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Light and CP

Joseph Clemens

Joseph Clemens

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I have seen photo's of and heard descriptions of plant troubles. I've even reduced light levels on some of my own plants and experienced those same troubles myself.

CP and even Pinguicula need as much PAR light as they can get without cooking them. Just like any other plant. Just because a plant can survive, and even bloom doesn't necessarily indicate that they are receiving the optimum amount of PAR light.

Don't get me wrong, they can be grown in less than optimum conditions, and quite successfully too. But if they are grown in less than optimum light you will need to more carefully balance their other environmental factors (especially temperature and moisture) in order to keep them from being overcome by advantitious and pathogenic organisms, which would normally be supressed by a higher level of light. And if photo's you've seen show them with colorful, uniquely patterned leaves -- too little light and you can kiss any hope of seeing these colors and patterns of leaves, though your plant may grow just fine and bloom even better than ones with the colorful leaves.
 
i agree. what do you suggest?
 
My Mexi-pings are all on SE window sills and they are pretty much as you describe. They are all pink. They have grease and send out new leaves. They look fine, but don't flower.
 
Once the day length grows shorter, they could surprise you.
 
Im confused what they need to bloom, a lot of light or a litle of light, or 26 hrs of light, or 4 hrs, im confused...
 
I am unsure how you would provide 26hrs of light. But what I think Pingman is saying is that they need as much light as possible for proper coloring and overall health of the plant. But as the daylength decreasing it will spur the plants into flowering.

Wolf
 
Wolf,

That's right.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]PAR light
Click to expand...

Not sure what PAR means here. Could you explain please?

-Homer
 
Sure, PAR means Photosynthetically Active Radiation, basically means the part of the spectrum that plants can actually use directly. Other parts of the light and electromagnetic spectrum may be nearly as important too. For example ultraviolet frequencies are important because they inhibit the growth of many microorganisms, some of which may be harmful to CP growth and health.
 
  • #10
I know that the plants don't read the books, as Bugweed says, but i find it amusing that my sundews, Utrics, and VFT's (my Sarrs. haven't yet) all go nuts with the flowering in the spring and summer, but the mexi-pings are the opposite. the only time I had a mexi-ping flower was about 6 months ago - a 'Sethos' that was shipped to me, with the bud being inherited. So that sounds about right. I'll bet the spring through fall conditioning has a lot to say about winter flowering, right?
 
  • #11
jimscott,
You are probably right about that what the plants experience prior to their blooming sets them up to bloom.

Windplant,
Not just duration of light is important, but intensity is also. For example: 10 hours at 100 lux = 1000 lux/hrs, but 10 hours at 1000 lux = 10000 lux/hrs. And then of course the frequencies of the light delivered make a huge difference, plants do not use all light, just a small portion of it, certain frequencies.
 
  • #12
This is an interesting topic. I received some mexican pings that were very pale and sickly looking. They immediately colored up once I placed them about 10" underneath grow lights. This week I am moving them even closer to see how they respond. I have access to a PAR meter, and I'm going to take some readings at various distances from my grow lights and then compare them to readings taken outdoors.

During spring I had the opportunity to to research using a Fluorimeter that allowed me to expose plants to specific PAR light levels. I compared shade adapted plants to sun adapted plants. With both types, I started with low PAR levels and slowly increased the PAR to see how they respond. What was interesting is that the even though the sun adapted plants can handle higher PAR levels, there is a saturation point, and the plant then shifts to a photoprotective mechanism to protect itself from excessive light. The saturation point is much lower than the PAR levels they experience in full sun outdoors. The vivid red colors seen in many carnivorous plants is a way they protect themselves from high light levels (especially UV light). There was a study done on temperate pings that illustrates this.

I would like to carry out this research with carnivorous plants in order to determine optimum PAR levels, but they are difficult to work with because of their unusual leaves.

Brian
 
  • #13
Brian,
Excellent, I look forward to hearing your results.

My guess is that the photoprotective mechanism is triggered with lower PAR levels under fluorescent lights by their higher UV levels.
 
  • #14
Just wondering.. What are the types of light used for growing cps artifically? metal head lights?, PL light? What are the voltage used? 55W? 30W?

regards
Jonathan
 
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