots sit in water such as described in Savage Garden.I never knew they could withstand such low humidity as you described! I am looking forward to all the little triffids. Normally my humidity in the apartment is just short of desert conditions. And when summer comes, I envisioned keeping the carnivorous plants separate in their terrariums, where they can have their humidity and I can NOT have mine in the apartment! Maybe it is more possible for them and I to live together than I thought., so I don't have to enclose them in their own little world. Lloyd of OCPS was kind enough to send me seed for Dorsera rotundifolia, and will soon be sending seed for Drosera tolkenesis. I can use a smaller container than the five gallon container I mentioned in order to sprout the seed. It is just I recently found I can get these five gallon plastic jars that once contained cheese puffs from my church when they are finished with them. I live on $800 a month, so anything free like that excites me. I will keep the jars, as part of the order includes Sarracena flava, and that Sarrcena from Louisiana that has the marvelous white veined top. I know they can grow large, like 30 inches, and these jars will be great for them then.
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By Matt
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Posts:  22523
Joined:  Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:28 pm
#5180
It sounds like you've got a lot of plants coming! Congratulations. Lloyd from the OCPS is a very nice guy. He very generously sent me some tissue culture supplies in the past.

Carnivorous plants are indeed a pretty cheap hobby, but also very rewarding. I'm glad that you found your way to this site and I hope that you keep us up to date with your plants and how you care for them and how they're doing. I love seeing photos of and hearing about other people's plants, so I hope you also upload some photos when you get growing.
By hackerberry
Location: 
Posts:  1704
Joined:  Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:58 pm
#5204
Wow triffidlover, I guess you will need a bigger tank for your plants to come. Specially with the Sarrs. You can leave them out of the terrarium as they are as hardy as they can get.

hb
By jamesp
Location: 
Posts:  10
Joined:  Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:51 am
#6524
I have a couple of pictures of my terrarium on my page I just put them up today they are not the best quality pictures but i'll have better ones in a few days. i've had it for about a week with three vft's in it if anybody has some tips i'm more than willing to listen.
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