Sunlight / Artificial Light questions ¡!

[Gabcat]

Hello, I have my first 2 dionaeas for about 1 month, I had them in a windowsill but recieved poor light and high temperatures, then, since they traps didn't colour at all, I'm thinking having them in a terrarium, in my room.

Is it possible to fully replace sunlight with artificial light ? what I mean to say, can indoor plants have the same results (health, growing rate, etc) as plants who recieves natural sunlight?

I don't quite understand how.

Thank you!

 

[SubRosa]

Absolutely. You just have to be willing and able to buy a suitable fixture and run it. That's easy. The dormancy your vfts require for their long term wellbeing may be more of a challenge.

 

[Gabcat]

Oh, that's great ! But, I read they need some ultraviolet and infrared light , that would make the terrarium lighting and plants look strange? like...warm, reddish, or intense violet. I don't like that

 

[SubRosa]

Oh, that's great ! But, I read they need some ultraviolet and infrared light , that would make the terrarium lighting and plants look strange? like...warm, reddish, or intense violet. I don't like that

FYI ultraviolet is at a wavelength above the human eye's ability to see, and infrared is below it. They will have no effect on what the light looks like. I think you're confusing red/blue led grow lights with IR and UV.

 

[Gabcat]

FYI ultraviolet is at a wavelength above the human eye's ability to see, and infrared is below it. They will have no effect on what the light looks like. I think you're confusing red/blue led grow lights with IR and UV.

lol, you're right, somehow I thought UV bulb would look violet because I could not see it ultraviolet spectrum, like watching a light residue...haha silly me I was scatteredbrained

So, I should not worry about anything

 

[SubRosa]

lol, you're right, somehow I thought UV bulb would look violet because I could not see it ultraviolet spectrum...haha silly me I was scatteredbrained

So, I should not worry about anything

You should worry about finding a suitable light, but it's a very minor worry.

 

[Trout]

I grow some smashing CPs in a small terrarium with only a Jungledawn LED bulb I got from lightyourreptiles. It costs a pretty penny, but nothing spectacular (I believe I got it for 45 dollars or so, including shipping) and totally worth it, if you ask me. While the growth on my 'Akai Ryu' vfts has all but halted for winter, their color remains a gorgeous deep maroon. If you don't have the space to rig up a fluorescent tube light fixture, Jungledawn is the way to go, since they'll screw into the sockets on any standard aquarium hood. I've tried other bulbs to screw into a regular bulb-socket, but this is the best option I've come across so far.

I don't have a timer for my lights, unfortunately. I just turn them on when the sky gets light, and off again when it's getting dark. Seems to have worked fairly well over the last year or so.

 

[Whimgrinder]

If you are growing these plants in the northern hemisphere where it's now deep winter, Flytraps should be dormant at this point. Do you understand how temperate dormancy works with North American plants?

 

[Trout]

Yes, I understand how dormancy works, and I did what I could for them (sorry to hijack the thread, Gabcat) but I lacked the means to bring on a full deathlike state this year. My options were A) put them outside and kill them with temperatures consistently between freezing and below zero or B) keep them inside, follow light cues from the sun, and hope to have the funding/space to perform better next year but still at least have living plants. I chose the living plants option, and I honestly feel like things have gone relatively well this winter, considering.

Meanwhile, do you have an answer for Gabcat on your own experience with artificial lighting in terrariums?

 

[Not a Number]

From the experience of the VFT growers on the ICPS listserv it seems photoperiod is the most significant factor in dormancy, not temperature. I have a VFT clone which has been grown indoor under lights for over a decade and is healthier than the plants I grow outdoors all year round.

A VFT from a tissue culture source may have been grown under artificial conditions and may not be dormant as it is not in sync with natural conditions.

It is possible to get good coloration under artificial light. Each clone has there own optimal environment.

Dionaea 'B-52' grown under Sunblaze 8 tube T5 fixture:

Dionaea muscipula "Hosford Bog, FL" grown under 4 two foot T8 tubes

 

[Gabcat]

Thank you all for your advices!

