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Post by tom on Apr 22, 2007 19:52:50 GMT -5
Since summer is coming up and some of our beloved CP are somewhat picky regarding hot temperature, I thought it might be handy to start a thread on how to cool them down, either for the nighttime drop of temperature, or to avoid oblivion during a heat spell in summer (ie a way to reduce the effect of heat temporary). Here is some tips gathered here and there to keep them cool: -Growing them in a cool basement (duh!); -put ice/frozen water bottle in the enclosure (ie terraria) of your plants. Not very effective and have to be done daily in a small enclosure, but it somewhat work; -Add a heatsink to your terrarium: seems costly to operate for a large terrarium but might be a temorary solution. Plans are posted somewhere on the internet in an italian CP site; During winter, a muffin fan can take the cooler air from a window surface easily and redirect it to a terrarium. The same thing can be done with a AC during summer, but an humidifier should be used since this machine is making the air dryer. Some nice plans have been done by Josh Cook on the internet, but his website seems to be down ; -Remember that water, when it evaporate from a surface, take energy from this surface when it changes its phase from liquid to gas form. Since it take heat from the surface, it cools that surface substancially. So periodical misting with a good ventilation (in a terrarium) will cool your plants enough to help them to came through a hot spell. It won't be noticeable by your thermometer in your growing area (unless you spray a lot), but the surface of your plants will cool down. In fact, transpiration of the plant alone (promoted by the air circulation, and even without spraying) will help to cool it. The opposite is also true, and its why nurseries spray their plants during the night where the risk of frost is high, since frozing water is releasing heat, which avoid the plants to suffer from extreme cold. So, in brief, ventilate and spray! Any others techniques to add?
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Post by mabudon on Apr 23, 2007 7:36:01 GMT -5
Question- what is a "muffin way"?? I spray a few plants with cool-ish water sometimes. We have no air conditioning so my plants pretty much get natural everything- nothing seems to mind too much, BUT if anything dries right out (Heliamphora comes to mind- I put it in a pot that's about 3 sizes too big for this summer, hoping to avoid the killer dry-out this summer) then it can take months for it to look right again Overall, I have tried to avoid getting plants that NEED wacky temperatures. Last summer everything I have took the worst temps imaginable and most of it didn't phase them at all. I'd heard horror stories of Pings melting in the heat etc, but mine didn't seem to have a problem My worst problem in summer is keeping up with evaporation- all winter the lower temps and lowered air movement makes my trays "last" a bit longer- once the windows get opened and the hot weather starts, I am running around, sometimes twice a day trying to make sure they're not drying out to dangerous degrees Nice timely topic, Tommy!!!
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Post by vraev on Apr 23, 2007 11:03:55 GMT -5
guys, I just moved back into my house yest night and I put the plants in my basement since upstairs will be hotter. But today morning when I went back down....MAN!!! its cold......its pretty cold....like 50 or lower?? I mean the terrarium should be fine for the VFT's shouldn't it??? the nep should be ok too??? I am concerned that the plants are shocked!! I am also concerned if they would go into dormancy wiht these low temperatures
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Post by Flytrap on Apr 23, 2007 11:31:17 GMT -5
It's important to remember that most CPs can take very warm temperatures as long as you have high humidity to go along with it. For finicky highland neps, they too can handle periods of high temps (eg. mid 40's C) as long as humidity is high and it gets it's nightly temperature drop.
I cool my plants with an automated misting system programmed for 30 minutes each at a couple hours before the noon heat, at noon and a couple of hours after noon. I also have two muffin fans running in opposite directions - one at ground level and the other near the top of the greenhouse ridge to circulate the warm air.
cool loving plants are located near the floor, and larger plants in larger pots near the ridge. I've successfully grown ultra highland plants like this for years.
Last year I got an interesting suggestion from Steve Deering about placing a swamp cooler in my greenhouse. I'm still contemplating it.
In the home terrarium, I only grow small neps (tobaica, glabrata, singalana, gymnaphora and talengensis), along with smaller CPs like rubra, purpurea, VFTs and "midget" flavas (those seedlings that grow smaller than it's siblings). And of course, I throw in the weed capensis to carpet the place. I don't have a fan in the terrarium, and it is partially covered. Temps hit 46 C in the 33 gallon east facing terrarium, and drops down to 17C at night.
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Post by vraev on Apr 23, 2007 11:48:46 GMT -5
actually I noticed the temperature is like 60- 50 F in the basement. The terrarium is nice and around 70 degrees. Definately a bit lower than at uni since it was like a oven in there....and the nep....its around 68 or so I guess. Humidity.....hmm....I have to yet get the nep enclousure.
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Post by Rick Hillier on Apr 23, 2007 13:04:13 GMT -5
For those of you who are married... I have the perfect solution if you want to cool down your plants... just P.O. your spouse - it'll get frosty in no time I've been having problems getting my Nep rajah to pitcher, so I'm trying it (for now) in an aquarium that sits right on the basement floor. There is a 55-watt VHO fluorescent on top which heats the tank up a bit through the day (low to mid seventies) with cooling back down at least below 66F at night when the light goes off. >>> Rick <<<
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Post by Flytrap on Apr 23, 2007 13:23:36 GMT -5
Rick - try resting the tendril tip end (proto pitcher) on some mossy surface D For those of you who are married... I have the perfect solution if you want to cool down your plants... just P.O. your spouse - it'll get frosty in no time I've been having problems getting my Nep rajah to pitcher, so I'm trying it (for now) in an aquarium that sits right on the basement floor. There is a 55-watt VHO fluorescent on top which heats the tank up a bit through the day (low to mid seventies) with cooling back down at least below 66F at night when the light goes off. >>> Rick <<<
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Post by Rick Hillier on Apr 23, 2007 14:03:54 GMT -5
The whole tendril/protopitcher is only about 1" long - they simply do not grow out from the leaf. It's just wasn't happy where I had it, so I had to try something else. Humidity may have been an issue as well - I can't seem to be able to buy any of it... several neps either didn't pitcher or had the stunted lid syndrome - I guess 30% humidity will tend to do that With the warmer weather finally here, it;s up to 50% during the day - still not high enough for me, but if I take it too high, especially in the winter, I run the risk of mould growing throughout the house. >>> Rick <<<
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Post by tom on Apr 23, 2007 15:01:37 GMT -5
A muffin way? It's the way you take to... hmm... look over there!
*typo corrected* (and btw, a muffin fan is also a CPU fan *ReReEdit for mabudon*)
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Post by sdeering on Apr 23, 2007 19:05:56 GMT -5
I purchased two swamp coolers at an auction. They are for humidifying and cooling greenhouses at the same time.
They are basically very large humidifiers. They are about 1 meter square, have 3 large pads that water is pumped up and trickled down.
Hot dry air from outside is blown through the pads and is cooled by evaporation and the plus is humidified too.
I built one for the previous houses sun room out of a furnace for a house trailer. I hooked the garden hose to a float and had a pump circulate water up to the top of one of those plasticized fiber furnace filters. It worked great. It really helps to have mild humid fresh air for the plants. There is also no mist that comes out of a swamp cooler that will eventually cover plants with white dust from hard water. Swamp coolers are the cheapest to operate as well. Stephen
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