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Light

  • Thread starter CPsInAtl
  • Start date
Really.. how much light is enough?
 
mine are outside that gets a lot of sun. but it is shaded by a tree. its in the north part of my yard so it gets mostly morning sun. anywho its pitchering and doing fantastic! i also have one inside that i have sorta been experimenting with. its a TC mutant that look rely wiered. it gets probably as much sun as a north facing window and it is pitchering.
Alex

EDIT: i have Ventrata and 2 Ventricosa(i think...) outside and the TC mutant is either Ventrata or Ventricosa
 
When things around your grow room begin to spontaneously combust, that's enough light.
Seriously, the more light the better. There practically is no 'enough' for most species, so long as you can keep them at a proper temperature and hydrated. Sunlight is 'enough' in nature, but I'm sure many of these plants would appreciate even more.
A bare minimum guideline is two forty-watt, four-foot fluorescent bulbs per every one-by-four foot area of grow space, so long as the lights are fairly close to the plants (two to six inches.) Really, you'd probably want twice as many bulbs. If you're going for compact fluorescent bulbs, I'd say a thirty-watt compact fluorescent effectively lights a space of about one foot in diameter at a distance of four to six inches from the plants, if you have it in a fixture with a good reflector.
Read some guides out there. Barry Rice's CP FAQ has an excellent guide to Nepenthes, including a discussion on light. There are a lot of other sources out there - if you look through older threads here or in the greenhouse forum, or do a search on Nepenthes cultivation, you should be able to find plenty of information.
Best luck,
~Joe
 
I installed some brighter lights last Monday and my ampullaria "giant red" started to wilt a bit. So yes lights are good but you have to adjust them to it slowly.
 
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