Ha ha. Pretty awful when a big event in your life gets to be a trip to Walmart to get your dead battery checked and charged. I need to get out more. Obviously. I thought I saw something about Walmart on the cheap seeds thread but never would have driven out there just to get seeds even 20-cent seeds. But it's kind of weird how things play out. Tiffy posted a photo of some gorgeous Sweet William she WS'ed. I thought no sense in paying shipping costs to order more after all I've already ordered. But I really wanted some. So I got 'em. They look pretty but doubt any will be as gorgeous as the one Tiffy got. I don't remember seeing any veggie seeds (or herbs) but was pretty distracted with all the things on my mind. Those might have been on another rack or more will come in. These are American Seed Company and say expiration date 12/10 so I assume they're fresh. When I get in one of those huge cavernous stores, my anxiety kicks in, and I just feel sensory overload. There was one other flower I thought of, oh I'm tired and can't think of it. I thought of it and was a little tempted. Oriental Poppy. The photo showed a red one and a peach one. I didn't get any peach ones out of all the poppies I ordered. There is a Dollar Tree store down on the other end but I was in no mood to run in here and there. I make it sound like it's a day trip. It's at most 4+ miles out by the interstate. I just hate it along that street, lots of the big name stores and condos, eating places, all kinds, looks totally unplanned and just not a pleasant drive. I always say I hate Walmart, but when I do have to go there, I always find something. The crazy thing is that I buy a car and keep it until it won't run any more, got this one in about 94. Well, not too long after, in the middle of winter of course, the battery goes dead. It's fuzzy, but I got one there because they were one of the few places open that late, and that was when they didn't have any tire and lube annex so some nice fellow just came out and put it in my car for me right by the front door of the store. I've been working on that same lifetime warranty for four batteries now lol, works as long as you have the same car. But if this one goes dead again, I'm not sure what I'll do. It's new this past fall, a replacement for a new one last year that did the exact same thing, a dud. So that's why I had to go to Walmart today. They didn't charge me anything for checking and charging the battery so that was nice. While I was finishing that up, I paid for my seeds there because I'd already paid for my other stuff at the regular checkout. The guy was looking through my seeds when I said 20 cents was a good deal. No way did I say anything about winter sowing. I'm going to sow those Sweet William tomorrow. And my T&M order came today so hope to get most of those sowed, too.

My Wal-mart's Nepenthes, looks similar to N. gracilis, is near south-facing window, lots of light if weather is good. Few weeks ago I placed it on the table at the window base, together with sarracenia seedlings, and gave them artificial light support when there are no direct sunlight - monings, evenings and whole cloudy days. This is working table, and I just turned on arm desk lamp with 23W compact (spiral) fluorescent lamp, ~4100K (cool white), ~1600 lm, CND$3.50 ea if buy in sets of 4. CFL is fairly close to plants - approximately at palm width distance. Today I notices that new pitchers are twice large than previous, size of small finger (pinkie?). The other factors may be involved: other plant has fungus gnats and Sarr seedlings and Nep feed themselves on them (not that I recommend that risk for the roots), plants are in sphagnum, temperature varies from 17C at night to 32C at sun, usually 21C; humidity 24-44%, misting when I am around, humidity saucer with water, no fertilizing. From common knowledge that I picked here on forums: - daylight fluorescent bulbs are preferred, if you can find them, this is 6500K; other are matter of personal preference - cool or soft white, or both. - Higher lumens are better, but require bigger distance from the plant. Last month is our area even HD started carry 42W CFL, ~2600lm, CND$13 ea. Hydroponic and pet shop suppliers can carry full spectrum CFLs at 7x price of cool white (CN$27 26W). - CFL may be T5 or even T4 technology, as opposed to T8 (1 in. tubes, most popular, T5 are even better) or common T12 tubes (12/8 in., least efficient lumen production per watts used). CFLs from common stores are less expensive than T5 tubes(very efficient, 5/8", thin tube, doesn't require replacement every 6 months); - in low light situation two side lights (from different sides) may be beneficial, as jungle plants receive light mostly from the sides; - heating of the terratium: incadencent bulbs produce much more heat than fluorescent. Just for heating many people are using set of four 60W inc. bulbs ( details can be found through search of forums, may be Growing under Artificial Lights, may be Terrariums), or ceramic heat emitters that fit usual desk lamp with porcelain socket, heat cables or mats. On the other hand, being inside enclosed environment three 18W T8 fluorescent tube kitchen under cabinet lights (CN$10 ea) produce around 30C or slightly less (I have other FLs tubes on shelf below them) - from my limited experience.

Just bought two units at $20 each. Wired it works fine. Just ordered 4 bulbs from planet bulb at $5 each with $5 shipping for all 4 http://www.planetbulbstore.com/dt40-65-rs.html Will rig it and post picture.

Sounds good to me! However, 'enough' and 'too much' are relative terms. It entirely depends on what you want to grow in your terrarium. If you just want a nice, simple terrarium with some standard houseplants that like high humidity, such as fittonia, bromeliads, streptocarpus, ferns, etc. then 95W will be great. But if you want to grow certain 'high light' species orchids, then you will probably need more. 95 W will be enough to grow several orchids though, if that is what you want. Consider the jewel orchids, and if you make use of the height of your tank by using coir panels or corkbark panels, then you can mount orchids and broms. all the way up to the top of the tank, where the light is much stronger, and plan their placement accordingly. Your spectrum is right on, and compacts are a great way to go. Post pics when you're done! And welcome to a grand obsession. =)