FlyTrapCare Forums

I’m hoping for assistance in I.D. of pitcher plant, the 4 similar VFT’s, and the VFT with larger traps.

The VFTs are most likely typicals if they were sold without tags and the Nepenthes Pitcher Plant is an N. x Ventrata, which is a cross between nepenthes Ventricosa and Nepenthes Alata.

Those flytraps look like they need a lot more light. How long have you had them? They should be getting the equivalent of 4 to 6 hours of unobstructed sunlight a day. If using artificial lights they need to be very good and on for a much longer time, from 12 to 16 hours.

Agreed with @Panman, lots and lots of light. My flytraps are in 12 hours of outdoors light, but even then they are still mostly green.

the napethese is recently purchased with the larger VFT the other 4 smaller are from Wally World Mart and I had read to taper up the light strength to not burn them. I only do about 6-7hrs of artificial light and a couple hours in my south window through midday. I grew up near Wilmington NC and have tried to mimic a late spring early summer day overall but it’s a work in progress I appreciate the info.

I got the 4 smaller VFTs within the last couple weeks. and the napenthes and weak large one Thursday

Savethetrees4life wrote: ↑Sun Oct 03, 2021 10:27 pm the napethese is recently purchased with the larger VFT the other 4 smaller are from Wally World Mart and I had read to taper up the light strength to not burn them. I only do about 6-7hrs of artificial light and a couple hours in my south window through midday. I grew up near Wilmington NC and have tried to mimic a late spring early summer day overall but it’s a work in progress I appreciate the info.

You can't burn VFTs, they will take even the strongest light possible. If you're worried about the Nep burning you can put it on your windowsill where it will get more than enough light.

Well the etiolated leaves are going to terminate themselves at the first opportunity. You could harden the plant off but the plant will regrow tougher leaves in response to greater light intensity.

I don't think you are going to burn it with artificial lights unless you have some really strong lights. You will probably need to force them through dormancy because they don't look strong enough to make it as they are. Up the lights to 12 to 16 hours a day through the winter and get them ready for the spring.

I just went and got another 30w led light to add to the mix I do believe my mistake has been not enough light hours. I’ve never done more than 12hrs

Well you have to balance light intensity with photoperiod. I prefer to keep my lights bright enough that I can use a completely natural photoperiod for my plants. I use a subtropical (matches the gulf coast, South Africa, and southern Australia) photoperiod varying from 14 hours in summer to 10 hours in winter. A lot of people do keep their lights on longer but you definitely don't need to.

My light meter thing says 6-7000 lumens is that sufficient…?