bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - flourescent lighting for bonsai?

Scolex,

During the winter months, I grow my tender trees indoors under flourescent lighting and have not had any trouble. When I was getting ready to bring my trees in, I posted a message asking about lighting. I put Treebay's response below. Of the trees you list, the ficus is the only one I've worked with indoors but I have had pretty good luck with it.

Treebay's response

We bring our ficus indoors at first sign of frost. To reduce the possibility of shock and leaf drop, you can acclimate the tree over a period of one week or so by bringing the tree indoors during the evening and leaving it outdoors during the day.

In selecting the grow lamps, keep in mind that their effectiveness drops off as the square of the distance. This means that if you had a single bulb at any given distance, you'd need FOUR bulbs of the same type located at a point twice that distance from the plant to generate an equivalent amount of light on your plant.

Therefore, keep the bulbs as close as practical to the plants (12 to 18 inches) and set them on a timer for best results. Flourescent bulbs can generally be placed much closer to the foliage than incandescent lamps without danger of burning the foliage.

It's always a good idea to install a GCFI (Ground Current Fault Interrupt) unit whenever you have water and electricity in any proximity. These can either replace the existing outlet or some can be plugged right into it.

You can find more information on grow lamps at Bachmans and at plant-it earth.
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2-Dec-2001	#2
Soildoc bonsaiTALK Expert Join Date: Sep-2001 Posts: 169	Re: flourescent lighting for bonsai? Scolex, During the winter months, I grow my tender trees indoors under flourescent lighting and have not had any trouble. When I was getting ready to bring my trees in, I posted a message asking about lighting. I put Treebay's response below. Of the trees you list, the ficus is the only one I've worked with indoors but I have had pretty good luck with it. Treebay's response We bring our ficus indoors at first sign of frost. To reduce the possibility of shock and leaf drop, you can acclimate the tree over a period of one week or so by bringing the tree indoors during the evening and leaving it outdoors during the day. In selecting the grow lamps, keep in mind that their effectiveness drops off as the square of the distance. This means that if you had a single bulb at any given distance, you'd need FOUR bulbs of the same type located at a point twice that distance from the plant to generate an equivalent amount of light on your plant. Therefore, keep the bulbs as close as practical to the plants (12 to 18 inches) and set them on a timer for best results. Flourescent bulbs can generally be placed much closer to the foliage than incandescent lamps without danger of burning the foliage. It's always a good idea to install a GCFI (Ground Current Fault Interrupt) unit whenever you have water and electricity in any proximity. These can either replace the existing outlet or some can be plugged right into it. You can find more information on grow lamps at Bachmans and at plant-it earth. [i:cd8282d89d][/i:cd8282d89d][i:cd8282d89d][/i:cd8282d89d]