FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

can venus flytraps be grown indoors under a normal light bulb?

Not a typical light bulb. You would need to research it a little more. I am currently growing a few small pots of seedlings and about 6 pots of leaf pullings under a 6500k T8 and everything I working great, plants growing nicely and traps are red.

Hi Branmuffin are you only using one t8?

I have a dual t8 light fixture and had to remove one of the T8 tubes.
My plants is about -15cm from the tubes.
Now im wondering if my vft seeds will still grow if only using one t8 6500k tube.

ddoherty958 wrote:can venus flytraps be grown indoors under a normal light bulb?

No. Venus flytraps are light-loving plants. Even a window sill is usually not adequate.

I had alot of heat problems with dual tubes. Now only using one. I have also moved plants closer to tube. Its about 5cm now. I will check if plants weakens then will add more light

One tube is definitely not enough for vfts. They don't mind doing heat, so two bulbs should be be an issue if you're worried about it getting too hot.

BobCat wrote:I had alot of heat problems with dual tubes. Now only using one. I have also moved plants closer to tube

I think something was wrong with your fixture if you had heat problems with VFTs. T8s shouldn't generate enough heat to harm them. I use a 4-bulb fixture and it really only gets very warm over the ballast but still not hot.

My setup is in closet. Thar might be the reason for the excess heat. I did some wiring and removed the ballast from the light fixture and moved it to the upper shelf. Ive mounted the ballst to an old light fixture to help dispersing the heat. Hope it works.

If you have a spot outside for it, I would highly suggest you put your Venus fly trap outdoors. Oudtshoorn has some fantastic temperatures for Venus Fly traps.

Yes weather is warm to hot here. My plan is to use the closer to germinate some vft seeds and keep them there until they are strong enough to move ouside. At 5pm the temp inside cliset was 27.8`c. Hopefully thats not to hot.

VFTs can easily handle temps above 35 Celsius.

ddoherty958 wrote:can venus flytraps be grown indoors under a normal light bulb?

it depends on what light you use. a simple 50+ watt CFL with a somewhat focused reflector would be sufficient or a single flytrap.

people are unnecessarily fussy and overly critical about how "ONLY SUNLIGHT WILL EVER WORK" and I find it... forgive me, I find it plainly stupid. These plants are not hard to grow at all. infact, they are beasts, considering what I put mine through in my experiments.

if you want to grow it indoors, do it, because IF THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY! Just try to focus on very strong fluorescent lights (6400k at atleast 30 watts with reflectors) or very strong LED lights (38+ watts with both blue and red lights) and you would be set for a single plant. (The lights would also have to be somewhat close to the plants. 4 inches or so, but far enough so they don't burn.)

xr280xr wrote:

ddoherty958 wrote:can venus flytraps be grown indoors under a normal light bulb?

No. Venus flytraps are light-loving plants. Even a window sill is usually not adequate.

eh, I have to disagree for some parts. I am not afraid to kill my plants and experiment a LOT now, lol, and found it is very easy to keep a (single) VFT alive with a simple 30+ watt CFL and a good reflector around the plant and light to focus the light.

BobCat wrote:Yes weather is warm to hot here. My plan is to use the closer to germinate some vft seeds and keep them there until they are strong enough to move ouside. At 5pm the temp inside cliset was 27.8`c. Hopefully thats not to hot.

Nah, not too hot at all. if you keep them in a sealed container they will very easily germinate. I germinated my seeds under a week under a 50 watt LED light. sure, success rate was low (40 to 55 percent) But I still got 6 new babies, lol.

exact conditions: 100 percent humidity in container,
wet soil (just for them to germinate. they were not floating but they just had a very little water around the seeds for a day or so.)
9 inches from a 50 watt full spectrum (Not white Leds. Full spectrum leds.) LED setup.
briefly opened the (clear) lid daily to let in fresh air.
26 degrees Celsius in the room.
14 hour light cycle (important)