FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I'm using a 30watt (theoretical 150watt output) LED with a strong humidifier in a 10 gallon tank. Three of my plants (Gaya, Ventricosa, and Zakriana x Tiveyi) have turned bright red, including the smallest baby plants. I've done hours of research and gotten a lot of mixed opinions.

A lot of people say deep red blush in the leaves is healthy and shows the plant is getting ample light. Others have said it's sunburn and the light should be moved farther away. One extra variable is that I put them under this light immediately after receiving them, so they may be shocked and acclimating right now..

The light used to be 1 foot lower but I moved it up, I'm hoping the next set of leaves will accommodate for the strong light.

What's your opinion?

give us a close up shot on the darkest leaf

Most of the close up shots are from the largest one, I included a full shot of him for reference. the small leaf picture is a baby about 1 to 1.5 inches across.

Is that humidifier on all the time? It seems like it would keep the media way too wet, but I am not an expert.
The leaves look ok to me, but I’ll let others weigh in. The times mine got sunburn, it was more “dots” of darker color than the surrounding leaf area. But again, I will let other experts weigh in.

If anything that amount of light is probably unnecessary for nepenthes, but in regards to the red leafs my understanding is that a) different species have different light tolerances, so some might like that much light while others would not and b) it's up to personal preference on whether you want red leaves or not. I personally would probably would reduce the amount of light just to be cautious.

I don't think that is a burn, cant be 100%. I am going to guess the Gaya is the dark one and that's just the maxima in it coloring up to strong light.

pure maxima in a east facing window


why i was taking that photo i noticed this on my ventricosa in the same window

I’m agreeing with [mention]Supercazzola [/mention] may not be sunburn but a moisture issue. My st Gaya that sits outside has the dotted burns. When I got my first nep a few years ago, I watered the crap out of the thing and it started to rot. It made the leaves go dark. I am no expert just what I think. Happy growin!


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It’s definitely too much for a couple of the plants there. A slight red blush is good but when the whole leaf turns red and it’s a green leafed plant the lighting is too strong. It will affect the plant in the long run.