FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I bought some more VFT's to my collection. Since there are little sun here in this time of year (atleast in Norway).

Can I use a UV lamp? What kind of lamp can I use ?

A UV lamp will most likely burn your FlyTrap and not help it at all, the most likely bulb you can use is a Flourescent lamp, or a CFL, if your feeling very adventurous, you can try a LED light

Good luck!

Hi im not 100% sure about lighting im a newbie myself.
I been looking into this myself because i live in dull england.
I belive white cfl bulbs work the best basically the brighter the better,
maybe i wrong im just a newbie

As Daniel said, UV lights and regular hallogen bulbs emit a high amount of heat and will likely burn your venus fly traps. Although they can be quite bright, I don't believe their light spectrum is correct anyway.

The light spectrum is really one of the largest things you need to consider when choosing a lamp or lighting for your carnivorous plants. Blue lighting encourages plant growth, red lighting encourages flowering and seed production so if you want to get the most out of your plants you need a full spectrum light.

So a full spectrum, 6500k, at least 20W flourescent bulb is a safe bet. The higher the wattage the better, just make sure any power supply you use for it can handle the wattage you choose or you'll end up with a fire.

Generally the further your plants are from your lighting, the stronger the light needs to be. That's all I know to be honest.

So If I buy a flourescent bulb @ 6500k (is "k" the same as lumen?) with atleast 20w, could that help the plant getting more "red" in the leaves?

I will see if I can source some of those bulbs. I thought that UV is the same (flourescent).

Anyone know where I can find it? I dont have any kind of walmart, only like Clas Ohlson and stuff you from other lands dont know about

I think Kelvin (which is what the K stands for) affects colour temperature, whereas lumens are the number of "packets of light" created by a light source. You'd need your plants pretty close to a 20W bulb; many forum members use 40Ws in pairs.

The main reason I personally believe people prefer fluorescent lighting is because it costs less than a regular hallogen bulb of the same wattage, as well as emitting less heat.

I actually use a 102 watt and a 42 watt cfl 6500k, @ a total of 8000 lumens

Grey wrote:As Daniel said, UV lights and regular hallogen bulbs emit a high amount of heat and will likely burn your venus fly traps. Although they can be quite bright, I don't believe their light spectrum is correct anyway.

The light spectrum is really one of the largest things you need to consider when choosing a lamp or lighting for your carnivorous plants. Blue lighting encourages plant growth, red lighting encourages flowering and seed production so if you want to get the most out of your plants you need a full spectrum light.

So a full spectrum, 6500k, at least 20W flourescent bulb is a safe bet. The higher the wattage the better, just make sure any power supply you use for it can handle the wattage you choose or you'll end up with a fire.

Generally the further your plants are from your lighting, the stronger the light needs to be. That's all I know to be honest.

Nice input Gray!
So the heat wants to be around 6500k will be warm enough, if its too hot it will cook your plant. Blue light to help it grow and the higher the light lumens the better, get the light as close as the plant as you dare and ALWAYS USE THE CORRECT POWER SUPPLY FOR YOUR BULB!

i think you just saved my life

Well, its generally accepted depending on the strength of your light that every 2 inches you decrease the concentration of lumens in that one general direction by a third. Also correct power supply? I would think as long you make sure you use both a surge protector/timed, and correct ballist wattage rating, you divide your chance of risk of shock/fire by 90%.

Hey, i'm still a total newb but I love my little fly trap. i want to have some sorta indoor lighting for her, but im so lost. I think I found the right light bulbs online. But my real question is, do i need a special lamp to use a 105w light bulb? these are what im looking at.
http://www.bulbamerica.com/silver-compa ... -bulb.html
http://www.topbulb.com/find/Product_Des ... ctID=53671
ANY advice would help.

togner84 wrote:do i need a special lamp to use a 105w light bulb?

You're not going to need anything special (aside from some sunglasses maybe). I probably wouldn't recommend using a lamp that was made in 1958 that has a wimpy little chord, but any light fixture that's made for a garage or something along the lines of that should work fine for you. In the grand scheme of things drawing 105W from a power outlet is pretty trivial. To put it into perspective for you, a hair dryer can easily use anywhere between 400W-1500W!

Daniel_G wrote:if your feeling very adventurous, you can try a LED light

I think by adventurous, he was referring to the fact that these lights are more expensive. The right type of LED lights will work very well. Also to try to put it in more common terms, K indicates the color spectrum of light where lumens indicates the brightness or strength of the light.