It would be a cool idea to put both carnis and chids together. They are a lot alike as far as envitonment prefs except for the fact that any fertilizer at all will kill carnivores, even tap water kills them, but I water all of my plants w/ R/O anyhow. I think I will give it a go next spring when I pull my traps out of dormancy and divide them.
I'm assuming that there would probably be the tanin in most deciduous hardwoods, and why cork seems to be used so often?
How would you go about watering the chids that are mounted to freestanding metal shelving?

they would be mounted on the wood and then placed on the shelving during the winter months kind of like a small green house. Mine are mounted on wood with fishing wire. I spray every morning until green roots show. Then my plan to when I move them into the house this winter is to have a metal shelving unit that is mobile (20.00 at walmart) then hang them from that in their winter room. I also give them a good drenching about every 2 days except my zone requires that since it is so hot.

Most likely that is why the cork is used i also think that it holds up longer than wood pieces.

I mount a lot of mine, I live in NC... There is generally enough humidity, although, sometimes in the house, it can vary depending on the time of year. I also use a lot of wooden baskets, and my Phal species love those as well. Where in NC do you live? ...if you don't mind me asking? (I live in Salisbury, and then on the Outer Banks, just south of Hatteras, on Ocracoke Island, during the summertime)

I just use a spray bottle to water them, and saturate the mounts, avoiding the crowns of Phals, especially if there isn't much air movement, or if it's going to be slightly chilly.

put some large plastic pans on the metal shelves and let it catch the water from the mounted plants....that way it also serves as a humidity tray

I have a Lexington address, but I'm closer to High Rock Lake. So our climate is def the same;) So :waving from across the Yadkin. lol

Wow! Well, hello there! You're right next door then! Lol :waving from the other side of the river!! (technically, I'm on the Outer Banks right now, but will be back to Salisbury shortly! ...in about a week or two). Welcome to the board, neighbor! :biggrin:

I like the idea of a wall to hang your plants on. But place them back a ways from the window for phals as these don't like full sun for long. They sunburn easily. Do you live in the piedmont area or Apps? Makes a difference. Don't worry about humidity. The more course the media the more often you can water. What and how do you feed your fly catchers? I have tried but after awhile they die. I love them but never get them to really grow. Any tips? That pot you have the phal in is nice. Lots of air movement. That is the unsung key to growing good phals.

James, he is in the piedmont area of NC (where I am ;))

I don't use the fertilizer spikes for orchids- just too much fertilizer concentrated in one place in the pot. Orchids prefer weak (dilute) fertilizer, applied in occasional does (weakly and weekly, so the saying goes).

I do use Miracle Gro 30-10-10 soluble orchid fertilizer. It is urea-based, but that is OK, there's some scientific research (conducted with Phalaenopsis) that shows that orchids can absorb urea directly as the urea molecule, metabolize it internally. There is no harm using non-urea fertilizer if that is what you prefer.

I normally dont feed my traps, I keep them outside in the summer and during winter I put them in dormancy. They eat better than I do just sitting and sunbathing. Granddaddy spiders love my big traps, and they love them right back. :biggrin:
Carnivorous plants require a lot of different things than your normal house plant. For one, I feel like one of the biggest problems that people have with them is with over fertilization. You need to pot them in nutrient devoid medium. Even the minerals from watering with tap water can burn the roots, so you need to use either R/O H2O or distilled. I your interested, there is a ton of info from this website (flytrapcare dot com)

---------- Post added at 01:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:32 PM ----------

{An update on my Phal.} It was doing very well, and even has 2 spikes that have grown about 3 inches now. However, the bottom 2 pair of leaves are getting very leathery. I think that it is getting more sun than it would like, so I moved it as well as giving it a good dip. It did well where it was earlier, but i suppose as the sun gets lower on the horizon there is much more direct sunlight