Question
I want to get a plant light for my carnivores plants and for there seeds, but I don't know what the wattage should be or anything else they need from it.   Thank You

Answer
Hello Clara,

It is according to the number, size, and species of carnivorous plants you have as to what lights they need. If you only have a few small tropicals, you might be able to use a few compact florescent spiral bulbs of about 100-150 watt equivalence about a foot or less from the plants. If you have a large number of plants, you would want to use shop lights of the twin mount 40 watt, 4 foot tube  type (T-12). One or two lights of that sort would be fine for a shelf full of most kinds of sundews or butterworts. If you have large plants or larger number sof plants, you may simply need to add more shop lights over them. Use cool white tubes and place the lights less than one foot from the plants and adjust as needed to get the best growth from your plants. Keep lights on fro about 12 hours in Winter and then increase the hours to 16 as Spring nears in mid February to March, reducing the hours back to 12 in November. Finally, if you have temperate full sun plants, like Venus Flytraps or Sarracenias, you may be better off placing them outside where they feel seasonal changes and get full sun all day. Growing those plants indoors is very work intensive and requires much more light than most people can provide.

Christopher