What types of lights are you all using for the trees that come inside?

Rubberbandman

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Hey all!
Right now i have a 48" 6 bulb t-5 fixutre but i need to add at least another 2 " fixture to cover all the trees...
What options should explore another t-5 unit or metal halide?
Thoughts?
Bryan
 

cbroad

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A 4' 6 tube fixture is pretty good, assuming they're high output, that's 30,000 lumens. I use a 4' 4 tube HOt5, I am thinking about buying a 1000w HPS/MH that's dimmable from 600w-1150w turbo. I guess it depends on if you want them to just survive through the winter until you put them back outside or if you want them to thrive through the winter. We're talking for tropicals right?
 
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Rubberbandman

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A 4' 6 tube fixture is pretty good, assuming they're high output, that's 30,000 lumens. I use a 4' 4 tube HOt5, I am thinking about buying a 1000w HPS/MH that's dimmable from 600w-1150w turbo. I guess it depends on if you want them to just survive through the winter until you put them back outside or if you want them to thrive through the winter. We're talking tropicals right?
yes my tropicals...sorry...ficus/fukien tea/ and grewia.
 

cbroad

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Haha yeah I figured, but had to ask :p. I really like my HO fixture, I only got it last December but so far it's great. Before I was using 4' t12s and a 250w hps. The guy at the local hydro store is trying to get me to try a LEC but they're about double the cost of what a MH would be. I have to decide soon about finding something stronger because my plants are getting big and I need something that will penetrate through the canopy.
 

GrimLore

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I have to decide soon about finding something stronger because my plants are getting big and I need something that will penetrate through the canopy.

Or simply add side or back lighting... ;)

Grimmy
 

clevetromba

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I just use cheap 4 foot shop lights with T12 tubes. I only have one indoor plant under lights: a largish orange tree. I don't know if it thrives, but it doesn't worsen either.
 

cbroad

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Or simply add side or back lighting... ;)
I have thought about that, a lot of the HO fixtures made for plants have a few different hanging options: regular, vertical, and on their side, but my plan is to have at least another table. I want a stronger light for growing out larger plants and to use my t5s for propagation and smaller plants.

But I still need to work on my light leakage though...
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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My set up is an unfinished basement, with concrete floor, with several floor drains for water run off. I have different lights in different areas. All lamps run on timers for an 18 hour day length.

For short plants, less than 10 inches tall above the rim of the pots. 48 inch T-12 or T-8 lamps, ordinary inexpensive cool white shop lights. Fixtures hung so leaves just about brush the lamps. Mostly seedling and cuttings of trees and seedling or low light requiring orchids.

48 inch, 4 lamp, T-5 with 6500K high output lamps. Hung a healthy 24 inches above the rims of the pots. For taller orchids, higher light requiring orchids, part shade sub tropicals. Lamps high enough leaves do not touch the lamps, need a couple inches to avoid burning. This is bright enough that a small bouganvillia will bloom in this space.

8 lamp, 48 inch fixture, T-5 with 6500K high output lamps - This replaces a 430 watt HP Sodium fixture, it is quite bright. Hung a full 3 feet over the pots. Some pots on floor, 5 ft, get enough light to do well. I bloom Vanda and Cymbidium orchids, almost too bright for Cattleya. This is where high light trees spend the winter. And tall trees.

430 Watt High Pressure Sodium Lamps - color rendition of the light is awful to the human eye, plants seem fine. These are Sun Agro lamps that have been doped for extra blue output for agriculture, these are not the yard or street lights, though to the eye the color seems the same. These are work horses, and not very efficient with electricity. However, I have been using these lamps for over 25 years and the ballasts never fail to light. Rugged and tolerant of humidity.

1000 Watt High Pressure Sodium. - this lamp is really hot, but for my tallest orchids, and high light requiring orchids, it can't be beat. Ballast is over 20 years old, just keeps on firing, so as long as it fires I'll keep replacing the bulb every 3 years or so. Throws a lot of heat, you MUST have fans to keep air moving and distribute the heat away from the plants.

Lamp replacements - 40 Cool whites, - tend to run 2 + years
T-5 - these surprised me, lamps do burn out in about 12 to 18 months.
HSP - 430 and 1000 Watts, these I run for about 3 years, they rarely actually burn out, but output drops with time.

Metal Halide - Similar heat and energy consumption to the HPS, but they burn out in less than 18 months, and were costly enough to replace I quickly switched to HPS.

LED - I have not ventured into LED recently, 8 years ago the products available did not produce enough lumens, plants grew weak, product quality was low, had to replace a fixture 3 times before I got one to light on day 1. Have not returned to this. I know technology has improved, for those new to under light growing, start with LED. It should work.

If you plan on more than 200 plants under lights, it is best if you construct a vapor barrier to keep the humidity the plants generate from migrating through the house. Have an exhaust fan to vent humid air outdoors, keep a negative pressure in the growing space. Humidity will migrate and over time damage window sashes, and peel wallpaper off walls 2 floors up. It is worth the effort.

Hope that helps. Photo is from 2008, it has changed a bit, the T 5's replaced some of the others. Mostly orchids, some trees, no marijuana.

main area1.jpg
 

Paradox

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I use a 4 foot fluorescent fixture that holds 3 32 watt T8 daylight bulbs. I have 2 of those fixtures over one table with my trops and one over another shelf that has some of my plants.

My trees grow all winter, especially the BRT. I have to keep them trimmed all winter.

The fixtures and the bulbs are relatively inexpensive and while they do get warm, they are not overly hot.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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It is an old photo, those were seedling orchids just out of the lab. They used to use glass flasks, but plastic is cheaper. All were sold or planted out. Each container holds roughly 25 to 50 small seedlings. Orchid seed is dust fine, essentially a cell nucleus with a wing shaped seed coat. In nature the seed depend on landing on a mossy, or lichen surface, and getting colonized by mycorrhiza for their first several years. The orchid hobby raises the seed in sterile flasks on nutrient media until physically large enough to put in 2 inch pots. The orchids that are common in the hobby are species that are only obligate dependents on mycorrhiza for a short period while very small. The orchid species that keep the need to be associated with mycorrhiza tend to not be in the hobby, to hard to keep both the plant and the mycorrhiza healthy .

So those were sold, or planted out, by 2010. Mostly Paph and Phrag hybrids. I have not done any hybridizing since 2009, the ''lab'' I was using, moved to California, and quit doing seed culture, for health reasons, not related to the orchid business.

Orchids still are my ''main'' hobby. Giving a talk in Lexington Kentucky on 11/8 to the local orchid society. I usually give 4 or 5 talks a year, been doing that since 1992.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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While I talked about the 1000 watt and the 8 lamp T-5 fixtures being very bright, nowhere in my collection have I found a spot bright enough to get good, tight, ''normal'' growth out of a JBP. When I did try to extend the growing season for my JBP, the growth was always leggy, and needed to be removed eventually. I had given the test JBP a cold rest from first frost in October thru December, then in January moved into the light garden. Results were not satisfactory. So while the test subject lived, the verdict was that even the ''best spots'' in my elaborate light garden are not bright enough to do pines indoors. Juniper procumbens is shade tolerant enough that it can be done in this set up, but procumbens is hardy enough that I can leave it outside, so I give that space to an orchid. It has to be something interesting to get space in my light set up.
 
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