lights for live plants?
- Thread starter Fred
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summoner12
Avid Member
I use them above my cages. I use dual fixtures. One is a Reptisun 5.0 or 10.0 and the other is a grow light from Home Depot. Seems to help keep the ficus keep its leaves.
Fred
New Member
awesome! Thanks, just wanted to make sure, would rather lose the plants than the cham, so I figured I'd better check, my lil dudes been thru enough, dont want to subject him to more bad husbandry if I can avoid it by simply asking before acting!!
summoner12
Avid Member
There are a couple of brands at the store just so you know. I run a kind that comes in a yellow box and is kinda fancy looking. The price is like 9 bucks. There is a GE brand in a blue or purple box... Ryan uses those and says they are great. I might try that brand next time. Mine works fine too.... but i'd like to try it.
The 'grow' lights also add a lot of light to the cage. So if your cage seemed kinda dark this will help quite a bit.
The 'grow' lights also add a lot of light to the cage. So if your cage seemed kinda dark this will help quite a bit.
Vampire.queen
New Member
You may choose the plants according to your UV lights- there are many plants which survive under anything...
MutantHybrid
New Member
If your plants are more light intensive, like most of my carnivorous plants, they might not grow well inside at all unless you provide a strongly sunlit south or east window with 12000 lumens of florescent shop lights (the 40 watt lights in the dual tube setups). I use two of those twin mounts on all my plants with window light and they all do well.
Nepenthes
Sarracenias
Dionaea
Drosera
A pothos is much less light intensive. You can grow those in almost anything and they will survive. If you want the plant to actually thrive, it will require at least 3000-6000 lumens of light. Most of your cages have at least that with all the UV, florescent, and incandescent lights together. The Gro-lights are really not all that more effective than typical florescent cool white light tubes. They are just more expensive.
Nepenthes
Sarracenias
Dionaea
Drosera
A pothos is much less light intensive. You can grow those in almost anything and they will survive. If you want the plant to actually thrive, it will require at least 3000-6000 lumens of light. Most of your cages have at least that with all the UV, florescent, and incandescent lights together. The Gro-lights are really not all that more effective than typical florescent cool white light tubes. They are just more expensive.
summoner12
Avid Member
The spectrum of light is what is important.
A lumen is the measure of how much light.
The Kelvin on the box will tell you color temp of the lamp.
The color temp is important for some plants.
Here is a link to some discussion of the topic.
MutantHybrid
New Member
This is correct. If most people are using a combination of various lights, including regular flourescent tubes, they probably have enough light for a pothos in both intensity and spectrum. Intesity can be just as, if not more important for light intensive plants though. Just because someone gets a 9 watt Gro-light over a rose does not mean that rose will grow like a weed. There is simply too little intensity regardless of the spectrum of light. A typical cool white flourescent tube emits approximately 3000 lumens (if 40 watt) and possesses enough of a spectrum to grow many varieties of plants requiring low light intensity indoors. The differences in kelvin between a gro-light and a cool white flourescent tube of equal lumen output are negligible except in cost so far as plant growth are concerned. The gro-light will produce slightly larger and faster growing plants, but such a slight difference might not be cost effective for some.
summoner12
Avid Member
MutantHybrid
New Member
Here is an article based on past experiments in plant growth with various light sources. There is no justification for using Gro-lights with plants other than the vendor trying to sell a product that does little more, if at all, than a lower priced similar product, just like some pet stores do. Buying Gucci does not give you a better handbag, only one that you paid more for.
http://www.uaf.edu/coop-ext/publications/freepubs/HGA-00432.html
http://www.uaf.edu/coop-ext/publications/freepubs/HGA-00432.html
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