My Terrarium

I had wanted a terrarium almost the very day I sowed my drosera intermedia seeds. That was towards the end of May 2009. It did not materialized until now. But right before that I was using a temporary setup.

It seems to work for me then maybe this can help newbies who are first starting up and do not have the budget for a proper light set up yet. BUT bear in mind this only worked cos my droseras were seedlings, as it got bigger I found that I needed more lights especially if I am to have them potted up separately.

My 1st light setup

For the above setup, I was using a 9 watt cold light energy saving bulb (which is equivalent to a 60 watt regular non saving bulb) .

Now as far as I know the droseras I am growing need lots of sunlight, and since my place is not really suitable for putting them outdoors due to my pets being able to get their dirty little paws on them ( I have had experience of my pets mangling up my regular plants and shrubs enough to know ) I had decided to grow them indoors. Since I sowed the seeds during late fall, sunlight was really limited and my windows were not really idea and when they germinated, I resorted to using regular lights just to experiment and test it out. Surprisingly that first setup there where I had the container of d.intermedia seeds handing from the light, they germinated a few days later when I had switched to putting the container there. Prior to that I had them sitting on a table which was then placed right next to the window to try and catch some rays. Coincidence or was it the lights that woke the seeds up? I can’t really say for now.

So when the d.intermedias started showing their 2nd set of carnivorous leaves I then changed the setup to the table along with a table light. This time I started using a regular 60 watt warm light, this was still in winter and my house tends to be on the cold side, thus I switched to the regular bulb because it actually emits heat and that could give the d.intermedias some warmth.

2nd temp. setup

While using this 2nd setup, one d.intermedia was growing really fast, I think apart from the warm light being so close to it, it could also be due to the fact that it had its own pot to grow in instead of the communal pot, and subsequently this d.intermedia started growing a flower scape, and then later another 2nd flower scape started to form.

Then when I came into possession of extra drosera and nepenthes seeds (D.sessilifolia, oblanceolata, paradox, byblis liniflora, spatulata, tokaiensis, indica and N.mirabilis, stenophylla and N. sp. Pangà), I sowed them all and had to add more lights! This was what I came up with.

3rd temp. setup

Finally just two days ago I had the time to clean out the old fish tank that was given by a friend and then I had it all set up and ready to go. What is now missing is a permanent top with lights fixture so currently still using these table lamps for lights.

Terrarium

I had lined the inside with aluminum foil to test out and see if it actually can reflect enough light for the plants, if it does maybe I would save some money on buying the actual proper lights for now since I do have a budget. Keeping fingers crossed. Alas one fish tank is also not enough to be honest, i have 4 more pots of seeds which cannot fit in due to them being sowed into big pots, so I think I will definitely need one more fish tank, which is not a problem cos my friend had left 3 fish tanks here for me! One being almost 6 feet long but space is a problem for me. For now I will deal with what I can do first and need to work on getting a table setup for the long tank!

Anyway here are some more pics of my other d.intermedia that is flowering now

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