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Small leaves? help!

My VTF seems to have very small leaves, much smaller than the original leaves that it had when it was shipped. Its in a small terrarium with a white light and plenty of water. Does anyone have an idea whats wrong with it? Thanx a bunch for the help. Teknomage01@hotmail.com. Pj M.
 
can you give us more info? is it a plant from petflytrap? what's the soil consist of? you say it's a "white" light? do you know how many lumens the light gives off? how far is it away from the vft? how many hours a day is the light on? did you recentally repot the plant (maybe it's just in shock?)?

thanks,
tech...
 
It is from petflytrap.com, and I used the soil that they sell (not exactly sure what it consists of). As for the light... its a 75 watt lamp bulb I bought at Home Depot. The label said its akin to sunlight. I'm not sure how many lumens it puts out. My vtf is directly under the light (which is in a lamp), in a small terrarium. It gets on average 12 hours of light, since I also work, etc. in this room. I've had it most of the summer (over a month min). Thanx for the help. Pj M.
 
Thats the problem then you need to use a flourescent light. Incadescent are not bright enough and give off way too much heat for a Vft.
 
Where could I find a flourescent light thats cheap? Are there flourescents that can go into lamps? How bright should it be? Thanx again for all the help. Pj M.
 
Yes you can use those compact flourescents.Soplights are betterm but pretty much anythings better then incadescent! You can get them at wal-mart for like $4.:)
 
Yes just buy a few cheap shoplights and put them over your VFTs, My VFTs grow well that way
 
Are the leaves burned (black)? Maybe you would think about covering your terrarium with mylar/aluminum foil as as to save light.

One Q:Is 'incadesent' the same as sunlight. If so why is that bad? I thought sunlight was excellent for cps?
 
The leaves are not black, just small.
 
  • #10
Teknomage, were the plants you bought the bare root, $1.99 plants?  I purchased 30 of these plants this year, and placed them under a four foot shop light (80watts total).  The vast majority of these plants produced smaller leaves for the first 3-5 months.  I could be wrong, but my guess is:

1.  these are tissue cultured plants resorting back to smaller growth for a period of time.  

2.  that the amount of light I had on them was insufficient to promote good growth.

3.  shock was running its natural course with these plants for the first year, and they should show good growth their second year.  

It could be one of these reasons, or a combination of them.  I would provide as much light as you can to them and wait for next year's growth to come in.
 
  • #11
The problem with incadescent bulbs is that only about 20% of the electicity is converted to useable light the rest being heat. This means the bulb has to be very close to the plant to give enough light but since it gets so hot the plant either etiolates from lack of light or frys from too much heat!
 
  • #12
Jeremy: I bought my VFT from petflytrap, it was $5.99 I believe and I assume its fully grown (though it was rather small when it got here).

Pond Boy: My VFT is about 1-2 feet from the light, directly underneath the lamp shade. I also mist it once every day or so, just in case. The soil temp is roughly 80 degrees f, in case anyone is wondering.
 
  • #13
Thats way too little light then your going to have to get a compact flourescent or a shoplight if you expect your plant to survive for long.
 
  • #14
Well, guess I'm going to have to make a trip to Wal-Mart... I hope they have it. Pj
 
  • #15
Shop lights run about $7 for a 4 ft. model with lamps around $1.50 each extra they have to be changed about once a year to keep there lumen rateing high.
 
  • #18
perry mitchell, junior... PJ M.
smile.gif
 
  • #19
Okay, I know this is extremely newbiestic, but what is the definition of a lumen? Never heard that b4 in my physics class, only watts and joules and stuff like that...
 
  • #20
"The unit of luminous flux in the International System, equal to the amount of light given out through a solid angle by a source of one candela intensity radiating equally in all directions." -Dictionairy.com Hope this helps. Pj
 
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