FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Sponsored by FlytrapStore.com

Discussions about fluorescent, LED and other types of grow lighting for Venus Flytraps and other plants

Moderator: Matt

User avatar
By Mistydream12008
Posts:  5
Joined:  Tue Aug 10, 2021 6:22 pm
#389487
Hi everyone, im actually still pretty new to carnivorous plants but I got bit by the bug hard and ended up getting a few in a short amount of time. My Pings have been doing well for me but I wanted to ask about my others especially my VFT and Sarracenia Purpurea cause I know they need higher light than the others. Most say put them outside but I have so many critters out there that keep eating my outdoor plants I can just imagine if they saw these. I also live in a very HOT desert like place. Think 100s in summer. I bought them at Walter Anderson brought them home and took them out of their death cubes. Sarracenia was very green when I bought her and kinda crispy but has since gotten some red to her and no new crisp. Also what looks like a very red baby leaf coming in. The VFT had very long skinny leaves. She still has one that is turning black from where the pincher bug was sticking out of the trap and some juices seeped through. But the new leaves are chubbier and shorter. Is that a good thing? Cause I have no clue honestly. Sundew is always beautifully covered in dew and I love looking up at her from my bed to see her sparkle. Shes my most murderous and currently has 4 flies she caught. Sundew was also super green when I bought her. I have them under a Security light I modified and took the dome off of. Also used a clamp light to control the direction of the light. Its on a timer for 14hrs a day. All in individual tray methods with distilled water that I do let go down a bit before cleaning the tray and refilling again. I have pics of the light box itself. Its 4800 lumens, 40watts, 5000k. Idk if me modifying it changed the luminosity so I used an app to get the light in Lux as well. I hope this is ok for them. But if not I can always get another light...sorry hubby my plants want what they want(its by our bed) also what about dormancy for the VFT? I've heard of Refrigerator dormancy. And have been researching and even bought a book on carnivorous plants but I want to get it right for them. They are my first Carnies and I already love them.ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

Sent from my LM-X320 using Tapatalk

User avatar
By septembersapphire21
Location: 
Posts:  215
Joined:  Tue Apr 13, 2021 6:26 pm
#390110
First off, your CPs look super amazing! Your VFT looks healthy even though it has long skinny leaves, with more lighting newer leaves should be thicker. But for the lighting, I'm not sure but it does seem to work for your plants. Best advice is keep at what you have currently.

When it comes to dormancy, VFTs do need light, but less of it. I'm still new to CP growing and have my first VFTs going in dormancy too (except where I'm at mother nature is taking her sweet old time to get below in the 50s because the average day temp rn is low to mid 70s and lows 50s at night :roll: ), but I would think that 6 - 8 hours of light for them during winter would make sense. And it depends where you live, if you live in a tropical climate or like you said in a desert location where it stays warm and there's hardly any temp drops, then you can do the refrigerator method. Or you can move it to your basement or somewhere colder that stays below 48 degrees until spring.

I tried my best to help, hopefully what I said does! :)
User avatar
By Mistydream12008
Posts:  5
Joined:  Tue Aug 10, 2021 6:22 pm
#390805
septembersapphire21 wrote:First off, your CPs look super amazing! Your VFT looks healthy even though it has long skinny leaves, with more lighting newer leaves should be thicker. But for the lighting, I'm not sure but it does seem to work for your plants. Best advice is keep at what you have currently.

When it comes to dormancy, VFTs do need light, but less of it. I'm still new to CP growing and have my first VFTs going in dormancy too (except where I'm at mother nature is taking her sweet old time to get below in the 50s because the average day temp rn is low to mid 70s and lows 50s at night :roll: ), but I would think that 6 - 8 hours of light for them during winter would make sense. And it depends where you live, if you live in a tropical climate or like you said in a desert location where it stays warm and there's hardly any temp drops, then you can do the refrigerator method. Or you can move it to your basement or somewhere colder that stays below 48 degrees until spring.

I tried my best to help, hopefully what I said does! :)
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your advice. I'll definitely have to try the refrigerator method cause it almost never stays under 50 here.

Sent from my LM-X320 using Tapatalk

Drosera germination time

Wow! Thank you very much, everyone!

I'm seeing a similar thing with nearly all of mi[…]

More additions! Thanks Secretariat73! S. leucophy[…]

Transaction with Secretariat73

I must concur. Despite the best efforts of our dea[…]

So far, not less than five days apart. Humidity va[…]

Argh! Just 4 days left in the photo contest and we[…]

SASE received. Order is fulfilled. Return envelope[…]

My Sarracenia x moorei 'Red Velvet' is turning out[…]

Support the community - Shop at FlytrapStore.com!