FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

are there any ventilation holes?

No, there are no ventilation holes in the jar. It is essentially sealed. There is a small amount of space between the bulb and the lid, where the hole isn't exactly round, but I'd hardly call them ventilation holes. After leaving the light on all night (14hours) The outer heat-sink of the bulb was quite warm to the touch (not quite hot) But the jar itself was cool. Even the lid itself was not warm. I opened the jar, and stuck my hand inside to see if the air inside the jar was warm. It was not. I will put a temperature recording device in there for the next few days to see what the temp inside the jar is. I'll keep you guys posted. So far, it seems like it will work extremely well.

Alright, I've ran the light for 16h/day the last 3 days. I will have the results from the temp/RH device tomorrow, but I am assuming everything will be fine temp-wise. So now I am wondering; what wattage of light is enough to grow a VFT. The lights that will fit range anywhere from 3W to 15W (although I don't think a 15 would fit all that nicely.)
The "grow light" that I am looking to get is 9W (7red, 1blue) So I think It's only fair to get a 9W "cool white" to compare directly to it. My question is: Would 3Watts of cool daylight light (6500K) be enough to grow a VFT? Or would this torture it for a while, then let it die?

I plan on ordering the 25 VFTs for $25 in the store (as soon as it becomes available.) I want to put 4 of them in these jars, under different lighting conditions, then the rest of the 25 in styrofoam cups using different medias, in my south-facing windows. 1 or 2 will be planted using the recommended peat+pearlite+silica sand method, to use as controls (all plants in the jars will use this media, as I want to limit the variable tested to just artificial lights.)

Being a scientist by day, I would like to have 2 or even 3 replicates of each different media condition. As of now I plan on using: Standard mix, pure LFS, 100% Turface, 100% hydroton, and maybe 100% aquatic soil. All mixes will be rinsed, and watered with pure water from the store. I plan to keep all of them in styrofoam cups with holes in the bottom. All cups will be randomized in a large tupperware tray that I will use to water. I think maybe 2 separate trays will be needed, because the medias with moss will not dry out as fast as the 100% inorganic media pots, and they will need water more often.

Lemme know what ya'll think. I'll make a new thread for this whole experiment once I get the VFTs and the soil components.

Ah, did not know u were a fellow scientist!
Then i dont want the 25ftv, but u want clones to exclude genetic differences^^

About the light, i think 9w should be sufficient, if im right that is around 400-500 lumen? (ya i know its not relevant for plants).
I would stay clear from the led grow lights with a lot of reds, i have a 4w one for 3 adult alicia's and 2 weeks after i put them under the lamp, they all started to flower.
I'd go for all blue (since a flower wont fit in ur jar) or daylight blue (6500k).
3w might be enough if placed close enough to the plants.

To formulate a hypothesis check out these images:



Im in the process of thinking about building my own 40-50w LED grow lamp, if u need help with some lighting tests, let me know.

Keep me posted

Yeah, I know. Clones would be ideal. But it's too costly to buy all one species, and the thing for the 25 vfts said "no requests" So I'm just hoping there will be at least 4 that are the exact same genetically. Unfortunately, again, there is no option to change the ratio of blue to red LEDs in the "grow light" I am including it in the "study" because I find it to be an interesting idea, and I really just want to see if it does a better job than the white LEDs (LED is supposed to be superior because there is supposed to be no wasted wavelengths). If you know of anywhere I can get a 9-12W blue and red LED bulb for under $25 with the ratio in favor of blue wavelengths, let me know. I had thought about doing some custome LED work, because then I could design my own experiments, but I am not very electrically savvy, and I worry that I would burn my house down if I tried. Ideally, I would drill the lid of the jar for the LEDs, then have the heat sink outside the jar, with wires connected, but that's one hell of an undertaking for someone like me.

Is there an easy way to switch out the LEDs from a bulb or fixture such as: http://www.ebay.com/itm/3W-5W-7W-9W-12W ... 3518900%26

That would be sweet if I could just buy a couple of the 9Watt, and some different 1W LEDs of different wavelengths, and then mix and match...

Ok, I just got the readings back for my temperature recorder that I had placed inside the jar. A picture is worth 1000 words, so...



Those sharp dips into the very cold range are due to me carrying the device home from work. (it's cold here.) then the higher plateaus are from the LED bulb being on. I tried to turn the bulb on when I got home from work (5-6ish), then off when I left for work the next day (9-10ish) For aproximately 16 hours. This was overnight, and my place does get colder at night, which is why you can see that slight rise in temp at the end of each light cycle before the bulb was turned off.

The long 22*C section at the end is my desk at work before I got the data uploaded.

So you can see, with the bulb on the outside of the jar, configured how I have it in the previous post, the temperature doesn't get above 25-26*C (77-80*F).

My only concern is in the summer time when the outside temp gets up to 80-90F, and my apartment doesn't run A/C while I'm at work. I might configure the timer so the light is on overnight, and off durring the day, to reduce the temps while the hot sun is cooking my place.

My concern would be that without more ventilation the humidity inside the jar will get too high if you're keeping the soil as wet as it needs to be.

Otherwise this looks pretty cool.