shots from the shade house
 

I finally got around to putting some new pictures up on photobucket :tongue:
Here's some from the new shade house;

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0086.jpg

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0088.jpg

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0089.jpg

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0090.jpg

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0091.jpg

Seedlings;
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0099.jpg

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0100.jpg

Tiger x raff ‘Alata’
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0097.jpg

Tiger x raff ‘Alata’ http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0101.jpg

Viking from Xir seed;
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0102.jpg

Coccinea x amp spotted from Xir seed;
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0098.jpg

N. burbidgeae x edwardsiana
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0096.jpg

N. veitchii x fusca;
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0095.jpg

N. hookeriana bunch;
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0087.jpg

N. hookeriana
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0094.jpg

A company in Bangkok is selling pummice stone in various sizes. I've been using the 1/2"-1" size but made a mistake in ordering the last time and got 180 kilos of "00" size instead. I find that it works as well as perlite and at a fraction of the cost! 18 kilo bags are 350 B. if you order 10 bag minimum.
The web site is;
http://www.srilava.com/

Here's a couple pictures of the "00" size;

Sri lava pumice– size “00”;
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0092.jpg

Sri lava pumice– size “00”;
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...essed_0093.jpg

:D

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Shawn, you are KILLING me here! :glare:

Now where did my left eye popped out to? And I may have to get new keyboard cos' my drool zapped my old one :tongue:

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Hey, I just noticed the pumice, fact is I got some from a nursery here in Penang. The nursery owner highly recommended it to me, saying it's way better than perlite, and that the people in Holland stopped using perlite sometime back and they are all using this. He charged me quite a lot though, he scooped what was about 250gm worth into a plastic bag & charged me RM10! Bear in mind it's not as light as perlite!

If I'm not mistaken, I've posted a photo of this asking if anyone knows what it is, but no one seems to know. Now I know it's pumice! Have to start using it.

Shawn, how do you use it? Are those white stuff mixed with the coco cubes in the seedling pots pumice or perlite?

And is it easy to get agricultural grade perlite in Thailand? What I see here in Penang are almost always the contruction grade!

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Thats quite a collection you have going there. How long have you been collecting? Do you have any highlanders?

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Hi

WOW SO MANY...................Its a heaven in there......Alcran burbidg x edward is a highlander whether he's growing it in HL conditions i don't know.

Ken

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Hi Athena, Glad you liked 'em, I haven't had time to upload many shots to Photobucket so those are just the 'overall' shots. Don't know why but Firefox freezes every time I try to 'bulk upload' so I have to do them one at a time:crying:

R: Pumice; I'm paying 1.90 RM a kilo! Plus the shipping was 70 RM for 10 big bags at 18 kilos each. The seedling shots showed Perlite in the mix as those were potted up some time back. The first Tiger x Raff 'alata' shot shows one of the larger pumice stones on top of the mix. I've been putting a layer about an inch thick of the 1/2"-1" stones in the bottom of each pot and then mixing the coco cubes and pumice and repotting. With this new "00" size I'm mixing it thoroughly with the cubes and the plants seem to be loving it. Somewhere I have a photo of their smaller 1 kilo bags upon which they have printed the chemical breakdown of the composition of the pumice...I'll try to find it and post later. (I THINK it is also somewhere on their website). The Ag-grade Perlite is available from a shop in Bangkok but I pay something like 190 RM a bag (Granted, it's a bigger bag, but not that much bigger)! PM me your e-address and I'll send you some other pix without having to upload to photobucket.

Alcran - I've not been into Neps all that long, I just go a bit nuts when I find something I like to propagate! (watch for a future thread on Drosera!) And I obviously enjoy propagating Neps! Probably around about 2 years now. I really don't have much in the way of Highlanders as I'm about 500 meters from the beach on a hot, sunny island about 30 M. above sea level. I have a few "HL"/"Iintermediates" that I've started from seed and am trying to see if I can get the strongest growing ones to maturity and cross them again. I've also started trying out a few hybrids using HL's (like the N. burbidgeae x edwardsiana) to see if they can handle the heat, so far so good!:biggrin:

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Hey you've been into neps almost the sam time as me :D But well your collection is a 100X more than me hahahahahahaha.Your veitchii x fusca looks very young.....Mine still doesn't show reddish colour on the peristrome instead it shows yellow(not dying)

Ken

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Ken, Shawn might be into Nepenthes for only the past 2 years, but he's been into plants all his life. And he is a profesional to boot, a famous landscape artist who's done work all over the world!

