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Nepenthes Light cycle: 24 hours light cycle effects

I noticed that most website recommend that you give nepenthes at least a 14-16 hours light cycle in order to grow them properly. With that information, I ponder if anyone has exposed nepenthes to a more intense light cycle ? Say 20-24 hours a day , with little to no night cycle ?
I am currently doing this right now to experiment but I just wonder if anyone has done it before and would like to share their findings. If not, then I would love to hear your nepenthes light/night cycle and recommending for the future.

Set up: I have 3 T5 6500K spectrum bulbs on the terrarium. 2 of the of T5 runs for 18 hours a day, while the other one runs for 24 hours a day. Temperature during day : 70-75 F.
Temperature at night : 60-63 F
Humidity : 80-90%
Fan inside running at half speeds: lower temperature and circulate air.
This has been going on for 30 days.
Automatic misting unit sprays them every hour for 4 seconds.

Findings 11/11/14: all nepenthes are adjusting, some of the old leaves are dying but growing more big and darker ones. Pitcher production is normal. No information on if the light so far has decrease pitcher size.
In additions, half of nepenthes have been fertilized with osmocote ( 16-9-12 ). 1 osmocote pellet was drop into the pitcher. None were put into the soil. This was to observed what happen if nepenthes had an increase in a light cycle plus some fertilizing. The osmocote pellet was introduce 30 days ago, at the start of the experiment.

I will update the information each month. Sorry for my English.

I will also put picture here when I have time.


Findings 12/11/14

Nepenthes are doing fine.
Osmocote group:
Those that were exposed to an osmocote pellet grew quite well: double on leaf size and some has increase pitcher since the last time. Interesting enough, I believe one is shooting out an 2 additional growth points. Albeit, said one hasn't been making any pitcher for a month now. One is starting to kill off two of pitcher.

Controlled group: No sign of distress yet. Normal leaf and pitcher size as before.

12/11/14

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In general, not a good idea, but I'd be curious to see your results. These tropical plants need a definite, cool 'dark cycle' to maintain a reserve of nonstructural carbohydrates. When people say plants become "exhausted" if nights are too warm, this is what they mean (and the same is true, although with more adverse consequences, when the plant isn't given a break from the light cycle).

I've found Nepenthes grow well when receiving 15 hours of light per day, with three of those coming from LEDs at dawn and dusk in my set-up (in order to ease them into the cycles mentioned above). Although anywhere from 12 to 16 hours/day works fine.
 
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What Mat just said, yes.
The genus Nepenthes has demonstrated a need for a distinct warm-to-cool, day-to-night cycle to regulate its metabolism rhythms, and disruptions to these rhythms has deleterious effects, as Mat has noted. While temperature disruptions are far more well-documented, I suspect light cycle disruptions would eventually manifest similar problems with plants "exhausting" their resources. But without proof, that is not a certainty. If you wish to proceed, you will be mining that data for the community, and that's potentially beneficial. However, I would not expect to see clearly defined effects until you have been at it for several months (IE: six months, perhaps more?).

PS: to make sure you are obtaining data about daylight cycle effects and not just temperature effects, you might want to engineer night temps to drop below 60F, so that you can know for sure any effects you see are not just the results of too many nights above optimal temps. It depends what plants you are using as test subjects, of course (warm, intermediate or cool growers)
 
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Awesome experimentation. can i get the maker and model of your fan?
 
now is there something different when it comes to seedlings? I've heard of people using 24hr light on Sarracenia and VFT seedlings w good results compared to adults.
 
now is there something different when it comes to seedlings? I've heard of people using 24hr light on Sarracenia and VFT seedlings w good results compared to adults.

Different species of plants have different needs in general, age does factor in but you have to understand that CPs have varied needs
 
I have heard in the past that people have had success growing Sarracenia from seed by keeping the lights on 24 hours a day for 3 years without dormancy. After that a normal photoperiod is needed as well as dormancy. Not sure how true this is, but it will be interesting to see what your results are. Keep us posted
 
I have heard in the past that people have had success growing Sarracenia from seed by keeping the lights on 24 hours a day for 3 years without dormancy. After that a normal photoperiod is needed as well as dormancy. Not sure how true this is, but it will be interesting to see what your results are. Keep us posted

Sarracenia are exceedingly light loving plants though, especially compared to nepenthes, who prefer lower levels than to many CPs.
 
I kept Nep seedlings in 24hr light for many months and they seemed okay. I had no control so there was no experimentation
But they didnt seem to mind
then, I put an older plant from my GH in there and it died in a week - But, that could have been due to temps (higher and no drop) as my GH is HL and the terra is LL
 
  • #10
Mato :
Did you noticed that when new plants where introduce, they would lose their pitchers or have a decrease in pitcher size or slow grow rate?

If this experiment goes well or doesn't, depending on the result, I just wonder what would happen once I switch them back to a 15 or 18 hour light cycle after 6 months. Is there such as light shock to carnivorous plant, where if it taken from a area with 21+ hour of light to 18 and below, would some pitcher die or the plant show down in growth ? Sorry for the strange question.
 
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I kept Nep seedlings in 24hr light for many months and they seemed okay. I had no control so there was no experimentation
But they didnt seem to mind
then, I put an older plant from my GH in there and it died in a week - But, that could have been due to temps (higher and no drop) as my GH is HL and the terra is LL

That's interesting. My grow chamber is suppose to be a highland chamber.
 
  • #12
What Mat just said, yes.
The genus Nepenthes has demonstrated a need for a distinct warm-to-cool, day-to-night cycle to regulate its metabolism rhythms, and disruptions to these rhythms has deleterious effects, as Mat has noted. While temperature disruptions are far more well-documented, I suspect light cycle disruptions would eventually manifest similar problems with plants "exhausting" their resources. But without proof, that is not a certainty. If you wish to proceed, you will be mining that data for the community, and that's potentially beneficial. However, I would not expect to see clearly defined effects until you have been at it for several months (IE: six months, perhaps more?).

PS: to make sure you are obtaining data about daylight cycle effects and not just temperature effects, you might want to engineer night temps to drop below 60F, so that you can know for sure any effects you see are not just the results of too many nights above optimal temps. It depends what plants you are using as test subjects, of course (warm, intermediate or cool growers)

I will continue this experiment for 6 months or to a year. All the plants are intermediate to cool growers. All of them are hybrids. I'll update the specimens in the chamber when I get the time.
I am trying to get the night temp to go down before 60. It's kinda hard without getting an AC but I'll come up with something.
 
  • #13
The most shock is going to happen from keeping the lights on continuously. Sudden high light levels can also cause phytotoxicity, but the alternative scenario is a slower process and less serious for the plant in the short term. Almost any drastic, sudden change to the environmental parameters will shock the plants in one way or another, since they must undergo physiological changes to cope.
 
  • #14
Well, I'm quite curious to see what happens then. Oddly enough, there's very little, or not many leaf burns. I thought that would be the first thing to happen but so far, so good.
 
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