FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi, i used to be a member here many years ago. Thanks to Matt for fixing up my account last night

I used to have sars, various VFT's, a ceph, 2x cobra's, various drosera (pygmy, cape's, and others) and a couple of nep's.

I lost a couple in a big aussie heatwave we had around 2015 (2-3weeks constantly over 40c) but the majority were lost when the ex wife decided they looked thirsty and deliberately gave them a drink of roundup out of spite.

about 12mth ago i got a couple of common VFT's and a Sar from a local hardware store and they've been doing very well.
A week ago i ordered some more of my fav's from triffid park (victoria, australia)
drosera adelae, capensis red, capensis alba, Binata.
VFT akai ryu + shark tooth.
and my all time fave, the cobra plant.

As we're now at the start of winter i've just purchased a cheap LED grow light which arrived last night. One day at full power for 9hrs, and 3 of the drosera are already showing considerable dew on their leaves.
I plan to have the cobra skip one year of dormancy to give it a head start before spring. I did this many years ago with an ordinary fluro tube, and the plant was considerably bigger and healthier than its sibling which was left outside to go through dormancy. I did let it go into dormancy the following year though.

this is the cheapo light i got. the clip is a bit meh' when clamped onto a pot but the light works well.
I'll get a rack sometime this week and clamp it on that. Maybe one of the cheap $20 plastic green houses, and just use the rack (not the plastic)
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B0 ... UTF8&psc=1

Hello Oblivion and welcome back!I do recall seeing you in old forum posts through google searches from before I had an account.

That light looks pretty cool actually how is it working for you.

Welcome back! So glad you decided to get back into the hobby despite heat wave and ex wife -- sounds like a very trying time for growing!

Ewreck wrote:That light looks pretty cool actually how is it working for you.

best described as "meh".

the plants arrived bare root a few days before the light. they are responding ok to the light so far, but it is winter now in south australia.

pro's - the light seems bright. the timer works quite well and is simple to understand.

cons - i would only recommend it for people who live in one room (living with parents or renting one room in someone elses house) who is tight for space, has only a few plants and a shelf/cupboard/night stand for them.
the clip works ok on the side of a self watering trough, but it would suck on most other things.
the bendy arms for the lights are ok and do the job (barely) but take a little tweaking to get right.

if you clip it on the edge of a desk the bendy arms arent long enough to get 12" clearance from your plants as suggested due to the height of your average pot.
if you clip it on a single ordinary pot it'll probably go arse up unless its fairly well weighted.

honestly, i'd only suggest getting it if you have no way to hang a light from wires. how well it works for the plants i cannot really comment on as ive only had it a week but the Cape's started getting dew within 1x day with the light at brightest for 9hrs.
they were outside for 3days before the light arrived and never got any dew forming.
after a week with the light the leaves are standing more upright and the new growth is opening up nicely.

i got it because it was cheap and low power use. i only want it for 3mths (help give the plants a boost through winter) then they'll all go outside.

i ended up buying a cheap plastic greenhouse thing, just so i can lay the lights on the wire shelf (another expense) instead of using the clamp
after one week of acclimation i'll up the light to 12hours

Welcome back Oblivion! Interesting setup, let us know how well it works, might be a good solution for the winter.

Sounds like your ex was a real piece of work. Well at least she -- like the lost plants -- is replaceable.