Question
QUESTION: Hi!

Im just wondering, i have a 15W 230V 50Hz Ultra Violet compact fluorescent light, is it good for my P Weser, N Ventrata and S Catesbaei? and will it reveal red colors to the plants? because that would be very nice, and ps i use natural sphagnum soil to my ping and nep but the sarracenia has perlite and sphagnum soil, i live in Sweden, answer would be highly appreciated.

Best Regards your fellow CP grower, Moe

ANSWER: Hi Moe,

No, the light isn't intense enough for your plants.  Ideally, you want lights that are a minimum of 40 watts.  Forget about the other numbers and focus on watts.  If you can't find a fluorescent bulb that's 40 or more watts, use at least three of the lights you have and group them together.  This will give you the desired light intensity.

I also wouldn't worry about getting those expensive plant lights.  We haven't seen any significant growth for the extra price.  The basic cool white fluorescent bulbs works just fine.  

So focus on light intensity and you'll be able to bring out the nice colors in your plants.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi!

thanks for the answer, so i changed the lights to one 40 watt neodymium R50 bulb thats supposed to be good for plants, and a 15 watt 2700K warmwhite energysaving lamp, is that good? answer would be highly appreciated

best regards Moe


Answer
Hi Moe,

The warm-white bulb will work, but it's better to stick with either cool-white or daylight.  Warm-white has it's spectrum more in the red-orange range.  Plants photosynthesize in the red-blue frequencies.  Cool-white tubes have a more balanced spectrum. Warm-whites just look nicer inside a home.

I would be leary of the neodymium bulb.  That sounds like an incandescent bulb, and it will be too hot.  No matter what kind of claims are made for these things (I've tried them), they don't have enough output in the blue to UV range, and to get the intensity you need you have to use one in about the 150 watt range.  The plants just don't grow that well under them.

As Jacob mentioned, however, intensity is the big name of the game with carnivorous plants.  The most important thing you're looking at is lumens.  That's why when we talk about the standard 48 inch(You may have a metric equivalent to this in Sweden.) tubes we say to use 40 watt tubes.  They have 3,100 lumen output.  All other energy saver types are much less than this.

Hope this helps some.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com