The cheapest way to place Nepenthes pots...

[Volker]

Hi all,
Let's talk Nepenthes tables So far I have been placing my plants on wooden tables, made from slabs that we had plentiful due to our recent construction activities. Given our humid climate these don't last long, maybe 2 years at best, but then they were sort-of free. Still, once they are collapsing it gets a bit messy for the plants.

Now I am in the market for something more durable, but still at lowest cost possible as I am talking thousands of plants here.

How are your long term experiences growing these plants being in pots placed directly on soil? Or maybe just on a plastic sheet... I did notice that termites love to eat coco based soils - although I am not using coco anymore.... Plus worms converting the formerly airy soil into something clayey.
I am also planting some Nepenthes without pots straight into the soil, which seems to be ok so far...
For hanging the pots themselves seem to be too expensive - I am using growpots (at about USD 0.05 per piece) that are too soft for mounting...

Would be interesting to see/compare how other people in tropical climates place their outdoor plants at lowest cost. This is for the production part of my operation, for display I can use better material of course.

Greetings,
Volker

[Dodge]

What about doing a raised bed? Like I do for my vegetable garden.

example:

I use 1" X 8" Lengths of wood to make a large box and fill with soil/sphagnum moss/peat/coco. etc...

Yes you have to fill it, but would hold tons of plants and you can water straight thru and you could put in cheap root dividers or plant them in their grow pots.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_bed_gardening

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPrMvItUIuQ

[ayi]

I say, give your excess plants away and save yourself the extra trouble ;D

Seriously though, the only way I see it is for you to have metal stands constructed, with plastic screens where you can place the pots on. The initial outlay sure may be quite costly, but it repays you in the long run because metal stands are much more stable and durable.

[Delphiguy]

Im using leftover meshwires when we did our fence. anyways I placed hollowblocks below it to
raise it. Im with Ayi have a metal stand contracted. the place where I grow my full sun plants is
also on a mesh wire but this one is soldered to a angle bar so that it can carry the weight of the
pots.

[sulud1]

Hi,
Concrete is you most durable. It was rather cheap when I was there some twenty plus years ago. An old piece of corrugated roofing can be used as a form for the top surface. I would tilt the surface for drainage. You could check with the local sexton at the cemetary on there technique for their crypts. They used a cheap cinderblock construction with a thin cement lid. Used a thin wood inner form for the cavity below.
Do they still have the metal corrugated roofing available? I'll be using some here for a summer table top over a water tank. Found some used pieces here from the nursery across the street.
Truly,
Tom

[Volker]

Thanks all for your inspirations.
A raised bed is certainly interesting, although I would have to use hollow blocks instead, as a direct wood-soil contact would last me only 6 months given our aggressive insect kingdom here.... I'd be also worried that soil would deteriorate quickly, that's why I am also trying it without the raised bed and our natural soil (which I believe is slightly ultra mafic). We do have Nepenthes growing natively a few kms away. For small Neps I wouldn't dare to do that, though.
I used to have a steel construction back in Manila, with a frame from GI pipes, then re-bars for the smaller weight supporting beams/columns, with some fencing material as table tops as you can see here:

For the dry season, I had some 9m long aluminum saucers, piled in the upper left of the image.
The fencing material was already rusting quite well - better would be all re-bar, but then it would be quite costly. Not to mention any professional aluminum alternatives.
Tom, cement/hollow blocks might be the way to go, possibly even without steel reinforcement. I will take a look at the lids of the graves - nice idea, hehehe. Other option would be loose bamboo bars top of the hollow blocks to be replaced every 2 years (we have the quite durable giant bamboo growing on our farm).
BE is using a corrugated Ether-nit roofing material with a gravel cover on a GI pipe frame, as far as I can spy from the videos on Youtube. But I haven't seen that kind of roofing here...
Volker