For all my palm growers in zone 5b :)

[Newpalmguy2769]

So as the time get closer and closer to getting cold again, I’m thinking of ideas on how I want to keep all my palms warm and steady growing. Right now I have about 8 fan palms in the ground and my others are in containers. I was thinking of building a hoop style 10x20. Another idea was using my garage but I’ll have to use supplemental lighting. Since the winter time we only have 8ish hours of daylight, so I’ll have t5 lighting on timers to get them a solid 14-16 hrs of daylight. So I’d love to chat with someone who’s crazy like me and does the same type of overwintering. 

[mdsonofthesouth]

 They sell full spectrum bulbs at the store and online that offer the light you'll need for the plants. I used them for growing palms and such from seed in the winter. 

[Nj Palms]

I would love to have my palms and plants growing in the winter. I have space in my garage where I usually put my plants. The temp is usually around 60° and 58° in winter. I want to put clear plastic over them but don’t have anything to hold the plastic up. Any ideas?

[mdsonofthesouth]

At those temps I wouldn't bother with anything other than full spectrum bulbs and water. Can even feed them at those temps and some species will still grow.

[Rickybobby]

I have a palm room that I have a separate heater set at 77f all winter. I have led grow lights everywhere my palms grow steady all year round this way. Now obviously 9 feet is my max height. After that? Who knows  I live in 6a

[Beachpalm]

Can you folks point me to a reliable lighting option?  

What has worked for you? 

My room is in Zone 7A with  3 SSE windows and 5 E facing windows.

Heated and ample moisture

I was thinking a couple of these....

SunBlaster CFL 6400K Full Spectrum, 200W

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2019 by Beachpalm

[Rickybobby]

I use multiple led grow lights. They are good on hydro but also help to warm the room up. The lights are a 18” square.  My window faces south west so in the aft the room becomes a greenhouse and it heats up to 81f. I get good growth all winter long 

[RJ]

I have a big CFL like that. Mine About 400w though and uses a larger base socket. I don't use it much anymore, and stick pretty much to LED units. 

 

 

[Beachpalm]

Was the CFL not as effective?

 

 

[Newpalmguy2769]

When I use to grow peppers t5 worked awesome. I’m not smart for liking palms that can’t grow outside all year long lol. So I’m hoping the info I get here will work and help keep my precious typical palms growing all year long until I move to a better yearly state. 

 

Thanks for all the help so far. 

[RJ]

On 8/25/2019 at 2:55 PM, Beachpalm said:

Sorry for the later reply if that was directed at me.

Was the CFL not as effective? Just the bulb is 14" long, takes awhile to warm up, the fan is loud... the LED units now are IMO mile ahead of them. 

 

 

Sorry for the late reply if that was directed at me. It's just big a similar output LED is much smaller, are low profile.