rajah: Baby Aristolochioides Goes to Fridge (Read 216 times)

[bactrus]

rajah
New Member

member is offline





Joined: Apr 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 41
Location: Bandung, Indonesia
Baby Aristolochioides Goes to Fridge
« Thread Started on 4 Oct, 2007, 15:30 »After about a month being planted in my fridge, my baby N. aristolochioides is still looking healthy and green despite the lack of artificial lighting and fan. The same condition can be told about that cloud-montane moss decorating the base of the fridge interior, whereas the same moss planted outside the fridge in my tropical lowland environment has died already.

When both the lower and upper compartment is empty, the temperature inside the fridge can get down to 10 C, even under the medium temperature setting. But when I put there a water container, a thick layer of highland moss and the baby plant, the air temperature becomes higher, regardless of the minimum (coldest) temperature setting.

Here's the result of the latest temperature measurement:



Note: the red line shows the temp measurement of lower (bottom) compartment and the blue line is of the upper compartment (near the freezer).

Night time temp can reach as low as 11 C in the upper compartment and 16 C in the bottom compartment, while daytime can reach as high as 17 C (upper) and 21 C (bottom). That's because the upper compartment is closer to the freezer.

At the moment the only source of light is the diffused sunlight that falls diagonally through the double-glassed fridge door (the door is the modified version, originally it doesn't have the glass). The double glass is supposed to have lower heat-transmission value than a single glass.

So here's what I do everyday: I put the pot on the lower compartment from 6 AM - 6 PM and then move it to the upper compartment from 6 PM - 6 AM.

The purpose of the water container in the upper container is to raise the humidity around the freezer. There is a small (7W, 500 L/h) electric pump to circulate the water through PVC pipe with several holes on it, so the water falls down from the holes back to the container, and it creates a beautiful vision and sound of a mini waterfall that also splashes on the plant's leaves. I water the plant and refill the container once or twice a week.

I have checked the relative humidity from time to time in both upper and lower compartment, and it varies between 64% to 73%

After several days the freezer builds itself a big mass of ice that gets bigger everyday. To avoid the ice from plugging the holes on the PVC pipe, I have to de-frost the fridge once a week. This will melt the ice back to the water container.

As you can see, there's a narrow gap at one of the door sides, through which the pump cable runs to the external power source.

Anything I can do to improve this fridgerium? Any comment would be appreciated.

This image is reduced by 23%, click it to view full size.


This image is reduced by 46%, click it to view full size.


Link to Post - Back to Top Loggedisaacgoh
Senior Member

member is offline





Joined: Jan 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 503
Location: Antara Ipoh dan K. Lumpur
Re: Baby Aristolochioides Goes to Fridge
« Reply #1 on 8 Oct, 2007, 16:36 »Looks like you go to great distance just to make your baby aristolochioides grow well. The mosses seems to do very well from the pictures.

While I salute your efforts, I think the growing area is too small.

Rgds,
Isaac Link to Post - Back to Top LoggedDavid
Administrator

member is offline





Joined: Dec 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,326
Location: Kuala Lumpur
Re: Baby Aristolochioides Goes to Fridge
« Reply #2 on 12 Oct, 2007, 22:23 »Love the moss growing in the chamber. Seem to do very well. Do update us on the progress of your N. aristolochioides. I can see a fresh new pitcher bud on the right of the picture. Looks like it will grow into a pitcher.