Saturday, March 26, 2011

Finally found some Sphagnum

Initially when I started thinking about growing CPs I came to know that the media I will be needing is either Sphagnum moss or peat moss, so I tried finding it alot but didnt succeed and found only grass moss or coco peat, out of which grass moss was not the right thing to grow CPs in and coco peat(made of coconut husk or coirs)  was very high in salt content(almost 300 PPM) which leads to burning of roots. I was looking for sphagnum or peat moss everywhere but every where I came across coco peat only.

I started searching online to find some source and also inquired online from international sellers about the cost and shipping, it was little hard to import small amount of sphagnum moss as it was costing alot and also it required certificates from government authority to import it. I had to cancel the option of importing sphagnum moss mainly due of not being in mood of going through the tedious paper work or employee of the government authority. I tried using Soilrite mix which was available in plenty here till I was able to find a source of Sphagnum moss and it worked well too.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Getting Impatient

After seeing a slow growth in seedlings I really got impatient and wanted to
see carnivorous plants catching some insects, I started searching alot but
couldnt find any seller in India, I was really disappointed. I knew that
Drosera Indica and Nepenthes Khasiana are natives to India but if I want
to find these plants I would have to go far away from my place in jungles or
forest of North-East India or Southern India and collect plants by myself,
I know my parents will never let me go off on such trip and also I was sure
it wont be easy to find such plants specially since these plants have different
local names at the place where these are found. After not being able to find
anyone or any nurseries which can sell CPS to me I just thought about keep on
checking regularly with different phone numbers of nurseries I found on Google.

Lighting

Its been long since the seeds germinated but still the seedlings were really tiny,
initially to protect it from getting destroyed by pigeons and squirrels I thought
about growing the seedlings inside. I heard about people using artificial lighting
so did some research on it and came to know that I can sue a normal CFL bulb
to grow the seedlings, in excitement I went to nearby  mall and bought a 22watt
6500k CFL. I though it will work out well. Everything was looking fine but still
seedlings were growing slow, I tried to think where I went wrong and came to
know that I need to have a powerful CFL as 22 Watts arent good enough to grow
the plants. So once again I went to nearby malls and markets to find high power
CFL with minimum wattage of 40 watts 6500k, Initially it was hard to find it but
after going through some electrical shop I found a nice 100 watt 6700k flower
shaped CFL. I bought it right away thinking I can grow more seedlings or plants under it.