FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Well, that is a great song by the Clash, but not the question I want to ask (even if this indecision's bugging me)...

I always have used my LED lights to mimic the sunrise and sunset here in my locality. I see things like certain Drosera go dormant, even if there is no cool weather inside my grow tent. I find it makes it easier on the plants when I move them from the grow tent to outside. ( I live in FL so the humidity in the grow tent is about the same as outside). The only change from my grow tent to the outside is the temperature, if it is winter time, and even that is just more about the day / night delta in temperature.

OK, so here is the question: With my primary intent being to grow Sarracenia seedlings, a few Drosera, some VFT seedlings, some Utricularia, and some Nepenthes cuttings until they are rooted, Would I be better off moving from a "sunrise to sunset" schedule, to a fixed number of hours of daylight per day? If so, how many hours would you recommend it to be?

The grow tent has a mixture of Mars Hydro TSW-2000 light and a few Yescom white LED to supplement the lower racks in the grow tent.

Thanks in advance...

For growing seedlings, I would think that being on an extended, fixed photo period. Like you said, they do take cues from the photo period but I think it is more the decrease and increase that is what triggers them, not necessarily the amount of time. Since you aren't worrying about dormancy with seedlings, I would give them a longer period where they can photosynthesize and grow more. My seedlings, and plants that are skipping dormancy, are on a 16 hour photocycle but I am using a combination of 2 40 watt flourescent grow lights and 2 equivalent LED lights. My biggest problem with doing this is the acclimation of the plants to the normal photocycle and temperatures. Last spring I had to prematurely move them outdoors and it threw a bunch of them into dormancy.

Thanks. Yeah. That is what I am afraid of happening. Maybe the solution is to do something of a hybrid? So for example do sunrise to sunset plus 5 hours. That way they are getting more light but experiencing the change as well?

I'll let you know how it goes this spring. I am trying it again with my current batch of seedlings and dormancy skippers.