Vacation enclosure

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After gathering some new pieces, I pretty much have my enclosure ready for the holidays. I have a water fan in the lower right to keep the water moving and a double bubbler to keep the water aerated. A cpu fan to keep the air moving. A ~300w? LED light across the top with extra blue lights for the PAR. I have my T5 setup sideways with the bottom two bulbs disconnected, backlighting to provide a broader spectrum and different angle of light penetration. All my favorite trees are on the back to take advantage.

The last variable to tweak is whether or not to keep the enclosure covered and if so, to what degree. I have some plexiglass that I was using to lock in some heat and humidity (and water) but some of the benjamina were possibly showing signs of fungal issues. So I am leaning toward skipping the plexi. But it is possible that it was mite damage in which case the humidity could help. Also, I am going to be gone for four weeks, so I need to make sure the water isn’t dipping too fast.
Oh, and I have rayon mop strands potted into the pots to wick moisture up into the substrate from the reservoir below.

Questions and comments welcome. I’ll post the results after my trip and we can see how healthy (or not) the trees look after four weeks of inattendance.
 

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Bonsai Nut

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Spray with horticultural oil before you leave(?)

I am concerned about humidity issues. Before I put my trees in an aquarium with water, I might just get a room humidifier, plug it in and close the door(?) Your tropicals don't need it to be THAT humid... just not bone dry.
 
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I hear you, and that is why I’m leaning towards not covering the top, especially since I am not targeting any air roots or banyon style trees. The main reason I have them in there is so that I have the reservoir of water for their roots. The fan and led fans are doing a pretty thorough job of keeping the air moving.

I do plan on giving them a spray with my “3 in one” before I go. It says it is a systemic, mitacide and keeps fungal diseases at bay for roses.
 

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Do you have anyone coming in to check on these during that period of time? 4 weeks is a pretty big chunk of time. I've done well with 14 days with my trees I winter inside, just by making a wet shredded newspaper mulch bound to the pot with saran wrap covered with foil. But I don't know that I'd trust a month. Have you found the wicking to provide enough water to the tree to keep it wet enough?
 
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I’ve done only limited, imperfect experimenting before, but I have a couple weeks to try before I leave. It’ll be hard not to spray from the top like I usually do, but I am going to try to let it ride. I will likely have somebody to check on them at least once, but somehow I always have returned to a defoliated lot with dead branches in the past when I had friends use more traditional watering methods.
 
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The humidity is much lower than I imagined. I did find a piece of wick sticking out of one of the pots and it was damp. Hmm to cover? Or partial cover?
 

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So I partially covered and the temp/humidity varies from 91f/26% when it is warmed up to 66f/90% humidity when the light is off at night. I could turn the lights down some since they are on dimmers. Or, I saw some talk on here about photo cycles.. what if I did something like 1h on / 1h off or 0r 4/4 or 4/3? I do see the water level dropping already.
 

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I think I would completely defoliate them. Then you don't have fungal issues, the water will be less of an issue.... won't need to worry so much about light for a bit.
I might be tempted to only use ambient light and keep it cooler than normal. My thinking here is to get them to slow down, and go into almost a temporary dormant period. They'll uptake less water. You might give the wet shredded newspaper a trial too.


I just defoliated my BRT, I do it this time every year, just to get clean new leaves, and do some winter pruning.
 
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Great success. All of my plants appear to be still alive ranging from not a whole lot of growth to, wow what were my plans with this one, there is so much new growth I don’t even see the old tree in there. Seriously like 400% foliage on some of the trees. Bonus tree: looks like I have and acorn shading out some of my ficus.
 

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Good for you! Might consider leaving them as is until they go outside :)

Grimmy

Leaving em as is?!? I don’t know if I have that kind of restraint. I could change out the water with a siphon without disturbing, but there is also some oxalis going crazy in a couple of the pots. Has anyone tried oxalis specific poison in conjunction with bonsai? I seem to recall from 10th grade biology that there are some C3/C4 specific poisons that might work like a “weed and feed” type product. Some of the Benjamina “too little” has really taken off as well, but in rather straight and unsightly shoots that may need to be addressed.
 
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Sorry, what I meant to say was location related only, not in standing water. Appears light and temperature is ok right now.

Grimmy
Ah, good, now I feel a little better about tinkering with them going forward. The LED has two knobs for controlling the "bloom" and "growth" light channels. While I was gone I didn't want the water to dry up too fast so I cranked the blue/"growth" lights all he way up and left the white and red/ bloom lights turned down low, now that I am back I may turn the white ones up a bit although I noticed they do have more of a tendency to scorch.. Maybe the red ones are the problem?

