Indoors growing setup questions

[Azath]

Hi everyone, forum newbie here.
I live in the UK, and as the days get shorter I'm considering getting some artificial light for my (currently) lone nepenthes. At the same time I also want to get a cart/ trolley for when I get more plants. I'm very interested to hear if anyone has recommendations for either, especially the lighting. Below is the space I plan to put everything in;



And I'm thinking of using something like this, and hanging the lights from the underside of the shelves (60 x 35 x 81cm);



As for the lighting, I've been researching it, but I am still not clear on it. It seems that generally, LEDs are recommended over fluorescent tubes - is that right? And if so, are the red and blue lights the best, or should the light be white? Of course, energy efficiency and cost are my main considerations.

Finally, since this is the nepenthes forum, here's my wee Burbidgeae x Veitchii BE-3677 that I've had for around 6 months now. Bonus points if anyone can identify the Drosera that came with it - I'm guessing a Capensis.



Thanks very much fellow CP enthusiasts!

 

[Grey Moss]

Shelves and lighting are a good starting point for creating an indoor growspace. LED's don't have any real advantage over floro bulbs in terms of plant health I think. It's mostly that they are more efficient and last longer, making them more cost efficient. Some people use just red and blue but this isn't very pleasing on the eye and all white LEDs seem to work just as well. Your drosera is a capensis.

 

[hcarlton]

In personal experience, colored LED's (red or blue) have a huge positive effect on coloration and vigor of many carnivorous plants (because those are the spectra plants utilize most, while white has a lot of wasted energy the plants can't work with), but a balance between both and perhaps white LED's will be better for the eyes. They also tend to be cooler than fluorescents, important if you have plants on shelves above the lights or in an enclosed space. In open air or just as a supplemental means however fluorescent fixtures will have a lower outright cost and may last some time depending on how long you have them on.

 

[Azath]

Thanks for the replies Greymoss and hcarlton! I think artificial lighting has been the most complicated thing I've looked into yet with regards to plant care. I've exhaustively looked through what amazon has to offer, and settled on this LED light ; https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DC9HWH5, which seems to be the most appropriate for my very small-scale growing. The cheaper ones appear to be incredibly weak and variable in quality (13w lights advertised as 60W), whereas anything more powerful/ expensive would be overkill. I've also learned that LEDs can only emit one wavelength of light, so white LEDs are usually blue LEDs coated with phosphor, which does lose some of the light emitted, along with the plant not using all of the wavelengths as much. Granted I doubt it matters much, but there's vastly more choice of red/blue grow lights, and a lot of the better ones come with some white LEDs, along with IR and UV. Fortunately I think I can live with the bright pink light. I'll see how it goes!