Search the Community

Hi All :) It has been a long while since my last post on here so hello everyone :) I had to give away my collection when I moved to the UK but have slowly started to accumulate plants again. It took me a while to get used to the different growing conditions here but fingers crossed, I seem to have cracked it. I have always used T5's for lighting and had good success with these in the past but I am wondering what everyone is using these days since I have been out of the loop for so long. LED's were still really expensive then but they seem to have come down in price considerably. I am just not too keen on the red light. I currently have a supplemental strip by the window over my D. regia and was recently asked by a concerned block associate just what am I growing there? I really do like T5's but they generate a lot of heat. I have a small 6 tube fitting over my 3ft tank and it gets quite hot, even with cooling. I have read that CFL run cooler but not sure how effective those are? I am expanding my growing area and would be interested to know what everyone uses for their setups. Looking forward to get stuck in again!

Hi :) I have tried searching for info on here that might help me out but to little avail. Perhaps if I have missed something glaringly obvious, somebody may point me in the direction of an existing thread that I can read though, but in the meantime, here goes! I got back into keeping carnivorous plants just over a year ago and now that I have the time and space to do a better job of it, it's gone a little way beyond a few plants kept on a windowsill. I have a cold frame greenhouse that I keep most of my plants in year round, with the exception of some of the more delicate ones I have obtained recently that I will treat accordingly when the time comes. Anyway, amongst those that I have out there are some yearling seedlings- both vft's and cobra lilies. They were out over winter and survived just fine but they are so very slow growing, I am wondering if they may do better if I were to bring them inside and put them under my T5 grow light? I just bought it for other plants but I would like to use it for my carnivores if it will be of benefit to them. I also have a bunch of sarras, some more Darlingtonia and a new lot of giant vft seeds that I sowed a little while back which are now beginning to show (well, not the vft's, it's a little soon for them yet I think). Would they be happier in more stable temperature/light conditions do you think? Everything else that has been kept outside in the little greenhouse is doing really well but I am still very new to growing from seed so if anyone has any advice regarding what I could do to give these seeds/seedlings a stronger start, that would be great :) For information's sake, the seedlings are all about 1.5cm across, the darlingtonia each have a bout 3-5 little tiny traps and the vft's a few more and the new lot of sarra/darlingtonia seeds that have germinated started showing maybe a week or two ago. They are all in appropriate carnivorous plant mix compost with no moss at this stage. Also, I have one small nepenthes hybrid (no idea what... it was a garden centre gift from someone) that was in the cold frame but I have since brought it inside after reading more about their care. It gets wonderfully warm and humid on sunny days but I fear it might get a bit too cold for it at night out there. I don't have many bright windowsills in my house that are not in direct sunlight. Where would you suggest I keep this plant that it may thrive? I have a modified shelf in the cold frame that blocks direct sunlight but is still bright but I just don't know if it's a good idea to put it back outside at the moment! Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!