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To those who grow Drosera indoors with artificial light


Aza

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Hi

I currently grow my Drosera indoors under artificial lighting, but I cant seem to get them to dew up really nicely.

I have tried such a range of conditions, currently 60% humidity and 80-85 degrees fahrenheit.

This should do nicely, but it's still not really working.

I am wondering if the cause is that all the plants I have bought had previously been grown in greenhouses or whatever.

So my question is...is there anyone who grows Drosera indoors under lighting who will be willing to sell me a plant or two, so I can test if these plants will continue to thrive for me?

Thanks

Arran

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Hi

I have aliciae, cunefolia, burmannii, venusta, admirabilis, various pygmies, plus quite a few more different species.

Lights are 5x 2ft T5 lamps, all 6400K, giving about 11,000 lumens.

I have tried raising and lowering the lights, increasing and decreasing the tempertature and also the humidity.

I believe my conditions should be fine, which is why I would like to buy some plants that have already been growing in similar conditions, to test that my conditions are in fact good :)

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What about a photo of your plants? I am not sure if i understand your problem - the plants grow well, but you would like to see them more dewy? I really dont think, that the reason is, that they were grown in the greenhouse previously. I noticed some plants react on changed light conditions, but after some time they start to grow well again.

When you tried different conditions, did you give time to the plants? They need at least a month or two to adapt for a condition change and to grow lusciously.

And moreover - "Lights are 5x 2ft T5 lamps, all 6400K, giving about 11,000 lumens." This does not say the most important facts about light spectrum. Better specify e.g. "i have Osram T5 840". Or something similar, you can read it on the lightbulb and find the spectral graph on the internet (although white light is usually ok whatever type it is).

Adam

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The plants are 'healthy' and grow fine, they just do not produce lots of dew!

Do you grow Drosera under lighting?

just some seedlings, i grow my adult sundews on my windowsill where the humidity should be around 60 % too and my plants produce dew there.

but back to the seedlings i grow in my terrarium under light.

the lighting i use is a 55 watt PL collor 840 so around 4000K

humidity is high there so 80-90 % and my seedlings do have dew,

I dont know what causes your problem. like Zlatokrt says a picture might help to see the problem.

regards Marlon

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Here are some pics:

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Yes my problem is that I would like to see a lot more dew.

I believe I gave them enough time to adapt, but not so much as 2 months at each 'change'.

For the overall time I have had the plants they surely should have adapted by now.

Moving the lights a few inches, or changing the temps by a few degrees, surely is not such a drastic change that two months is required, after the initial 4 months that I have had them?

Here are the lamps I have:

http://sunblasterlighting.com/lamp-only.php

Thanks for all your help

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i see your point, the plants look really great but almost no dew.

do they get enough water?

if it is not that my last guess would be the humidity, but the strange thing is they grow good (well i must say yours are coloured way better) at my place (windowsill) with less light but same humidity but they have more dew then yours.

Edited by Marlon
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They stand in rainwater, which is never left to go dry.

Humidty is currently 60%, but I have also tried higher than this as I have a humidifier to use.

It seems to me I have got the perfect conditions, which is why this dew issue is driving me nuts!

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Hi Arran, are they now in a central heated room? I have a similar situation to you in that I moved some plants inside under light for the winter and some of the Drosera now have less dew than those I left in the greenhouse, although like yours they appear to be growing well. For instance, a capensis and anglica are very "dewed" but adelae, spatulata, regia and aliciae are similar to yours and noticeably less dewy. Since the move indoors spatulata appears to have been on steroids and has almost doubled in size and the others all appear healthy too. I have mine on a covered (but unheated) propogator with a similar temp and humidity to yours.

The plants I left in the greenhouse are in a heated propogator and also under lights but the humidity out there is much higher. The greenhouse adelae in particular are far more dewy but the others too and I think that due to the central heating inside the humidity readings may be misleading, i.e. more localised to the propogator whereas in the greenhouse the "ambient" humidity is not lowering that in the propogator too much due to the lower temperatures.

So the only thing I could put it down to is the central heating and I just thought of it as part of the compromise I had to accept for bringing the plants inside.

I don't know if this not very scientific theory helps or not but I hope it at least makes some sense.

Edited by Gaz
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Thanks Gary

The plants are indeed in a centrally heated room, however, they have been lacking dew like this the whole time I have had them.

I got the 'oldest' of them in June, so that's five months in my set up. Of course the majority of that time has been the summer, so the heating hasn't been on until recently.

Following on from your experience also makes we wish to purchase a plant already grown in similar conditions to see what happens.

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Thanks for pics - i think i understand too. My guess is, that you keep them too hot. The lights are ok, if the VFT is so red, they have to be :-)

The sundews surely can grow in such temps, but i have the most dewy sundews during spring and autumn, when temps are much lower - now i have around 10 - 15 °C day and 7 °C night. And most of them looks good. Check the posts from Christian or others who were in Cape province, the weather is often quite cold, foggy and rainy.

I still believe, that it wont help you to get "indoor grown" plants, but i can be wrong. So good luck, the plants look healthy and the basic conditions are ok, they might look much worse :-)

Did you try them in almost enclosed terrarium? In air humidity near 100%?

Adam

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Thanks Adam

I have tried much higher humidity too.

Also on another forum I was told to increase the temperature to 80-85 degrees, as previously it was more like 70 degrees.

So I have already tried the lower temperatures before.

It seems everyone has such success but with such a diverse range of conditions, and yet I cant seem to get mine really nice with ANY conditions :)

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Thats quite confusing. Now i am really out of ideas :-) Maybe several minor factors play roles? I do not know... Spray them often, they will look dewy :-D (just a joke) If you find out, whats the problem, share it here please, it would be interesting to know.

Good luck

Adam

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Now you see why it is driving me crazy! :)

I will update if I get some progress.

It is annoying as it is seemingly happening to all different species, not just one.

However my spatulata is the only one that has lovely dew, perhaps I should just get more of those :)

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I have tried 8 inches, but then I also moved them closer to more like 5 inches.

At 8 inches the plants go nice and red, when I move them to 5 inches, they look like they start to frazzle a bit.

I have very good reflectors with the lights, so I am thinking 8 inches is fine?

What do you think?

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I have tried 8 inches, but then I also moved them closer to more like 5 inches.

At 8 inches the plants go nice and red, when I move them to 5 inches, they look like they start to frazzle a bit.

I have very good reflectors with the lights, so I am thinking 8 inches is fine?

What do you think?

I think the bulbs are way too close to the plants. I have the same amount of bulbs above one of my terraria but I keep them about 35 cm above my plants. Why? Because the heat vaporizes more dew than the plants are able to produce. The plants colour up nicely.

seedlingdrosera121112.jpg

Its not red. But its just a seedling. You can see it coming though...

Greetings,

Chrass

Edited by chrass
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Thanks Chrass

I have a sheet of perspex between the lights and plants to block the heat.

What tempertature and humidity do you maintain?

Its funny because on another forum I was told to put my plants closer to the lights, and increase the temperature.

Really does seem strange that so many different people can get great results with such different ideas!

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Dear Aza,

Perhaps try reducing the number of daylight hours...? I think your plant are experiencing a little too much light. For either too long or it is a bit too intense. Maybe turn a bulb off?

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