FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I cleared off an old shelf and prepared it for my indoor minibogs. I figured I'd be able to control the climate better there than in the windowsill where it currently is. I can keep the soil wet there, but vegas is super dry. I find it hard to get rh above 30% in that room. I've got bring full spectrum and blurple lights I'll be able to install. This is how it's looking so far.

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Here is my mini bog that's been going a while. The plants are very young. Less than 2 years. Lighting has been less than ideal, so I'm hoping the new setup will help with that.

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Update: its coming along. I've got a paycheck coming tomorrow, so I should be able to finish getting the environment together. Oh, and with the Samsung LEDs it is bright!

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I've got a ultrasonic humidifier and wi-fi controlled switch. What should my target RH be for sarracenia, drosera, and vft be? My current ambient RH is 30% with two large swamp cooler humidifiers running for my instruments. I can get the chamber up to 90%.

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In other news, the increased light and feeding is paying off (the protection from nosey cats doesn't hurt. There's barely anything left of the poor D. capillaris after Ceora had her snack) and all transplants are showing new growth. I water from the bottom and my deionizer gets it down to around 2 ppm. I checked the water in the tray and it has a tds reading of about 80 ppm. The pH seems ok at around 4. I am feeding drops of "bug soup" or bloodworms sitting in DI water through a syringe every two weeks. Is there anything I'm forgetting?

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Sarrs and VFT don't need much humidity unless your germinating/propagating them while sundews do best above 40rh. To be honest, your temperate indoor set up will run into issues in long run. If proper conditions are met, you'll have a better chance of keeping all three species healthy outside during growing season because of airflow and light requirements, especially the VFT and Sarr. You're better off creating a subtropical to tropical grow shelf inside.

Keep in mind I live in the mojave. RH outside is less than 20% and the summer can be 115 °F for weeks on end.

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That's not to say I'm not open to suggestions, just that the environment brings with it unusual challenges for growing plants. Another example is the SNWA limiting when, where, and how you can utilize water. Imho it's a good thing, but also a big reason I'm opting for indoor growing. I've been able to roughly calculate the ppfd I'm getting with the plants raised up close to the lights and it is (at least using Barry's method) more light than Barry calculated for himself. I do have a mars hydro 600 on the way too. I'm hoping with some clever automation I can create artificial sunrises and sunsets. As it is now the lights are 18:6. I do have the plants that require dormancy in a separate mini bog that can be moved to an outdoor location. Airflow is still a bit of an issue because of how dry it is and the limits on watering. Temperature wise it's actually not bad.

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I overlooked you live in desert. I also have a mars hydro 600. It will create a lot of heat even though its an led. It's powerful and my sarrs and vft's love it (16 inches above plants), although my temperate sundews can't handle the heat or light intensity. If I raise light a fews inches then my VFT's won't get enough light. We know lighting will be a more than adequate especially with reflective material. The tricky part will be finding the correct balance between airflow and high temperatures in a small closed in space. Humidity should be least of your concerns. Temperate bogs do best 70-80 degrees especially for temperate sundews to thrive. I've had more success separating temperates to their own pots in open setups to control media ratio and soil saturation needs between Sarrs, VFT's, and temp sundews.

It's not completely enclosed the front has some clear plastic with a split in the middle and a 3" gap at the bottom. I'm thinking of picking up a few noctua fans and mounting them to the top to draw air in to cool the mars hydro a bit. I think it will only have about 16" of clearance over the plants. I've also been thinking about adding an air stone to the reservoir of each mini bog. I'm not sure how necessary that is or if it would make much of a difference.

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Update from the big cheese at the local botanical gardens. Greenhouses can be used but are discouraged, especially in the summer. It's kinda what I suspected, but it's always good to talk to the local experts.

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Uh oh, the addiction is showing.

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Added the mars hydro 600, and the difference is stunning . I've even programmed the outlets to follow the sunrise/sunset!


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Are you using "Home Assistant" for those automations ? I just started playing around with it for my grow light.

Yep! I did eventually move the plants to a different location, but I'm still using the automation.

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