FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

is this lightbulb just enough for vft? or something else?
(a picture of the product itself will be provided lol)

VFTs need more light than most lights provide. I mean you can get them to grow with lights and if you can trick them to dormancy or give them enough nutrients to propagate itself you can keep it up. I use 6400k grow lights mixed with 3k to grow most everything outside of VFTs and Sarracenia. I've grown both short term with one. Typically use fluorescent tubes for coverage though. You'll have to play with it so see how close it needs to be to the plants. if you can put vfts and sarracenia outside, do it. Here's a picture of a VFT that was grown indoors with new leaves on it from outside, it becomes apparent when you see them side by side. the orange(ish) one was indoors. leaves will tend to be longer, thinner and more translucent. When they're outside, outside of light intensity, other factors force the plant to put more energy into leaf/trap development, making the plant sturdier and more robust. You can see it with most plants when you harden them. It can live with lights and sometimes even grow well if you know what you're doing, it'll just look slightly different than "normal."

Apollyon wrote: ↑Tue Apr 05, 2022 12:26 pm VFTs need more light than most lights provide. I mean you can get them to grow with lights and if you can trick them to dormancy or give them enough nutrients to propagate itself you can keep it up. I use 6400k grow lights mixed with 3k to grow most everything outside of VFTs and Sarracenia. I've grown both short term with one. Typically use fluorescent tubes for coverage though. You'll have to play with it so see how close it needs to be to the plants. if you can put vfts and sarracenia outside, do it. Here's a picture of a VFT that was grown indoors with new leaves on it from outside, it becomes apparent when you see them side by side. the orange(ish) one was indoors. leaves will tend to be longer, thinner and more translucent. When they're outside, outside of light intensity, other factors force the plant to put more energy into leaf/trap development, making the plant sturdier and more robust. You can see it with most plants when you harden them. It can live with lights and sometimes even grow well if you know what you're doing, it'll just look slightly different than "normal."

so i read everything (disclaimer: i had to read it 10 times to understand it) and basically i have 2 options:
1: put my venus flytrap outside

2: get stronger lights for my vft. or use 2 lightbulbs.


and between those 2 options, i might encounter problems with both of them.

1: if it rains heavily (sometimes the weather just decides to rain alot) i fear that it might affect my vft health greatly (which might be impossible ig) or some idoit would either take it home or knock it over. (the only place with bright exposed sunlight is literally downstairs outside my HDB )

as for option 2,
i can only use 1 bulb because i only have a single lamp to use for a light bulb (i could get another lamp but im broke af) i dont want to waste electricity.(i could use a bulb which saves electricity tho)


so basically its gonna be quite challenging but you know its fine

so anyways how many lumens for watts is enough for a vft.

but if option 2 (using light bulbs) is really troublesome, i guess i would have to resort to putting my vft outside and maybe risking my vft

Is there any way you can attach a picture of your setup?

this is my setup (yea its very f cked up lol)
i plan to make a new setup either near my bed somehow or somewhere else

yea its basically just a lamp above my vft

That's not bad, but that would be too far away for that one light. But, because it is CFL, it is likely too hot to move closer. You can try to find a more directional grow light that is LED. That might help. I know that they are available, but I don't have any experience with them so I can't offer a recommendation.

ok thanks for the tip

but i have a question rn:
is CDL lightbulb too hot for vft

That is still a CFL (compact fluorescent light) and they will get hot. You need to look for something like this.


It needs to be LED so that you can get it very close to the plants.

If you're on a budget and want to grow inside and get a good general idea of what you're looking at, a cheap hydrometer on amazon lifted to the soil height will give you an indicator. I used to use those dome style fixtures to heat up reptile tanks so if money is tight, I would try to minimize heat by keeping the wattage down. I would guess the directed heat is bringing up the temperature but if it isn't showing physical damage, don't sweat that. As far as if it's enough for the plant, you could try to grow it as is and see what the incoming leaves look like an compare to a sungrown flytrap. If they appear etiolated (leggy) then you will need to try something new like increase light output or supplement at a window. Panman's bulb idea is a good one; I know others tend to use that when they're using a fixture comparable to yours.

Flytraps grow native in a climate that gets quite warm in the summer and fairly cold in the winter and they'll do fine outside in rainy conditions. Where I am in Florida, it rains all the time in the summer. (Ironic that we're the "Sunshine State"). The factors at play there would be the height of the water table and how much light the plant is actually getting. I experimented with tray watering last year in taller pots and I decided to go back to top watering personally. LFS would be my medium of choice for outdoors solely because it retains great moisture while still supplying aeration to the roots. I'm not sure where you live but where I am with the constant rain here, I can get by watering my plants 1-2 times a day in LFS with no issue as long as the water has somewhere to go. Winter is the real threat when it comes to rain.

Panman wrote: ↑Tue Apr 05, 2022 2:51 pm That is still a CFL (compact fluorescent light) and they will get hot. You need to look for something like this.


It needs to be LED so that you can get it very close to the plants.

so i found an LED light bulb
is this good?

You should be able to get that close enough, yes.