Some people keep telling that sunlight will Always be better than artificial, but no one explain why! That confuses me a lot

You should worry about finding a suitable light, but it's a very minor worry.

I'm not deciding it yet, but, my backyard plants have a lot of plagues and maybe some had diseases, that leads me to thinking in having carnivors inside :c

 

[Cindy]

Gabcat, sunlight is FREE which makes it better. LOL

Seriously, plants are made to grow in the sun so they will love the sun. But if there ain't enough lighting inside the house, then artificial light is required. I live in an apartment and the sun's direction change so VFTs hate that. Over the years , I've tried T8, PL and T5 FL. Currently, I am using mostly white LEDs because the red/blue leds colour annoys me. Hehehe

 

[Gabcat]

hmmm, I know, I feel bad for not having them outside!, but I'm very afraid about bug infestation, I'm barely caring them sccesfully and I don't want more problems! I'm new into this haha. Also, I want to install some solar energy devices when I finish to learn how then give to my plants all the natural conditions they need, except natural sunlight, U_U But! If solarlight it's just specific wavelenghts, it' seems plausible to replace it to me

 

[SubRosa]

Sunlight is high quality light, but houses can get in the way and reduce the quantity which hits plants grown in them.

 

[jimscott]

Many of us are probably echoing what we've been taught. Here's an article that explains the difference between sunlight and artificial light: Natural Light Versus Artificial Light

Having said that, Notanumber speaks from an experiential perspective, and that has to be respected. My own observation shows that when my plants are on the grow rack, dierctly under Gro-lites, at a south-facing set of glass doors, flower stalks always bend to the direction of the sun, through the panes of glass. They don't bend toward the bulbs, which are only a few inches away.

 

[Av8tor1]

Thank you all for your advices!

Some people keep telling that sunlight will Always be better than artificial, but no one explain why! That confuses me a lot


I'm not deciding it yet, but, my backyard plants have a lot of plagues and maybe some had diseases, that leads me to thinking in having carnivors inside :c

Typical output of sun = 400 trillion, trillion watts (1)...
Typical 48" T5 =54 watts

Full sun is about 12,000 foot-candles (2),
A 4 Bulb (40w ea.), T12 fixture that is 0.5 foot from the plant is about 900 foot-candles

so while maybe not always better, some effort and coin must be invested

Notes:
(1) total amount of energy radiated by measuring the quantity of solar energy/second reaching every square meter of Earth and then multiplying that by the total surface area of a sphere with radius equal to the radius of Earth orbit

(2) A foot-candle is defined as the amount of light received by 1 square foot of a surface that is 1 foot from a point source of light equivalent to one candle of a certain type.

Maybe oversimplified, but meh....

 

[naoki]

To simplify the effects of light on plants, there are 2 aspects: (1) photosynthesis and (2) photomorphogenesis. You can easily give enough light for photosynthesis (photosynthetic photon flux, PPF) if you give enough electricity (e.g., even with incandescent light bulbs + AC). Have you looked at Flip Chip Opto's 2400W COB chip (Apollo 2400)? Pretty crazy amount of light, and you can get more PPF than sun easily. But if you start to talk about the efficiency (in terms of cost), sun is (relatively) free as Cindy said, so you can't win in that front.

Photomorphogenesis part includes the phototropism (flower going toward sun light) or plants becoming red. Here certain spectrum or combination of spectra causes the different morphology. Phototropism seems to indicate the amount of blue light. These are generally correlated with the intensity of light, but not always (e.g. if you us monochromatic LEDs). Also there are some more recent studies showing that anthocyanin expression (red pigments) is related to blue light. Blue light irradiation affects anthocyanin content and enzyme activities involved in postharvest strawberry fruit. - PubMed - NCBI Similarly, with vegetables, people are starting to experiment with the different taste and nutritional values of vegetables grown under different spectra. So in this sense, artificial light can be better in controlling/manipulating the pattern plant growths (once we know more about it). Also red & far red is important for the seasonality (photoperiodism, e.g. flowering and seed germination of temperate plants).