First Experience Growing Heliamphora

[kltower]

I got my first heliamphora three weeks ago and here is my experience growing them.

I grow the plants in 3 setups.

Setup 1 - Terrarium.
I grow the plants in a one-foot wide tank that I used to grow aquarium plants. As such the media is made up of aquarium plant soil (not sure of the chemical composition, but you can buy from most aquariums) with spaghnum moss on top.

Lighting: A small aquarium PL light, on from 9:00 - 21:30. There is direct evening sun 16:00-17:00.

Temperature: 28°C daytime; 18°C night-time.

Setup 2
The plants are grown in small pots with spaghnum moss. They are placed amongst my highland nepenthes set-up.

Lighting: Direct morning sun 8 to 12 noon and bright window light till 7pm

Temperature: 26°C daytime; 18°C nighttime

Setup 3
Plants also in individual pots. But the pots are placed in a plastic container and sealed at the top-end with cling-wrap. As such it is very humid inside with alot of condensation on top.

Lighting and temperature as setup 2

The result:
Setup 1
Plants in the terrarium are healthy, without any sign of stress.

Setup 2
For the potted plants in the highland setup, only those closest to to outlet of the humidifier are not stressed.

Setup 3
The plants did well initially but because they are totally sealed, they got too wet and started to rot at the tips.

So after two weeks, I took the stressed plants from setup 2 and 3 and placed them in a two-feet tank. The only cool place I can find for the tank is in my on-suite bathroom.

Lighting: 2 T5 lights (8:30 - 21:30)
Temperature: 27°C daytime, 23°C night-time.

The terrarium setup


Close-up of the terrarium. H. minor on the left and H. nutans on the right and back. There are also two clumps of cephalotus (foreground and back).


New home for the potted heliamphoras. Humidity range from 90's to low 70's (when the lights are switched on).


Conclusion: I have better luck growing helias than droseras.

Choong

[piscesilim]

Do you put them in air-con room at night?

[kltower]

Lim,

To get the temperature range, you NEED air-conditioning. But °18C is rather extreme. But I think they can take °23C for night temperature.

Personally, I feel they are easier to handle than droseras. I have no luck on droseras. Almost all the droseras that I got from you died. Even D. burmanii.

Putting them in a terrarium and then, there is nothing else to do, except spraying them once a week.

Choong

[piscesilim]

Have you try without air-con before?

[ameliepoulain]

Wow! That's a lot of heliamphora! What sunpitchers are those?

[David]

Jun 10, 2008 17:06:26 GMT 8 piscesilim said:

Have you try without air-con before?

Mine is grown in a terrarium without air-con. Temperatures in the terrarium in the early morning is about 25 degrees. Sometimes higher, sometimes lower depending on whether it's a rainy day or hot day. It seems that with very high humidity like in a terrarium, they'll survive.

I've given up on the routine of placing ice cubes in the terrarium to cool the temperatures. Does not really help. Usually the temperatures goes down only about 1 degrees. It's been living without ice cubes for a couple of weeks now.

[David]

And I agree with Athene... Choong, you've got a lot of Heliam there. Planing to sell it sometime soon?

[kltower]

Hi David and Athene,

I only placed the potted helias in the 2 feet tank 2 weeks ago. I have to make sure they are strong and healthy before contemplating on selling them. Give me another two weeks.

They are mostly H. nutans with a few H. minor.

Choong

[cactustts]

Hi Choong,
Would you try growing one or two without aircond? I think you are the most "suitable" person to try on this then anyone else here in our climate (since you have so many of them and had successfully grew them in your adjusted condition). I think most of us will be interested to know the result of the acclimatisation of the Heli in our climate. Hope we can get some cultivation info (I mean in the tropic) from you on this CP because we seldom see any infos in the net.

[David]

That's a good idea TS. Choong, if you don mind could you perhaps try growing them in a few conditions such as in the garden, without air-con, under artificial lights, window growing etc. and see how they acclimatise.

I think the most important test you must do, if you are doing this is to acclimatise them in the garden.

[kltower]

TS/David,

Before I try growing them in our natural environement, I must first harded them. Helis are really finiky on humidity.

Perhaps I will try growing live spaghnum moss with the helis first. That way will at least keep the heli moist.

Choong

[cactustts]

Growing sphagnum moss with the helis is a good idea as live sphagnum moss not only provide humidity in the surrounding but also a natural humidity indicator.