FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I use 4 6500k T8 bulbs to grow some of my Venus Flytraps inside. I was wondering, how high should the light be from the plants? Right now the light is about 11 inches above my plants. What is the optimal range and what is the maximum but still effective height I can keep my lights from my flytraps?


Thanks

Personally, and this is what I do and it has worked great for me, is I keep my light as close to the plants as possible. Of course without burning them, since fluorescents dont emit much heat you can get it rather close to your plants (by close I mean a matter of inches). I find myself adjusting my light height almost daily due to growth, but as long as you're concious of that they should be fine! Some people may do it differently, but the further up you adjust your light the less intense the light hitting your plants is. Anyways, this has worked great for me and I dont know why you would have any different results than I would
-Ryan

For T8's, 8 inches from the top of the plants is the common recommended maximum, same as T12's.

Rehrlich is right, though. If you can pull off 3 or 4 inches and still see your plants so you can enjoy them/interact with them as necessary (watering, optional feeding, moving the pots if you need to, etc.), I would put them closer.

T8's don't run hot enough that you'll burn the flytraps at that height (~3 inches). I've had flytraps 4 inches from a 125W CFL that ran too hot to touch it, and they didn't even burn under that.

To be safe, gradually decrease the distance from the lights to the plants over the course of a week, rather than suddenly dropping from 11 inches to 3 or so inches.

The closer the lights, the better they will grow, and the more colorful they will be in Autumn (if you don't feed them much).

For reference, I grew flytraps under 4 6500 T8's, at around 6 inches from the lights, and they did pretty well for me.

Thanks for the replies It really helps



But how much area would 2 lights side by side that are 4 or 5 inches above the plants cover? I know for my bulbs it would be 4 feet in length, but what about the width? Is it limited only to directly under the bulbs?

I would say it's pretty much limited to directly under the bulbs. If you go outside the reflector area (or for super-wide reflectors, too far from under the lights), the plant will still get light, but less than the plants directly under it.

Trial and error. If you have one, I would take a pot with an "expendable" plant like an extra typical if you have one, and put that one pot further out. Watch how it grows compared to the other plants and you'll find out what's too far away.

Every situation is slightly different.

I suppose I will have to study how the plants on the outside of the reflector fair to the ones inside of it. Thanks for the info

I grow my plants about a foot under them, Ive gotten them under 8 t5's and I get amazing results.

Ae9803 wrote:I grow my plants about a foot under them, Ive gotten them under 8 t5's and I get amazing results.

WOW, so now we have a verified ONE FOOT distance. If you get great results at one foot, I see no reason to go any closer. Having that 12 inches of clearance makes it easier to see and work with the plants.

Well, mic. I do also have a completely enclosed setup. I have had no issue with any of my plants and Ive gotten alot of flower and color up. Here is a few pictures.