Fixed that - Quick update on the 3D printed, luxury, high-rise condo-complex, for my carnivorous plants.
The first topic is that it takes hours to print each one of these funny looking odd shaped pots that stack like a glove. The reason my last post did not look complete, and did not look like a condominium complex, is the fact that 3D printing is very slow and cumbersome. I'm glad my roomie knows how to do it, and all I do is repeat the steps that he prescribes.
Here's one of the babies that we repotted a few months ago and it wants to grow up into the next two. His neighbor, two floors downstairs, is a Drosera Spatulata that seems to be thriving in this new environment and it's sprouting its first flower stalk.
Here's what one of those tiny flowers looks like the on the sunny side of the condominium complex. This stalk has one more flower in reserve which will Bloom tomorrow.
And the mother of that little flower knows that she will be out of flowers, so she is sprouting another chain of flowers in order to continue her propagation in the world.
I will be adding more carnivorous plants to these empty pots that have been stacked on top of what was there on my first post. When I get to the height that I desire, there's another kind of pot that is printed, it's called a header and it finishes the stack. You can still add more but there are a couple of things that restrict how many are allowed. I will get to those in a minute.
Here's what the header looks like when it's in place. This will be the top floor of our building.
When I wrote my last post about this new fangled way of getting lots of plants into a small space, I mentioned that I could get 39 of these curvy pots all stacked, but that will not be the case. The length of the rod they are huddled around limits the height, but I found out that there is another consideration - weight!
The entire condominium complex, original, was hanging from that yellow zip-tie wrapped around a tree branch. The tree is also a potted plant, so you have to be careful what we dangle from it and how far from the trunk it is.
You can see the zip-tie above and to the right, and my upgrade - the chain (lower left) in the photo below.
In my case, the weight of the entire complex is the determining factor as to how high it can be built. When I reached four stories, I had to upgrade the zip ties to a chain, and move it all to a thicker part of the branch because the tree was bowing. I noticed that it was pulling hard on the branch when I had to duck to get under the branch while walking past. Trees do not usually get shorter than they were yesterday.
I lifted the condo assembly and found the problem before something toppled over. I did not think it should be that heavy, but it was. Moss is heavy when saturated with water. Glad I caught it and made the changes that were necessary.
Anyway I think that's it for today. I will post one more update when I reach the maximum limits of the tree that is holding it all up. I will then have the upper-most planters full and the header pots, topping the project off. The above shot is looking upward toward the space saving invention.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday - we had ours last night and today is plant day for me.
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