Grow lights

[Gambitgriz]

Hey Bonsai Nuts!

I am wondering if there's a grow light you've had a good experience with. I have a grow light right now but I am unsure if it actually works so I thought I would ask the experienced

Also, bonus question. I want to grow Bonsai from seedling and want something that's not green. Any recommendations?

Thank you!

 

[penumbra]

There has been much published here on grow lights already so you should look in the archives. I have about 40 grow lights most of which are LED but some are T5 fluorescent. I prefer the T5 for cuttings and seedlings and the LED for maintenance but they both work. Fortuunately most of them are now off for the season. It costs me more to run all my lights than it does my air conditioner so I get to save a little in warm months.

 

[rollwithak]

Hey Bonsai Nuts!

I am wondering if there's a grow light you've had a good experience with. I have a grow light right now but I am unsure if it actually works so I thought I would ask the experienced

Also, bonus question. I want to grow Bonsai from seedling and want something that's not green. Any recommendations?

Thank you!

What type of tree are you planning on growing?

 

[Pitoon]

Here's my seed grow out station. Lights are the 4ft LED lights from Harbor Freight.
They push out plenty of light!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Hey Bonsai Nuts!

I am wondering if there's a grow light you've had a good experience with. I have a grow light right now but I am unsure if it actually works so I thought I would ask the experienced

Also, bonus question. I want to grow Bonsai from seedling and want something that's not green. Any recommendations?

Thank you!

Growing from seed is fun and interesting and I attempted to do it this year with nice results, until I learned about damping off! (Look this up it you haven’t already) That wasted most of a good crop of maple seeds i collected from Kabota Gardens. I’ve still got 4 dissectums that I am babying right now through their third set of leaves. All of these have darker red or bronze leaves.

Maples are easy to sprout if you can get viable seeds and there are a seemingly endless number of varieties of these trees. However beware many esoteric maple cultivars dont grow easily from seed. Many are only grown from grafts.
For starters you might try something like Japanese Red Maples.

Otherwise I’d start looking for maples you like in your area and watch for them to develop before the birds and squirrels get them. Then go through the process of drying, scarifying, germinating and growing these.

Here are a couple starter resources to help.

cheers
DSD sends

http://bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basics_Seeds.html

 

[NOZZLE HEAD]

I’m a maple nut, so maple cultivars, but as DSD said seedlings are a crap shoot.

I have a couple of high nut production cultivars of hazelnut I’m working on and they look promising, but there is a red cultivar, but hazelnut cuttings are a hard nut to crack, they layer well. Adventitious buds like nobody’s business.