Helis don't catch many insects

[kby]

This is on their own in a mostly closed tank. I rarely feed them...

Apologies for the lousy depth-of-field cellphone camera. Someday a better camera...-kby

[Clint]

I don't think anything catches very much in a terrarium They do respond well to bi-monthly fertilizing at half strength, put in the pitchers with a syringe.

[kby]

Actually all the floating stuff is fungus gnats (or something similar). I guess it isn't too clear but in this particular pitcher (a fairly new one) they covered pretty much the surface of the water. I agree I don't expect much in a terrarium, but that was the point; they seem to catch enough. Apologies that the intended humour, especially with the poor focus, wasn't obvious.-kby

[Clint]

Like you said, it could be a better picture

[brokken]

Mar 9, 2008 14:56:15 GMT Clint said:

I don't think anything catches very much in a terrarium They do respond well to bi-monthly fertilizing at half strength, put in the pitchers with a syringe.

I got my first Heli last year in late summer. Since then it has put up two small pitchers. I too am growing this in a terrarium and wondered about fertilization. What kind is best?

[Clint]

I've never done a controlled study I use Alaskan fish emulsion.

Some people are into organic fertilizers for their plants, some salt-based. Some people think it matters; I really don't think it does as long as you're fertilizing via the pitchers.

[kby]

I've used quarter-miracid, and in a formerly osmocote. But osmocote is controlled-release and in pitches is bad (seems to have killed an H. minor I had when I accidentally got a pellet in and couldn't get it out; it wasn't a controlled study but the plant was healthy reasonably long term before). Trouble with the miracid in a terrarium is it can get elsewhere and cause a pretty bad algae problem. I think I've decided I don't really want to use anything—there seems to be enough stuff after time and they do OK without it. Light and temp seem more important to me.-kby

[Clint]

You're absolutely correct. You don't need to fertilize, but they do better with it.

The trick, by the way, is to use a syringe without the needle Attach a small plastic air line tube to it and that way it's very easy to put fertilizer only where you want it to go without any spillage or algae.

[kby]

Agreed the syringe is the way to go if you're going to do within the pitchers. With Heliamphora in particular, I'd still worry about some eventuall spillage into the media if you mist or splash water through the pitchers having it splash out. Even with Nepenthes there's an issue with when the pitchers die and decompose (especially if you overload things...) so I'd still tend to take the conservative route. I think at the moment I have enough bugs that they don't show a dramatic increase with fertilizer, and maybe I even have more problems due to competing things (like algae; OK I didn't use a syring the last time although I did try to aim some of it. I also do use the nebulizer which does circulate things around alot and exacerbates extra fertilizer by nicely distributing it everywhere...-kby

[Clint]

How can a nebulizer distribute fertilizer, unless there is fertilizer in the nebulizer?

With Nepenthes, I do the same as with Heliamphora. The pitchers last longer with fertilizer and no insects, I think. Do not add fertilizer to the pitchers if they catch insects.



Doing whatever you're comfortable with is the best bet in any situation

[kby]

Mar 25, 2008 16:11:18 GMT Clint said:

How can a nebulizer distribute fertilizer, unless there is fertilizer in the nebulizer?

In my case, I had meant if you put the fertilizer in the pitchers, and [later] add enough water either through the nebulizer or by just splashing water in when you water (I don't actually have that problem as it's a pretty closed tank and I just add water to the tank and it gets distributed by the nebulizer), it then spills into the media and eventually drains to the bottom where it get recirculated through the filter into the water the nebulizer distributes. But that's just the way I have things set up.-kby

[av8tor1]

Please forgive my cutting and pasting, but here is some good info, as you can see... helis are dependent on both pitcher and root for nutrient uptake if optimal growth rates are to be achieved
Av

Uptake of some mineral ions was estimated in Heliamphora tatei and H. heterodoxa, by measuring the disappearance of ions from a solution (in mM: KCl, 1; CaCl2, 1; MgCl2, 1; NaCl, 1; NaH2PO4, 0.5; NH4Cl, 18.7) poured into their pitcher leaves (Jaffe et al., 1992). During 24 hours, 92-98 % of added P, 66-67 % of K, 28-54 % of Na, 9-30 % of Ca, and 18-32 % of Mg was taken up by the leaves. The former species took up all ions more efficiently than the latter. The results show that the species is able to take up P and K more efficiently from prey, than Na, Ca, and Mg.

In pitcher leaves of Heliamphora tatei and H. heterodoxa, about 50 % of added alanine and valine was absorbed within one day (Jaffe et al., 1992). The absorbed aminoacids are metabolized readily to a variety of compounds (Lüttge, 1964).

Organic substances of origin other than from animals are also utilized by leaves, as was
shown for Drosera and Pinguicula. Drosera rotundifolia as well as some species of Pinguicula catch pollen grains with their traps.

The pollen is digested (in some species only after the pollen grains have germinated on the trap), and the absorbed nutrients support the growth of the
plants considerably (R.M. Austin, 1875, published in Juniper et al., 1989; Harder and
Zemlin, 1968).

Similarly, the nutrient-rich foliar leachate from the canopy above may feed the leaves, as was suggested by Juniper et al. (1989) for three woodland species of Drosera, i.e.,
D. schizandra, D. prolifera and D. adelae. To possibly more efficiently benefit from the leaching, these plants have developed remarkably broad leaves (Juniper et al., 1989; Lavarack, 1979). In Heliamphora nutans large amounts of decaying leaves were found in the pitchers (Studnicka, 2003)