Pinguicula walls and other experiments

[jhock001]

Hey all, I wanted to share with you a simple Pinguicula wall design I’ve been experimenting with. Please try it out yourself and let me know what you think or share if you have a wall of your own.  This wall combines two classic designs I’m sure you are all already aware of, but it may offer some advantages. The first inspiration is the wall at California Carnivores consisting of sphagnum moss and CP mix sandwiched between plastic mesh (http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=49298&page=1). One disadvantage of this design is the frequent need to water the wall, because the wall can only retain as much water as saturated sphagnum can hold; excess water drips away. The upper portions of this first wall dry out easily and salt can accumulate but nevertheless, this wall is very attractive and functional. The second design is the now infamous “dripping wall” consisting of baffles and continuously dripping water (http://www.pinguicula.org/pages/pages_principales/Dripping_walls.htm). This design holds water in baffles for a long period of time but lets face it, its ugly. So I’ve simply combined the two by constructing plastic baffles inside a sphagnum wall.



Key advantages:

When suspended vertically the baffles hold water, much more water than the sphagnum can hold. This results in more time between waterings because the baffle water wicks through the sphagnum keeping it consistently saturated. In this particular design there are three sets of baffles positioned at various heights, thus preventing even the highest portion of the wall from drying out- a frequent problem with classic pinguicula walls.



Salt management:

One disadvantage of adding baffles is that the water cannot be flushed out easily causing salt accumulation. This can be remedied by super saturating the wall for a long period- the suggestion is an hour of slow dripping fresh water from top to bottom every 6 months.


It's only a month or so old now but as summer comes I will provide updates and also some other experiments I have going on...

[paulbarden]

Very cool! Please let us know how the project works out, and what you learn from it.

[RL7836]

Interesting. While i've seen these designs referred to as Ping walls, why do they preclude the use of Drosera? In your wall, why not include a few of each of the sisters or a regia or many of the others?

Have the trays been holding water as you expected? Any time I have LFS anywhere near a container of water, it manages to act as a self-starting siphon (& poof water is gone).

[jhock001]

RL, that's a very good observation it's true that sphagnum can siphon out the water. I think the trick is to keep the sphagnum physically separated from the baffles. If the water only touches cp mix or sand and not sphagnum then the siphon effect may be broken. I think maybe the material interface creates a place for water tension to nucleate a surface and break capillary action.

I haven't been the biggest fan of droseras but you could definitely put them on a 'ping wall'. I suppose its not natural for droseras to grow on vertical surfaces but some people do seem to enjoy it. Please give it a shot