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Those shade house will be upgraded into nursery status in no time:1thumbup:

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Shwan is the "Pro" and this is part of his hobby + work. What a life !! :laugh:

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Robert, the shadehouse is only one of the many shadehouses that Shawn has. I think he filled this in less than a week after building it! That's my idea of paradise.

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Thanks to you all for the nice comments...I must say; I wouldn't be close to where I am with CP's if it were not for all of my fellow forumers! Seeds, answers, lessons and friendships have allowed me to pursue this 'hobby' with my usual sense of obsession. Thanks again to all of you!

I think after almost 50 years of growing things I'm finally starting to be able to 'read' what the plants are communicating by their look and vitality. There's some truth to the concept that whatever you do - you get out what you put in! The more excited and involved you get with a plant/species, the more you see positive results. It becomes self reinforcing and before you know it the plants are crowding you out of your house! (I DID live in one of my really big greenhouses for a while back in the 1980's but now the situation is reversed!)

Athena - I thought it was full in a week, but I've been fitting more and more in every day for a month now! The next one is almost finished and it'll be 'just in time' again! :biggrin:

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Hi Athene thanks for da info..............And also yeah not even in no time it could be anytime........................So shawn how many houses of those do you have hehehe......

Ken

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Now that is just amazing!!! I would like to have a shade house if I could find some land! Argh, you are making me jeolous, Shawn!!! :crying:, I want a shade house.......boo hoo hoo........

Ok, anyways, how many shade houses do you have? I wonder, is pumice better than perlite? I see that you cover the whole ground with pumice, why? Does it help keep the shade house cool? One last thing, does pumice stick to you when it is wet? Perlite sticks when it is wet, very annoying.

Cheers

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Hi Edward (and Ken). I'm up to four of them now, 1 small, 1 medium and 2 large. The last large one is almost ready for plants but it's in another town not too far away so I have to haul all the plants over there still. The ground is covered in plain, gray gravel (like used in mixing cement) just to keep the weeds down and stop it from becoming muddy. The pumice, when wet, sticks like perlite. I don't know yet if it is "better", but it's a lot cheaper and I don't like the unnatural look of the bright white perlite.

Edward, see the post I did on the 'seedling greenhouse test'. It's only about 3 meters long and 2 wide and about 1.60 tall. (Here's an old picture);http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...p/IMG_9836.jpg
It was pretty easy to make with a little cement, some PVC pipe and a few lengths of steel reinforcing bar. I have a really bad grasshopper problem around here so it's a necessity! Plus my house/yard is too full of trees and mostly too shady for neps to do well. :biggrin:

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Shawn, you post any more pictures I'll have to buy myself a Penang-Koh Samui ticket. You're giving me plenty of ideas for my new place... about 9 months away...

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Oh, wow! Thanks for the advice, Shawn!

Cheers

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Hi Shawn

Thanks for da info........

Bactrus where are you moving O.O

Ken

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Congratulations BA! Yes, start planning the Neps areas now! (and leave room for expansion!). Are you going to be building or buying an already made home?

Edward - No problem. Go for it!

Re: shots from the shade house
 

wow.. sounds like bacturs going to have one too in pg very soon

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Brilliant shade house Shawn!! I've always wanted one built but now that I have limited space, your ideas I will reserve for the future years :tongue:

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Have to agree, Shawn you need put a warning out viewing this thread will cause drooling.:laugh:

Re: shots from the shade house
 

Hi again Edward! I just found these pictures of the seedling house 'in-the-process' of being built and I think they might help you more than the 'finished' photos;

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_9399.jpg

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_9400.jpg

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...8/IMG_9398.jpg

There is steel re-bar stuck into the cement walls which sit inside the PVC pipes. This 'anchors' them in place. (you can see 2 pieces on the front of the first picture - for doorway pipes). The floor of mine slopes to a drain which has a valve so I can flood the floor (make sure you also have an overflow drain or you'll lose all your seedlings in a big rain!). Be careful about the slope inside - first time I had too much slope, top end plants were dry while low end plants were drowning!). I wish I had made it taller as I have to crouch over to move around inside. I would also add a piece of wood running along the side walls to attach the net to so that I could raise the side walls to get at plants without having to climb around inside.

:biggrin: Good luck!