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sahoyaref

My Vivarium

sahoyaref
20 years ago

Here are my pictures, finally, as promised! I'll be adding more soon, but photobucket is screwing up today and won't let me add more than the 4 you see. The white phal. that I don't have a close-up of (on the right side) is mini Phal. Timothy Christopher. Some of the moss has just started to come back to life, but most of it is still yellowish. And no, that little Chinese man is not a permanent inhabitant. =) The plants in there are:

Button fern

Adiantum fern

Selaginella

Sphagnum moss

Other unknown moss, possibly some kind of sphag.

NOID dendrobium phalaenopsis orchid

Cirrhopetalum pulchellum orchid

mini Phal 'Be Tris' orchid

mini Phal 'Timothy Christopher'

mini Phal 'Lava Glow'

NOID phal.

Neanthe Bella dwarf palm

Fittonia argyroneura nana (Little snakeskin plant)

Zebrina pendula (wandering jew)

Purple Haze Vine

Paph. Dellainia orchid

Paph. Cicada's Secret x Sunken Treasure (maudae hybrid)

Misc. fungi and lichens (wild collected)

Pics are at http://img4.photobucket.com/albums/v29/sahoyaref/Vivarium/

I will also try to post one here, but I think it will be too big.

Comments (18)

  • sahoyaref
    Original Author
    20 years ago

    Yes, it was too big. Here is a direct link that you can just click on.

    Here is a link that might be useful: My Viv

  • orchidsncats
    20 years ago

    I love it! How long did it take you to do? Jocelyn

  • sahoyaref
    Original Author
    20 years ago

    I posted the other pics now. There should be 7. It took me about two months to get it to where you see it now. That is mostly because I have an 8 month old baby to take care of, and spare time segments come few and far between! If I had just been able to work on it whenever I wanted, it probably would have taken a week, figuring in drying time for the silicone holding the waterfall pieces together and making the pools and stream and setting it all up. Also, the waterfall is running in the pictures, but it really doesn't work yet. It still runs dry in a few minutes. I just turned it on for the pics.

  • mdahms1979
    20 years ago

    Very nice, it will look great when the plants begin to fill out and your moss starts to grow.
    Did you mention before that you are putting a Fire bellied Toad in your vivarium, it looks like the perfect home.

    I have a Nepenthes ventrata(ventricosa x alata)cutting I could spare let me know if you would like it. The pitchers are small enough that they will not pose a threat to the frog and the plant will grow really well in such an environment.

  • sahoyaref
    Original Author
    20 years ago

    Yeah, I'll be getting a fire belly once the dirt is all covered in moss. How big would an entire N. ventrata plant get? I'm not really worried about it 'eating' a frog, but I've read that neps get pretty huge, even the smaller ones.

  • mdahms1979
    20 years ago

    The plant can get fairly big but it will take a long time because the cutting is still quite small. On a mature plant the pitchers are about 4" long but right now the cuttings pitchers are about 1". They are vineing plants so it will crawl up a support like drift wood and if it gets too long you can just snip it. They usually produce new plants from the base if they are happy and (about once a year) and you can then snip the old plant and keep the smaller one or allow them both to fill out.

    I will take a pic of a cutting that is about 1 year old and post it in the gallery for you.

  • sahoyaref
    Original Author
    20 years ago

    Do they grow best in dirt or sphag? And how aggressive is this baby? I wouldn't want it climbing up and choking out the orchid I have mounted on the driftwood. =) could you also post a pic of the pitchers, please?

  • mdahms1979
    20 years ago

    I grow mine in straight spaghnum moss, it would be easiest to keep it in its pot of moss and bury the pot under the substrate, water with distilled water or RO water.

    Here is a picture of a top cutting that is just over a year old, it is making a small plant from the base now as well. I grow this plant in my orchid case that is lit with four 40w florescent tubes.
    If you skip ahead to the next photo you will see a pic of the cutting, it is in a 3" pot. The plant will grow straight up if you give it a support or it will grow up untill it falls over and then it will grow along the ground or any support you give it.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Nepenthes

  • Bluemind
    20 years ago

    That Nepenthes is Pretty cool!!!!! If you ever have an Extra cutting let me Know :) I am new at the whole Vivarium growing. The construction of my vivarium is going pretty slow since I am 19 in College and with tons of homework :(

  • sahoyaref
    Original Author
    20 years ago

    He won't be able to send it to you, bluemind, because you live in the states, and live plant material is not allowed across the border without all sorts of certificates that make it not worthwhile!
    I think I am interested in a cutting, Mike! Please don't send it just yet, as the weather is still a little cool here. I will email you privately when it has warmed up, okay? Thanks so much for the generous offer! Someday I may be able to return the favour.

  • mrbreeze
    20 years ago

    And since he has the EXACT same plant as me and i do live in the states, I can probably send someone a cutting as well. I have the most recent cutting I've taken trying to root back in the terrarium right now. When it does, I'd be happy to trade it for something (orchids).

    I think it has to be one of the easiest Nep. to grow. Mine actually seems to prefer growing in standing water! I agree w/ everything he said. If they get too rampant just chop chop chop!

  • sahoyaref
    Original Author
    20 years ago

    I read somewhere, perhaps on the cp forum, that leaf cuttings of neps almost never take. Have you found this to be true?

  • Persistence
    20 years ago

    Very cool! I love it.

  • mdahms1979
    20 years ago

    I do not believe that you can use leaf cuttings to propagate Nepenthes but stem cuttings work well as long as you have high humidity.

  • sahoyaref
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Here's an updated pic of my terr.

    {{gwi:1267807}}

    Note that the waterfall is dry (still haven't got it working), the moss on the driftwood at the back is removed (I have now moistened it and placed it in sealed plastic bags, still nothing coming back to life. Oh, I also discovered it was not sphagnum at all, just sheet moss of some kind), I have placed a few bits of live wild-collected moss in there, I removed the small pond that was on the left (will use it for some other terr. in the future), and I planted a small sanseviera. I removed it two days later on learning that it needs dryish soil. There are also some misc. bedding plants for my patio pots in there, just to make it look fuller. They include the golden vine by the sans, the purple-flowering vine in the upper left corner, the silver vine by the waterfall, and the New Guinea impatients by the phal on the right. Also, the phal is now nearly done flowering, as you can see in the pic, and I added a very small brom beside the Cirrhopetalum orchid on the wood at the back of the tank, about centre (behind the Dendro. orchid). You can't see the flower of the brom in the pic (it's cut off), but it's red and yellow. It's a very tiny Guzmania lingulata that I got at Superstore for $4. =) They had other tiny ones too, and I'm still kicking myself for not buying more. . .
    Sorry about the weird glare in that one spot, don't know how that got there, as I didn't use the flash when taking the pic. Oh well! Y'all will just have to deal with it. . . =)

  • JustJodi
    19 years ago

    It's beautiful... so lush looking already! I hope to see more photos in the future...

    I've been wanting to put together something in a small square aquarium I have... I'm glad to have found this forum.

  • redpoppy215
    19 years ago

    Just in case you're interested in the id of the bedding plants you added, the purple-flowered trailer in the upper left corner is Torenia, the golden-foliaged creeper is Lysimachia (creeping jenny), and the silver-foliaged creeper is Dichondra.

  • sahoyaref
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    I already knew what they were, thanks.

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