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Light spectrum

wondering what lights would be good for vft growing, are regular type a light bulbs ok?
 
If by "regular" you mean the incandescant bulbs used in the home, no they are not ok. They produce far too much heat and they don't have anywhere near the right spectrum for growing plants.

Check out the Terrarium 101 topic in the greenhouse/bog garden forum for info on the right kind of lighting.
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The sun is the best lightbulb
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yeah i know that, they are all being grown in the sun, but we haven't seen the sun in a week and its expected it will keep raining for another week. these kinda days i bring them in and put them under lights.
 
they will be fine outside, they have bad weather in north carolina, too. it wont hurt them.

we had the same thing going on over here in GA, rain and no sun for weeks, but everything came out just fine.
 
which light spectrum is best for the photosynthesis of plants, 6,700 or 10,000? (i would think 6,700 since its closest to the suns)
 
I grew my VFTs under any standard flourescent plant lights that were on sale for many years. You get great trap coloration from the constant light. However, you'll notice your plants are much healthier (and hardier) if you grow them outside and let the sun do it's business on them for 4-6 hours per day.
 
im starting an indoor terrarium, so im trying to find out which bulbs i should get, trust me i know how good the sun is and how hard it is to imitate it. for a fact i know that 6,700 are very close to the suns spectrum here in the u.s, but i want to hear from someone that has experience since sometimes experience overules fact.
 
I use Sylvania gro-lux 4' bulbs over my growchamber. I had to do an internet search for the CRI and Kelvin ratings. According to several websites that sell them, their CRI is 89, and color temperature is 3400K, which is considerably lower than what is usually recommended. The 3400K does seem to match the color of the light output, thought, which is purplish, when you look right at the bulb. Nevertheless, the plants in the grow chamber are doing very well under them. The neps and dews, etc. are doing great, and I kept my vfts in there before I put them outside in mini bogs, and they put up flower stalks(or tried to anyway, I cut them off) and the traps were nice and red.
 
  • #10
I use a compact incandescent bulb with the "daylight" spectrum, which is 6500k and fits in your standard incandescent light fixture. The wattage isn't quite as high as I'd prefer (its 75 watt incandescent equivilant), but if you don't want to bother with tube lights or getting extra fixtures, its the way to go. So far my plants have responded quite well to it, far better than they were previously with a normal bulb.

I wish I could put mine in the sun without them getting grilled. :p
 
  • #11
5000k is considered sunlight (although your also correct that it is shifted slightly blue as you move away from the equator). A 6500k bulb would do just fine. Equally important as color is intensity. Particularly for VFT and other full sun loving plants! You would need several of the tube fixtures placed a few inches from the plants. Better yet would be some sort of high intensity lighting such as metal halide or sodium or high output fluorescent. You could also go for the high wattage compact fluorescent.

They make 65watt 6500k compact fluorescent bulbs that screw into a standard light fixture. Or you could try the outdoor security light by Fluorex or Regent available at homedepot and lowes. These use a 65watt 6500k compact fluorescent bulb also.

My opinion on the incandescent plant bulbs.. totally worthless. ALL incandesent bulbs produce a huge amount of red and infrared light ie HEAT. Getting the plants close enough to the bulb so they receive the proper intensity results in crispy plants. Move the bulb further away to keep the plants from frying and they don't get enough light.

Tony
 
  • #12
As Tony said...you must be careful when buying bulbs labeled "Plant Light". I bought one once...it looked kinda blueish like a plant tube. Upon closer inspection (AFTER I'd already bought it), I found out it was not a true "plant light" but an incandescent bulb with a kinda blue-ish film over it. And like Tony said...it got HOT. Totally worthless.

I use a mix of Grow-Lux, cool whites and sometimes a SunStick. Works fine for me although I'd love to try MH sometime.
 
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