Experimenting with VFT under LED lights

[simonv]

Firstly, hello to everyone from Tasmania, Australia. I was introduced to this discussion board by my friend, Paul Barden, and thought it was time to introduce myself.

I'm not an experienced CP grower. I only have fly traps at the moment though I intend to try my hand at growing Drosera species and Cephalotus in the future as well, thanks to Paul planting the Cephalotus bug a few months back.. been reading about them ever since

Anyway, this is something I've been wondering about for a little while. One of my other hobbies is to grow aquatic plants in indoor planted aquariums under lights and LED technology is being developed for planted aquariums that are quickly becoming very effective and growers are experiencing excellent growth from even their red leafed plants (traditionally it is thought that the more red the leaf of an aquatic plant is the more light they require to maintain the redness). I have a small aquarium set up in one of my Son's room that is lit by a very stylish little LED unit with a mix of pure white and blue LEDs and he is also getting excellent growth out of his low-light plants (it is a small clip-on unit so only able to sustain low-light plants such as Anubias and Java Moss).

In my collection of gadgets I have an LED spotlight that has high output LEDs in it that draws only 10W of power, is powered by a 12V transformer, has a lumen-output equivalent to a 100W bulb, runs for over 50,000 hours before I need to replace the bulb without much variation in the spectrum like fluros do, and has an excellent colour temperature rated at around 6400K. It runs cold/cool like most LED lights do and I was wondering whether anyone has experimented with growing their VFTs under such lights indoors?

My (classic) VFT grow outdoors all year round with very little effort but I would like to have some specimens indoors with me too. I like growing them outdoors here because they love it but I'd also like to create a display inside where I can enjoy them where I am especially at night if I can get them onto a reverse photoperiod to coincide with when I'm chilling out in my study, placing them outdoors in the cooler weather to allow them to enjoy a natural dormancy. I'd like at some stage to experiment with Cephalotus grown this was as well.

Thanks in advance for any feedback

[Richard Davion]

Don't-LAUGH: ...

Our-Society INSISTED On-R-Type-of-Plastic Called: "SOLARWEAVE" (Solargrow IN-'Other'-STATES of Australia) Plastic ... R-Type of Crossed-Weaved-Production Or-Affair THART-Came-Standard With R-Number-of-The-More Commercially-Sold Tunnel-&-Greenhosues of-The-Time so-to-Speak.

'When'-DONNY Came-INTO-The-Society IN-[1998] He-Instinctively-Chose The Cheaper Thin / Single-Layered Polythene THART Was CHEAP / Dirt-Cheap Easily-Available (Could 'Just' Walk-Down to-you Local-HARDWARE-Store &-Buy-Some ... R-WHOLE-Roll If-'Necessary') ...

THART-We-Were 'Advised' 'Not'-to-Buy Because It-Would Craze-&-Tear Within The-'First'-SEASON so-to-Speak.

ANYWAY to-Make-R-LONG-Story-SHORT: ...

Stepping-INTO-Donny's NEW- SWISS-Roll-Styled-Greenhouse Was-like Stepping-'Bach' IN-Time so-to-Speak:

CP-COLOURS "I"-Hadn't-'Seen' Since-The-70s Were-EVERYWHERE ... It-Really-Was R-Turning-Point IN The 'How'-Did-We-Get-INTO-This-Mess / XXXXXXXX-Department so-to-Speak

ANYWAY: It-Took 3.5-Years to-Craze-&-Tear ... so After 3-Years You-'had' Ample-Time to-Replace-It With-Another-Layer ...

&-Video-Documentation One-Day Threw-UP The-NUB Of-The-Problem: Every-Other-'PIXEL' On-The Cross-Weave Reflected-Green &-The-Remainder-RED.

Plants-Don't-'Use' GREEN ... But-They 'Sure'-'DO' RED

So-'My'-SUGGESTION to-You From Dunn-Oondar &-Years of Society-IMposed FRUSTRATION so-to-Speak Is-to-'Look'-@ The-RED-Spectrum 'Not'-so-Much The-BLUE IN-Regard to CPs IN-General so-to-Speak.

