FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey Everyone,

I am very new to the CP hobby and want to create a grow box with timed LED bulbs to keep my plants happy during the winters here in America in the north east. Can I get a consensus on what LED grow bulbs work best for VFT, pitcher and sundew plants? I would like to mature the plants I currently have and grow some new species from seeds.

Thanks for any help you can provide!
VNN

Well here is my current LED setup and it works great! It depends on how many plants you have and what's your budget? You may only need a few bulbs or maybe you want to invest in a Mars hydro. Whichever way you decide to go it should work out nicely for you. The bulbs I use are Walmart led grow bulbs/Felt electric led bulb facing downward and General electric 5K a few 2.7K led bulbs that are horizontally placed. My setup is a little bit extreme so don't think you need as many bulbs as what I'm using lol I went a Lil overboard.

Wow! Yeah that one is a bit extreme for me, I have a Nepenthes and a VFT that I bought over the summer and they survived through the summer with flying colors. So rather than attempt to purchase more next summer I would prefer to nurse these plants through the winter in a grow box with timed lighting in my basement. While nursing them, I would like to add new plants to grow such as fancy purple pitchers and a few sundew plants as well. I live in an older home built in the 30's and I wanted to create a timed LED grow box that would provider the light and warmth these beautys need to survive, without sucking too much energy through my old electric system.

The lights don't matter a whole lot...I have gotten away with growing mine under "typical" daylight CFL bulbs from Home Depot or Lowes. Similar to a set up like Doublebass actually except I had them on shelves, so it was a tall stack with 4 lights per 2 foot shelf. It was not the best set up but it was good enough for them to be alive (at least until dormancy issues..more on that later). They were 1450 lumens bulbs.

Recently I purchased two (Lithonia Lighting 3' integrated LED shoplights) and they seem decent. 4000K range (i prefer 5000K and above for optimal leaf growth, but still decent, and 3,000 lumens per unit. I just put two fixtures ($15 each) on my 3' x 2' winter grow box and it looks fine for the winter. only two plugs to worry about.

Nepenthes (at least most common ones) are not too bothered by low light conditions, so any strong daylight bulbs you buy will do. For my small nepenthes I just have one bulb in a clamp light I keep over them by a window.

How cold is your basement, I would highly recommended some conditions around 50*F for the venus flytraps otherwise they don't go fully dormant and will crash after a few years. P.s. shortening photoperiod does nothing.

My basement oddly enough is closer to 65F all year long. My house is completely weird that way, where my upstairs is more cold than my basement. So a grow box and lights over these puppies should keep them chugging along and maturing through winter. (I hope)

VNN

Yeah but my whole point is to NOT keep them chugging along.

SundewWolf wrote:Yeah but my whole point is to NOT keep them chugging along.

True. He would be better off putting them on an upstairs windowsill if that is the cold spot in the house.

Would that also apply to the Asian Pitcher plant or sundew plants have?

Doublebass1985 wrote:Well here is my current LED setup and it works great! It depends on how many plants you have and what's your budget? .

Cyberpunk setting !

What no one wants to tell you flat out is that ultimately growing VFT'S inside is a disaster in the making. You can get away with it for a few years but they will not survive long term.

Any plant can be turned into a houseplant. If given proper dormancy why wouldn't you assume you could make vfts last many years.

Venus Flytraps can be difficult to grow indoors, but it still can be done well.

Theirs a user on the forums known as Paulstraps, who grows venus flytraps indoors with great success. He uses the fridge method and gives them lighting with LED lights.

And judging by his collection his plants have probably lasted more than a couple of years.

Have a look at some of them. 24-7-plant-love-t40132.html

I've also seen other people grow them using the same two methods. And yes they did say that they were growing them for more than 2 years. So it can be done.

He says right in the beginning of his thread that he started doing it on 8/26/18 and the thread is about him experimenting giving the plants lighting 24/7. Nowhere does he mention how long he has been growing the plants inside.

That was referring to the lights being on all day and night. Not the lights themselves.