flourescent lighting for bonsai?

scolex

I was wondering if anyone is growing different varieties of bonsai under flourescent lighting exclusively? *I have a studio without heat and air conditioning. *It has east and north windows that are pretty big. *The room is poorly insulated due to the north and east walls being large windows. The room changes temperature and humidity with the weather. *If it is 28 degrees outside, *it is 45-50 inside. *In the summer it can get to 85 inside when it is 100 outside. I live in San Antonio, Texas. I don't have enough constant light outdoors due to so many trees in my backyard. *I also have a squirel problem. *I am new to bonsai and have heard that there are people(Ruth Stahl? and Jack Wikle?)that grow trees under flourescents. *What are the best color temperatures....I hear that blue is good for basic growth and that red is useful in blooming plants. *GE makes so many flourescents from full spectrum to cool white, warm white, plant and aquarium, etc. *I have heard from one guy that one 40 watt cool white and one 40 watt warm white will do the job for a single shelf placed fairly close to the top of the trees. *He said it was'nt the *color temp that mattered as much as getting enough lumens for growth. *Does anyone do this in a serious way? *I don't expect to ever *keep the trees outdoors. *I would like to grow boxwood, cedar elm, cotoneaster, ficus, ironwood, lantana, live oak, and many others if possible. *Thanks much!
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Soildoc

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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