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Greenhouse lighting for palms?


Ben in Norcal

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Not sure where to post this, but this is probably the best fit...

Does anyone use supplemental lighting to keep palms growing in a greenhouse throughout the winter?  I have a small greenhouse which I can heat in the winter...but light is presumably a limiting factor.  Has anyone tried to keep things actively growing in the winter, and if so what lighting do you use?  Interested in whether anyone has success doing this, and recommendations for maximizing energy efficiency if so!

Ben Rogers

On the border of Concord & Clayton in the East Bay hills - Elev 387 ft 37.95 °N, 121.94 °W

My back yard weather station: http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=37.954%2C-121.945&sp=KCACONCO37

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I am using supplemental light in my small greenhouse in the Winter.

My greenhouse is in shady place and i think this supplemental light is good for my palms.

I have LED lights, 4 small bulbs 6W and one big 18W. Every bulbs are 6500° k( white-blue light).

The lights are working four hours per day from afternoon to night and only three months, December, January and February.

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5 hours ago, Monòver said:

I am using supplemental light in my small greenhouse in the Winter.

My greenhouse is in shady place and i think this supplemental light is good for my palms.

I have LED lights, 4 small bulbs 6W and one big 18W. Every bulbs are 6500° k( white-blue light).

The lights are working four hours per day from afternoon to night and only three months, December, January and February.

Do you notice any active growth in those months, Antonio?

I am thinking about some T5 strips - they seem to offer a lot of lumens for the wattage.

Ben Rogers

On the border of Concord & Clayton in the East Bay hills - Elev 387 ft 37.95 °N, 121.94 °W

My back yard weather station: http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=37.954%2C-121.945&sp=KCACONCO37

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Ben:

I have grown a few small understory palms (mainly rare geonomas) in meter tall Wardian cases under combos of Giesseman T5s, high end/complete spectrum CFLs and Jungle Dawn full spectrum LED bars to get a pretty decent amount of high intensity "cool" light on the palms. The problem with almost all lights except for high watt metal halide and comparable industrial lighting is that that you need the palms almost directly under the lamp to see any normal natural growth. Because most indoor-type palms are comparatively tall, IMO you will not see any discernible difference in growth by providing supplemental lighting unless they are hung right on top of the leaves. If you opt for high end/rather costly LED systems more or less designed with intensive indoor cannabis production in mind you will get much better results but, again, you need the lights almost on top of the palm crowns to see desired results. New generation LEDs are very energy efficient and have excellent spectra ranges for ornamental growers but can cost well upwards of a thousand bucks to get a small footprint properly lit for just a few plants.

J

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6 hours ago, Ben in Norcal said:

Do you notice any active growth in those months, Antonio?

I am thinking about some T5 strips - they seem to offer a lot of lumens for the wattage.

yes, i have active grow in Winter, slow, but grow. And the plants that are not near lamps, grows slower.

I only have seedlings and bromeliads in the greenhouse. Those plants are small and the lamps are near the plants, 20 cm more or less. 

My light system is with common lamps, not grow lamps. But for supplemental lighting, i think is enough.

T5 strips are expensive and is a older system than LED. 

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1 hour ago, Monòver said:

yes, i have active grow in Winter, slow, but grow. And the plants that are not near lamps, grows slower.

I only have seedlings and bromeliads in the greenhouse. Those plants are small and the lamps are near the plants, 20 cm more or less. 

My light system is with common lamps, not grow lamps. But for supplemental lighting, i think is enough.

T5 strips are expensive and is a older system than LED. 

Thanks, that helps.  It's interesting, I do run LEDs on my reef aquaria, but from what I am reading it sound so far like T5s can cover more plants, with more lumens/watt, than LEDs.  With reef aquaria, the most compelling argument (for me) in favor of LEDs is optical...it's a point/source light form, so creates the reef-like "shimmer" effect.  T5s produce as good bang for the buck (in terms of on-going energy costs.)

Ben Rogers

On the border of Concord & Clayton in the East Bay hills - Elev 387 ft 37.95 °N, 121.94 °W

My back yard weather station: http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=37.954%2C-121.945&sp=KCACONCO37

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If you have a reef, you will know every lighting systems. T8, T5, LED, HQI and i am sure you have more information than me.

I only have my small experience in my small greenhouse and the my old experience growing aquarium plants, 15 years ago.

But the question is: what do you want? Because if is only small supplemental lighting for a few months per year, may be with a home made LED system will be enough.

T5 are expensive and i think the relation W/ Lumens is good in both options.

Your greenhouse is not a reef and you can see the Pal Meir's palms, growing indoors in Germany, with only a common lamp.

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