[simonv]

This is why I'm looking at 6400K. The higher the Kelvin rating the bluer the light. I use 10,000K on my marine reef aquarium and 6400K on my planted freshwater aquariums. The 6400K is warmer with more output in the red end of the spectrum. In terms of bulbs it is equivalent to what they market as 'daylight' globes. My aquariums with DIY hoods and 6400K cheapie compact fluros get far better growth than the aquariums here with the 10,000K bulbs that came with the fixture though grown under metal halides I got the best growth... albeit with loads of heat.

I guess the question is more specifically related to the the use of LED lights than it is the colour spectrum because I know it works for aquatic plants but I don't know if the intensity of high output LEDs is enough for terrestrial sun-loving plants like VFTs.

[coldcoffee]

Hi Simonv, welcome to the forum, glad to have you(I don't know Paul personally except for through this forum but he seems like a really cool guy).

I am glad you bring up using LEDs. This is something I have been wanting to experiment with for some time myself. Time and finances have been the issue for me.

Here is my suspicion:
LEDs have been successfully used in reef aquariums (I am a reef keeper myself by the way), I know they have also been used in indoor growing setups like hydroponics systems. I have yet to try them myself but I have been told they have been used successfully to grow many types of plants hydroponically which are very sun loving(If interested, I can probably talk to my horticulturalist friend that experiments with stuff like that- find out what kinds of plants he has tried them on).

Moral of the story, these are very light intensive hobbies and we have seen some success. I am not sure if there are any species of coral which do not respond well to LEDs, or plants which have not responded well, but I think the evidence at the very least points toward plausibility.

My suspicion is that you might get some pretty good growth. I guess there is only one way to find out

[simonv]

Hi CAalC! Thanks for the welcome.

I've known Paul through various online discussion forums since about 2005 (ish) and you are right. He's a gentleman and a scholar. In our other life we breed roses and he has been a significant inspriation for me over the last few years. Great guy!

I've not tried to grow corals under LED lights because I've only just learnt of the high output versions. I've only ever tried to grow corals under VHO fluoros and metal halides though it always amazings me that some corals, like morphs, seem to thrive in the darkest places within the aquarium.

The light intensive side of things is why I'm keen to experiment with LEDs. My last power bill, for three months, was up over $1000 because I have 5 heated aquariums running in the house, three kids who think money grows on trees with no concept of restraint, and I live in a cool winter climate where heating is a must. In addition to this we have screwy government policies that allow our cheaper power made here in Tasmania by hydroelectricity to be pumped across to the mainlad for use in industrial fields whilst we purchase more expensive power back from the mainland from coal powered powerstations. It's the most stupid arrangement I've ever seen... and I've lived all over the place!

The upshot of this is anything I can do to reduce my power consumption is welcome and essential so LED technology is being looked at here to install throughout the whole house and in a wide variety of applications. From house lighting to my tanks and plants.

For some of my aquariums (my Tanganyikan shell dwellers tank and my Central American tank housing my beautiful blackbelts) the only requirement is light so LEDS will fit in beautifully. In my other tanks I grow plants so I need good light intensity and colour. Growing CP under LEDS will also require high intensity light of a good quality as well and I am lucky where I am to be in a climate that seems to suit the outdoor growth all year round of most the CP I am most interested in (Drosera, Cephalotus, VFT, and Sarracenia) so their lighting is free and of the best quality... but... it would be nice to bring some inside for extended periods of time to put on display. I look at the photos of some Cephalotus growing vertically on a bank in their natural habitat and think how cool it would be to build an indoor display allowing them to grow vertically on an artificaial bank where their pitchers can cascade downwards towards a body of water paludarium style... maybe LED spotlights would allow me to do that. So... I'm keen to learn whether anyone has tried it and if so how (like distances, numbers, types, etc), and at the same time I'm keen to experiement when time and money allows me to.