FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I was wondering what experience you guys have had with grow lights. How much they costed, where you got them from, what type works best, how many watts you found to work well and how your CP's grew under them.

I was also wondering how a small greenhouse you can buy at a hardware store would go, i understand that the smaller greenhouses do tend to overheat and may cook your plants.

Thank you.

You can grow your CPs without specifically having them in a green house, especially the small ones that you seem to be describing. Of course, if you are planning to build up a 10x20-ft green house, that's a different story.

For grow lights the size and type will depend on your collection currently, or potentially what you want in the near future. I find that 4-ft tubes like the ones you put into florescent fixtures (but they can be LED lights as well), puts me in a good spot to expand a little more, as well as not be as costly as an 18-inch or 24-inch tube for the size vs cost ratio.

However, there are advantages to the shorter tubes also.

You can also get specialized grow lights that are more like strips or squares, though.

An alternative to something that is specifically being labelled as a grow light, is some kind of florescent light or LED light fixtures, for which you can pick and choose the lights that you want, as well as shop lights. You can find these tubes or shop lights with ratings of 2000 lumens or more, and 5000 Kelvin or more, which are sufficient for growing small plants like what some of the CPs are.

A good example that I like to use is the Harbor Freight LED shop light. It is 4-ft long, 5000 Lumens, and 6500 K. Those numbers are great and the bonus is that you can often get this light on sale for around $20. Even if it doesn't become your primary grow light for your setup, in case you may want more expensive or high-tech solutions, you can certainly use it for some of your plants in some of your setups.

I'm trying to grow some with a grow light, I decided on one from AeroGarden. My options on growing locations are limited since I'm in an apartment, the 45W LED panel I got is on the small side (2ft) and comes with its own stand, mostly white lights with some red and blue in there.

I understand that flytraps are best grown outside, but like I said, my locations where I can grow them are terrible for various reasons. Barely any direct light, due to thick trees everywhere and nearby buildings, and after putting my Red Dragon outside I completely forgot about the almost daily(?) sprinkler system. I got it inside before the ones in front of my door activated, and I think it's just better off with the grow light.

After having it under the grow light for a few days I am noticing that the plant is gaining some of its red color back (it was partly green here and there when I got it in the mail). I don't know for sure which is why I'm giving it another week or so. I'm guessing the flytrap won't last long for me, kinda sucks, oh well. I'll get another one if/when we're in a new and better location.

In other news, my cape sundew is loving this light. lol


EDIT:...After taking a closer look, I'm starting to think that it's about to flower. Hmmm...
Wondering if I should get a new bigger pot and try and grow more cape sundew...feeding it shouldn't be much of an issue for me. (insects everywhere, lol)

I'd make sure that it is flowering before you buy a pot and media if you do not already have it. If it does flower drosera capensis are very easy to grow from seed.

Well I mean the stem looks different from the others, and I think I see a few bulbs on it as well. But yeah I can't really buy anything at the moment anyways.