A little bit of glades..

[The_Collector]

hey hows it goin. new to the site as of yesterday. well i got a flask of ghosts for christmas so i figured id bring a little bit of the deepest everglades into my room. its a 135gal. tank, spread with nice cypress knees. this is all beginning stages, i just put all this together yesterday. i still have alot more in mind i want to add. but little by little.. the temp. stays between 75-83 degrees, and the humidity stays a constant 90-95%. and the fans to kick on every now n than just to get some circulation..
so i figured this place would be a good place for ideas. so if you know of any species of pitcherplants, mosses, small species fern, airplants, or smaller bromelaids, or other epiphites native to the deep swamp please let me know. . thanks for lookin will have more pics soon..

1.)tank with flash; 2.)tank without flash in dark; 3.)moss log with three ghosts on it; 4.)little pitcher plant sprout; 5.)some top view; 6.)front sideways view; 7.)ghost tower.. (thats where the frog lives); 8.)ghost about to bust out roots.

[Merlyn]

It's a GREAT place, enjoy !!!

[Zoi2]

Hello and welcome.
You've got a really cool grow area and I can't wait to see progressive pictures.
Joann

[Daethen]

Looks like a great start! Can't wait to see it continue.

[Paul]

That's a lot of baby ghosts you have there! I hope they all do well for you ... t'would make for a very neat terr. "Spanish moss", which is actually a bromeliad, I would think would do very well in there. There are also a number of tropical Drosera (sundews), Utricularia (bladderworts), and perhaps some Pinguicula (butterworts) that would grow well in there. Can't help you much with Sarracenia (pitcherplants) -- all the ones I'm familar with not only get too large very quickly for your tank but many require a dormancy period. (Though I have no doubt there are those that don't.)

Be forewarned, in a terr, ferns quickly become "thugs" and will try to muscle out other plants. Not saying don't use them, but if you do then plant them in a pot in the terr and plan on pruning them back religously as they try to spread. (And the rhizomes, sneaky buggers that they are, WILL go everywhere and try to get into everything.) If you see some popping up in places you didn't put them, I caution you not to wait but to pull the new sprout out as soon as you see it. They can entrench themselves amazingly fast.

Java moss, seems to be a very popular moss amongst hobbyists as, from what I understand, it grows both aquatically and terrestrially.

Selaginellas would have a field day in there but , again, they often try to stage coups in moist terrs and so do need pruned back regularly.

[DelawareJim]

You might want to visit the sister website "Dendro Board" too.
Dendroboard.com

They specialise in poison dart frogs and are all about terrariums (vivariums), bromiliads, ferns, mosses, and all sorts of plants suitable for what you're looking for.

Cheers.
Jim

[The_Collector]

Awesome! thanks Paul, Jim. yeah i know what you mean about the pitchers and theyre height.. im kinda restrained on that.. but as long as anything growing upward stays under 23in. than i should be good..

but im having a couple new issues.. ok well first is i have ants.. fire and black.. but not many. i have a baby tree frog in there that got in there on the knees by accident. but he seems to be gettin rid of them..
the second problem is i have bits of mold starting on some of the ghosts.. i dont know if there is anything i could spray them with..(would rather not because theyre babies). i got all the culture off them after i took them out of the flask, and they all clean, but some are just starting to grow mold. i know mold and once that starts spreading its not good.. any ideas??

[Paul]

Well first off, ghosts do prefer humid stagnant air. Unfortunately, so do molds. I noticed that you do have a fan in the tank. Have you had it on yet? If not, try turning it on to its lowest setting.

I have neglible experience with ghosts, so take this advice with a grain of salt. First, you might try a strong brew of chamomile tea. I do know that cham tea can be helpful against damping off (a fungal problem with seedlings). You could also try a tincture of cinnamon.

[The_Collector]

yeah ive done a good deal of research on ghosts but sad this is you find all the same stuff and all the same problems.. its almost like a trial and error kind of deal. but ill try those remedy's and see how they work. as for the fan yeah i guess you could say its more for looks but i turn it on for about 30 mins. to an hour every other day or so.. just to keep it stagnant but not too stagnant.

thanks

[Goods14]

I've tried ghosts a couple times (kept the little Oak Hill ones going for about a year before I lost it), and I would say they don't necessarily want to be stagnant. I've talked to Greg at Oak Hill about them, and he grows his mature plants in a normal greenhouse in an area that gets protected circulation. There's also a local grower who has just about every Dendrophylax species and is successful with them. His are mounted on bare wood, high light in a normal area of the greenhouse.

I think some good advice is to grow this like any other sensitive seedling. Part of the difficulty of this plant seems to be created by us growers who try to baby it to death (literally)!

Since you have quite a few, you may want to try a few different methods of growing (mounted to cypress, cork, with or without moss, etc.). I've read of success using only Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) as a substrate. Take a little net pot, put some Spanish moss inside *loosely* and then set one of the little ghosts on top. Water when the moss looks dry.

Hopefully some of this helps you! Good luck on your project.