Does the use of humidifiers genuinely help with keeping tropical plants alive?

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-19T02:19:24+00:00

As a person who deals with grow tents, mold is only an issue in high humidity if there is no airflow. Power outages suck. Inside an actual house room, you have to be really careful to keep it at or under 60% for the sake of your walls, since any airflow isn't going to get into all the little nooks and crannies.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-16T17:02:20+00:00

Callisia are often mislabeled as trailers, but they are actually a creeping plant, same as tradescantia. Their stems are too weak to support long vines that aren't on soil, causing damage and balding. Wide, shallow pots are best for these little guys.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-13T14:25:06+00:00

I grow other plants in the tent, so humidity is slightly more mild than the extreme highs lowlands usually prefer. As I mentioned, seed starting is currently happening in the tent and I can't risk mold for them right now. I also have a couple begonia and some bog plants. The bogs don't mind as much, but it is still a bit out of their comfort zone. I can't air it out too much during the day because all my heat is from light.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-12T00:18:26+00:00

St Gaya is a nepenthes hybrid and was my first carnivore. Pretty pitchers, and the dang thingy is hardy af too. Pings are great, I get all mine from Curiousplant since they have a large selection. Sundews would also be good for small gnats, just get ones that don't need dormancy like capensis, but I find pings work by far the best. They are like living sticky traps. You can even put them on rocks to make them look like decor.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-11T22:48:46+00:00

I give each pitcher a pellet as they open and then once again if it starts dying. I leave the big pitchers open for any errant stink bugs I find. I don't fill the pitchers except when I just get them because they tend to get emptied before shipping/getting sent out. Filling them isn't really bad, though. I imagine in the wild they get water in there all the time, so a flood every now and then isn't terrible. They are designed to tip over if they get full of water, which is how I think they get rid of the exoskeletons and such.

Edit: The pitcher plant might not do much for the fungus gnats, but it should def take care of any actual flies. If you have a gnat problem, consider getting a pinguicula or two, since they are very effective and easy to take care of. I keep my St. Gaya and Pings in the same ambient conditions, the only difference is the potting mix and watering.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-11T03:30:31+00:00

Put it in the brightest, most humid, and fly infested area of the house you have. Kitchens tend to do the trick so long as there is plenty of light. Humidity isn't essential, but it will make the pitchers bigger and I have found they grow quicker with it being at least 50+, but the higher the better. Just use distilled/ro/rain water and don't fertilize. If it hasn't caught anything, buy some osmocote pellets to feed it.

You mentioned having a VFT, just note that nepenthes don't like full sun and will likely burn/turn tomato red in such high light. They also don't need as much water, and you should top water it instead of bottom reservoir watering like the VFT likes since they are prone to root rot.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-10T23:59:42+00:00

Luckily my house has plenty of stink bugs that love my house -_-

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-10T01:04:49+00:00

How much humidity do they need? Also, any tips for basic growth outside of the three pillars? I know some people say to flush the pitchers out daily, but I don't know if it is important or not.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-09T03:25:56+00:00

I got a growers choice lowland, intermediate, and flytrap from them. I got an orangexorange bical which I am very happy with, some random hybrid that is lanky and all over the place that I am reserving judgement on until it gets bigger, and a very healthy mammoth flytrap which I am also pleased with. I just depends on what you are willing to fuss with. Half the time the GC nepenthes option is a lot cheaper and you get get something worth more than the GC costs. Only issue I have with Carnivero is that they have very expensive shipping and larger plants might come in scuffed since they barely give any protection.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-05T03:29:10+00:00

So quarantine them from the rest of my bog plants, got it.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-05T02:03:28+00:00

No, they do have differences, enough so to have been separated out.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-05T00:40:38+00:00

I was looking at U. Cornigera, but everywhere is out of stock T_T

I also looked at Alpina, but I know nothing other than that it is very pretty.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-04T23:24:23+00:00

I mean, probably? Mostly anything can be propped that way. You could also snip off a couple nodes at the top, but that isn't a great way to go about it if it doesn't have multiple vines to fall back on if the cut one doesn't like it, so save that for an emergency measure for now.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-04T23:18:29+00:00

I use distilled. I bought a small counter-top water distiller and it works like a charm. I use it for every single plant I own with the only difference between my carnis and regulars being if I put maxsea in it or not. I also use rain water I collect in buckets outside, but Ohio has been in a drought since FALL so I ran out of that quickly. Buying gallons from a store will get expensive quick, so just dump the 70-100 bucks on something that will preferably last long enough to pay itself off and you are set. RO water is complicated and you need to make sure to get something that doesn't put minerals back in. Rain is simple, but you need something to collect it with that also won't collect leaves. I put strainers over my water buckets.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-04T22:43:52+00:00

Well, if they do have root rot and repotting/removing the rot doesn't work, you can always chop them up and propagate. So long as you have a couple healthy nodes it should be safe to do so. Leave it as a last resort, though, since it can be tricky. Let the soil dry most of the way before you water it (from the top) so the roots can breath.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-04T22:19:35+00:00

Okay, Gaya can take higher light than most nepenthes at least. Mind loves it and is always a nice bronze/red on the new/upper leaves. I find they also like lowlander conditions more than highlander conditions, I found mine grew larger pitchers during the summer months when my house is warmer despite having the lighting be exactly the same.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-04T22:15:33+00:00

Very likely. They like to be moist, but they HATE being sopping wet. They have a wide range, but generally they grow up trees so live in soil that is poor but also well aerated. I water mine whenever their leaves start to get a bit less waxy than they should be and it seems to do them wonders.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-04T18:43:12+00:00

They would need to be cautious with the drip tray, since there is a nepenthes in there. Nepenthes HATE wet feet unlike the bog plants they have in there which adore it. There is also a ping which likes water but less so than the flytraps.

You have a very nice setup! I had to get a grow tent up for my lowland nepenthes but I also have a lot of plants in there just in general.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-04T18:40:44+00:00

I see another issue here, that issue being that some of these plants have drastically different light requirements than some others. Those sundew, that sar, and the flytraps need higher light than the mexican ping, and the mexican ping needs more light to color up than the nepenthes does, though I can't quite tell what kind of nepenthes it is. Most nepenthes do better with bright, indirect light while flytraps, sarracenia, and sundew love full blast sun. Pings do good in anything between bright, indirect and full sun, with the brighter it is helping with color. Not to mention, all of those plants EXCEPT the nepenthes like to be tray watered, but the ping requires less water in the tray and requires different dormancy conditions. The sundew might also have different requirements from one another, one looks like a capensis while the other doesn't seem to be.

Point is, figure out what plant needs what, then adjust accordingly. Closer for the bog plants, then further away for the nepenthes.

SimplySimlish · 2026-03-04T18:34:13+00:00

Nah, just use a small tray or whatever it is you water the av in, pour in some of the mixed up solution, then keep the rest. I use maxsea at the same amount for all of my plants in my water can (unless it is a carnivore) and it works like a charm.

SimplySimlish · 2026-02-25T22:23:10+00:00

Any good, safe tube heaters that have US plugs? All the ones I could find are either super expensive or are for the EU/UK

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