FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi all! I've recently built a light setup for my 3 VFT and I wanted to know if it is good enought to grow them properly.

The setup are 2 CFL, each are equivalent to 140w and have 2040 lumens. Also, 6400k. The distance they are from the plants is about 8cm (3.1", 3.34"). They are not burning from any heat. The thing is:

my homebase red got really red when I use a lingle 75w, 890 lumens, 6500k CFL, that was on one of those office desk lamp support. But since I took it of the fridge (for dormancy) in september 22nd (first day of spring in Brazil) and built this new setup (because I got the other two VFTs), it's still not getting red, although the three plants look pretty healthy.

Am I doing something wrong? Is just my lack of patience? Should I change anything in this setup? Thanks a lot!

The possible difference between your desk lamp and this setup is the way the light is reflected (it looks like the current fixture may scatter the light a bit more), and a possible change in bulb orientation. CFL bulbs mounted horizontally provide less light intensity as compared to a bulb oriented vertically. There could just be enough of a difference in the spectrum of the bulbs used. Personally, if the plants are growing well I tend not to worry about the color of them to some extent, but that is just my opinion.

From the looks of the plants (from what I can tell), it does not look like they are suffering from insufficient light. If you wanted to give it a try, some sort of reflective material could be used around the while setup to increase the amount of light available to the plants. Just be careful that the heat does not climb too high, or create a fire hazard.

Yeah, to me, if my plants look good I don't worry about it. I was actually going to do something like what you have there, but decided just to buy a T5 to make things simpler.

Thanks for the quick replies, mates! Yeah, it seems the light is less "focused" on the plants, but they are pretty close and are not causing burns. About the reflective material, there is one inside the support.

Perhaps a spot support? I'll look for another solution