I do think I should do something to shield the reservoir from light as there is a fair amount of algae growth in the water. May be a layer of foil under the pots with some holes poked for the wicks to run through. There are also some fruit-fly like fungus gnats in the area, but they are not out of control as of yet. Maybe I should try my luck with a Drosera or similar carnivorous plant. In my childhood I killed some venus and pitcher plants, but I may have tried to feed them some ham when my impatience for waiting for a fly to come around got the better of me.

I left my 1/2 gallon pump spray bottle outside and the freeze must have cracked something in it as it is no longer operational. That is what I was using for "top" watering previously, so I may stick with the "standing" water at least temporarily. I do have a bubbler and water fan in there to keep the water moving.
 

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Ah, good, now I feel a little better about tinkering with them going forward. The LED has two knobs for controlling the "bloom" and "growth" light channels. While I was gone I didn't want the water to dry up too fast so I cranked the blue/"growth" lights all he way up and left the white and red/ bloom lights turned down low, now that I am back I may turn the white ones up a bit although I noticed they do have more of a tendency to scorch.. Maybe the red ones are the problem?

I am experimenting with a full spectrum LED with no controls in an Exo Terra - thinking to cycle the time(s) different for the 5th or so shot at not drying the hell out of stuff - I really prefer working with other lights so far. But I am pretty certain I will resolve any issues - takes time is all...

I grow Bald Cypress in water from March to November outdoors in full Sun. I blast the water out of the outer containers daily. Monthly I clean the outer container and the outside of the pots anyways to get rid of any unwanted growth. Flushing is imperative, tried many things to circumvent it but to no avail. Perhaps a drain system would work out for you, dumping into a 5 gallon bucket or similar?

Grimmy
 
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What light cycle are you leaning towards. I just did 12h on while I was gone, but thinking of trying 8on/4off/8on/4off. My timer is a cheap 24h one so I can't try 8/8/8 without buying something new.
A while back I researched the PAR stuff and I think the blue lights are efficient and effective for growth. I did have the whiter channels on but dimmed down and some supplemental T5 lighting backlighting (with two bulbs unscrewed), just because I could though. Maybe when the outdoor season comes around I'll do some testing with cuttings and the straight blue lighting just to prove that it works. It is nice to save some electricity and you can crank up the intensity without as much heat build-up.
The LED light I have is off amazon, but no longer available, but it was similar to this model:
https://www.amazon.com/Phlizon-Extr...rd_wg=8ivdk&psc=1&refRID=TRPGK14J6BM3N8GFJN4M

I think that periodically I'll have to flush to reduce the salinity from the fertilizer, which is ok. I just thought that the foil would help deprive the algae of their free lunch. I have a siphon from beer making that can dump the water to a bucket easily, but to get in there and scrub takes quite a while to remove all the plants and the upside down plastic bins I have them sitting on. Plus some of the plants now have a fair amount of roots reaching down into the water. I've heard of flushing with hydrogen peroxide to kill off the algae , but I think I'd have to remove the plants for that too.
 

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but thinking of trying 8on/4off/8on/4off

The Exo Terra area I am working with at Full Spectrum heats up way to much even with the doors wide open. Thinking next step is going to 4 on 4off. The timers are inexpensive at Home Depot https://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant...ur-Indoor-Plug-In-Timer-White-26378/205517336

I've heard of flushing with hydrogen peroxide to kill off the algae , but I think I'd have to remove the plants for that too.

I have gone that route and what happens is you land up with a lot of brown dead mush, formerly algae - very messy cleanup. Copper crystals work better but not overall good for the plants... Flush, rinse, repeat is the best I can recommend.

Grimmy
 
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Sorry for the unclear photos, but I have a hard time taking decent photos in the best of circumstances and even more so without disassembling. The first photo is the “too little” and oxalis gone wild. Then we have an attempted groot graft; i’m Not sure that it will take. Then some significant progress on one of my first air layers; there are a lot of scars to heal from failed grafts and bad branches, but the base of the trunk is great and buds seem to be finally popping in all the right places. And finally, the detail on the volunteer oak that popped up. I cut it down to the coteleadon (sp?) leaves but may keep it around for kicks.
 

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Correction, here is the light that I am running in addition to two t5 bulbs:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017GX73YY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017GX73YY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I turned the "bloom" bulbs most of the way down again down when I switched to the 8on/4off/8on/4off light cycle. I figure no reason to risk more scorch when I am getting plenty of growth from the blue bulbs.
 
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I just put the ficus “out to pasture” for the summer. Usually I would have about a month earlier but they were so happy in there. No mites or scale this winter. If there was a problem it was that they were filling out too quickly messing up some of the fine branches.
 

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