Indoor Tropicals Not Growing After Move

edro

Yamadori
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I moved to a new house about 5 months ago. As soon as I moved, the weather turned cold, so I had to bring my tropicals indoors as soon as I got here.
The first 3-4 waterings were with softened water (salty).
It dawned on me that it probably wasn't good for them, so I started watering using the hose, which is not softened.
The water is well water which has high iron and calcium levels.

During the move, I also changed their lighting. I went from 4 T8 fluorescents to a single 400W Metal Halide.
I checked the light levels with an illuminance meter and the Metal Halide is at least 4 times as bright as the fluorecents were, at all heights throughout the foliage.

Anyway... my trees aren't growing. They aren't dying, but there is no new growth on anything in the last 4 months.
Last year in my old house, with city water and fluorescents, all trees grew like crazy.

What do you think the problem is? The salt water stunting them? The new lighting? The new water?

THanks!
 
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Dr.GreenThumb

Sapling
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Salty water is extremely bad for trees. But how did you softened the water exactly ??

You should try to leave them in a bath with fresh water for 30min. It might be too late.
 
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jk_lewis

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If you could drnk that water, it wasn't salty enough to damage the trees -- especially just 3-4 waterings.

If the trees are healthy, why worry about growth? Maybe you haven't repotted for a while and they're just rootbound. Maybe the brief cold weather put them a bit off. Maybe it is just the move. Many warm-weather bonsai tend to be tempermental about being shifted around.

On a scale of 1-10 of things to worry about, healthy but sleepy bonsai seem to be about a 2 1/2.
 

rockm

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If you're drinking the water and not having any problems, most likely your plants are fine.

It is the dead of winter, the time of the least activity for plants in this hemisphere --including indoor tropicals--unless you have a hot greenhouse to work with. The cold indoor temps, low humidity levels and lower light, shorter days have probably told your plants it's not a great time to push a lot of growth.

It will probably last through April, until you can get them back outside without frost and freeze dangers-and outside they should be, right through October...
 

edro

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Update:
After I went back to fluorescents, they started growing great again.
I think the 400W Metal Halide was just too hot and harsh for them.
I know it doesn't make sense, since a 400W MH isn't as intense as the summer sun, but all I know is they are doing great with fluorescents.

I upgraded to 2 fixtures with 6x 54W T5HO lamps each.
Over 60000lm now versus <40000lm with the old 400W MH.
 

treebeard55

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Glad your trees are doing better, Edro. Humidity may well have been your problem earlier, or one of them.

But why are your trees inside now? It's early summer, and conditions are closer to those in their native habitat than at other times of year. My tropicals started emerging in April, and now they're all basking on the deck. They love it!
 

edro

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Oh don't worry. Mine have been outside wince April too.
I just wanted to update the thread in case someone had a similar problem.
 
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