FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I decided for this winter that I don't want to have nothing to take care of; my Capensis's died when I moved, but my Adelae didn't (it just got soil all over its leaves and got mad at me, so I decapitated it...it'll grow back...).

I had a small DVD rack in the basement and a few other assundries at my disposal, so I went shopping for a small indoor small-room friendly light fixture/bulb. What I found was a 125W 6500K CFL that's 14" long (CFL itself is 9") and 8750 lumens, and it came with a fixture that accepts both medium and Mogul bases. Sweet. Ordered.

I finished my setup a few days ago, though I may add some of my mylar to it later if I find a day where I feel I haven't cursed quite enough.

The plants are 5" to 6" away from the light itself; any closer with that thing would be too hot. It puts off quite a bit of heat so I re-rigged my old computer-fan terrarium cooler.

It's not pretty, but it's definitely functional. All the plants that have any leaves seem to be thriving so far. Feedback and criticism welcome. Hit me.

The grow list:

• 2 Venus flytraps (I've never pushed a flytrap through dormancy so I'm going to try it and see if I can get a winter flower stalk or two)
• 2 Nepenthes Sanguinea? from a Lowe's death cube - there were two in the cube and one of them was sickly and had no roots whatsoever, but the rhizome looked good. In one of the pics I've circled where I can see it pushing out a new leaf from inside a capless soda bottle; new roots appear to be go. The healthier Nep is in a large glass jar - not sure if I need these but humidity hovers around 45% and I still don't even know what it is.
• 1 Drosera Adelae - my old buddy Chauncey. Currently decapitated, but he'll grow back.
• 1 pot-o-VFT seeds - Most were crushed in the mail, but I think there might be one or two good seeds in there, so I'm going to try to germinate these, and get more seeds soon.

The pics -

All I can say is that it looks awesome to me! I hope that you can get some germination from the seeds.

Temperature readings have been hovering around 84 to 88 degrees at pot-level, but the damp soil probably combats that heat a little.

I hope it's not too hot for the Adelae or the VFT seeds. The Adelae is getting the heat blown away directly since it's under the fan, I hope the air movement doesn't harm its dew production/retention. Time will tell.

The seeds are wrapped in plastic which is a bit worrisome; should I lower them away from the light a bit, I wonder?

It might be a bit warm for the adelae. The seeds should be ok, but I think somewhere between 72°F and 82°F is better for VFT seed. Maybe lower them a bit?

I had to back off the light just a bit and the temps are now hovering around 84-86. The seeds are a bit below that heat line, so I hope it's a bit cooler for them with that and the air movement.

That is one powerful light. It ought to produce some big plants, or lots of people wearing sunglasses inside.

I hope so. The light is about 8 inches from a lot of the plants, but I've seen people use 2 regular 40W CFL's 10 inches away and their VFT's still turn blood red and drool. This is a 125W CFL engineered for plants and it's only 8 inches away. I think I'm in good shape.

Very nice setup V! That nep is looking great!

hb

hackerberry wrote:Very nice setup V! That nep is looking great!

hb

Thanks

wow thats awesome dude! i have a terr myself i am still working on it but i love your nep ...................................awesome

Nice, that looks really nice.

I hope your little makeshift home provides good shelter for your beautiful plants. This is best thing you can do for them,it works in the winter because of the great setup. The temperature can really be freaky to save their lives, you can also use other alternatives to maintain the heat and cold to normal level. Basement Dehumidifier

My mexican butterwort went into dormancy after being put under a light. Seems the heat of the lamp made it seem too hot.

The butterworts seem to do better in indirect sunlight.

I've also noticed this in my lanceleaf sundew. I hope it starts growing large leaves again