FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello,

I have a few newbie questions

I have been looking for some good ways to grow highland and intermediate Nepenthes indoors, and have found a way to do so without ruining my wood floors from humidity. I found a small grow room that comes with either 1 duel lamp T5 6400k high output growlight, a 2ft 4 bulb T5 high output 6500k growlight, or a 2ft 4 bulb T5 3500k high output growlight. Would the 4 bulb T5 6500k light be the better option out of the three?

Do the fluorscent bulbs give off heat or would I have to install an aquarium heater, or something similar, to get the temperatures to 70-80 degrees?

Would a simple small tabletop fan work for cooling, or would there have to be something more intense to really prevent mold and fungus?

What is the best humidity and temperature controller for a price that will not severely put a dent in my wallet?

Any tips or constructive criticism helps!!!

It is really hard to cool an area without much expenses unless you have naturally cool nights and you open a window. Also, the less insulated your grow area, the more you eill have to run your cooling device. It would help to know the dimensions of your grow area as well, as smaller spaces are easier to change the temp of (this can actually work against you).

Knowing the grow tent would help as well. Is it a mini greenhouse or one of those black grow tents ?

Hungry Plants wrote:Knowing the grow tent would help as well. Is it a mini greenhouse or one of those black grow tents ?

It is a 25 x 25 x 25 inch black grow tent.




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Benurmanii wrote:It is really hard to cool an area without much expenses unless you have naturally cool nights and you open a window. Also, the less insulated your grow area, the more you eill have to run your cooling device. It would help to know the dimensions of your grow area as well, as smaller spaces are easier to change the temp of (this can actually work against you).

It's a 25 x 25 x 25 inch black grow tent. My room is usually around 70 degrees and has the window open. Night temps right now are around the low 60's.


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Yes T5 HO's give off a lot of heat, probably more than most other fixtures, so no use the heat from the lamps to warm the area. I would go with the 6400k bulbs.

The fan will work for circulation, but not cooling. At most you'll get a few degrees of cooling from it. Nothing that a highland would appreciate. That small of an area I would just throw a few ice packs in there once the lights shut off.

I use a timer on my humidifier. A cheap one is like 5 bucks. Once you have everything up and running you'll be able to monitor the area, and if it needs more humidity then increase the timer duration. Mine is currently set to kick on every hour for 30 minutes during the photo period.

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What timer do you use and what humidifier?


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boarderlib wrote:Yes T5 HO's give off a lot of heat, probably more than most other fixtures, so no use the heat from the lamps to warm the area. I would go with the 6400k bulbs.

The fan will work for circulation, but not cooling. At most you'll get a few degrees of cooling from it. Nothing that a highland would appreciate. That small of an area I would just throw a few ice packs in there once the lights shut off.

I use a timer on my humidifier. A cheap one is like 5 bucks. Once you have everything up and running you'll be able to monitor the area, and if it needs more humidity then increase the timer duration. Mine is currently set to kick on every hour for 30 minutes during the photo period.

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Would I put the ice packs under the pots? Or just somewhere near them to cool the area down?


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Frothy_Milk wrote:
Would I put the ice packs under the pots? Or just somewhere near them to cool the area down?


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I would pot them behind a fan, that way the fan distributes the cold air throughout the whole setup.

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boarderlib wrote:

Frothy_Milk wrote:
Would I put the ice packs under the pots? Or just somewhere near them to cool the area down?


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I would pot them behind a fan, that way the fan distributes the cold air throughout the whole setup.

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Ok that makes sense. Thanks for the tips!


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You a welcome! Best of luck with your setup.

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Use a peltier element cooler, that will do what you need for cooling

It should have two spots on top for venting. You can put a fan in one and vent out the heat.

Venting doesn't work that well not for the nightime drop neps need. It could if you wanted to push so much air through you knocked them all over and keep your humidity high enough so that the plants didn't dry out. I'm telling you, peltier coolers and a zoomed hygrometer/humidifier setup is the best thing you can do for them. My peltier hasn't arrived yet, I can't wait, but my zoomed setup is amazing, it keeps the humidity exactly where I want it, and I'll hook it up to the peltier (don't run a peltier without some type of stop control or servo, or you'll wind up with all you're nepenthes well below 0 Fahrenheit, and the peltier burning up) if you're interested we can talk more about it, I learned a good bit while figuring it out, and there are other alternatives, none of which involve daily refills of ice.

ArowanaLover1902 wrote:Venting doesn't work that well not for the nightime drop neps need. It could if you wanted to push so much air through you knocked them all over and keep your humidity high enough so that the plants didn't dry out. I'm telling you, peltier coolers and a zoomed hygrometer/humidifier setup is the best thing you can do for them. My peltier hasn't arrived yet, I can't wait, but my zoomed setup is amazing, it keeps the humidity exactly where I want it, and I'll hook it up to the peltier (don't run a peltier without some type of stop control or servo, or you'll wind up with all you're nepenthes well below 0 Fahrenheit, and the peltier burning up) if you're interested we can talk more about it, I learned a good bit while figuring it out, and there are other alternatives, none of which involve daily refills of ice.

I'm interested in this peltier cooling device. I am a bit worried about the price of everything, but making it shouldn't be hard as I have experience building a computer.


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