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Growing Seedlings Indoors


BeyondTheGarden

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I looked at grow tents, I built basically the same thing but with materials I had on hand.  The inside is lined with that reflective mylar-covered styrofoam, so it does a good job of using the light that's in there.  I caulked all the corners so the only place light leaks out is through the fan opening and the edge of the lid.  Nothing a loosely draped blanket doesn't cover up. 

The humidity is staying around 65-70% when the humidifer is running, but it shuts off automatically at 12 hours (and I'm not always home) so it will sometimes drop back down to ~35%.  I will keep an eye out for gnats, thank you.  I've got an abundance of airflow as well, you can feel the air blowing nicely out of the crack at the lid.  

Palmlover_78, I just got a dozen Adonidiai seedlings, unfortunately several of them look like they probably won't make it.  Which is understandable since they came bare-rooted to Washington from Puerto Rico.  I need to give them a few more days to acclimatize before I put them under the hot lights.  

Marijuana is a pretty good looking plant, looks kinda like a Schefflera or Aralia of some kind.  

Edited by Jesse PNW
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Seems like I've got the numbers pretty well dialed in now, Temps staying between ~82-90F, humidity between 60 - mid70s.  

Seems I've got the fungus gnats, I figured it would take weeks, not days.  I've read that you can use diluted hydrogen peroxide spray to kill them.  But if I just open the lid and start misting the whole thing, will it harm the seedlings any?  

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One option would be to grab a bag of something like Seramis (like a granular expanded clay stuff) and top up every pot with at least a half inch of the stuff.  Fungus gnats like it when the surface soil is moist, so they will definitely die down a bit once you take that away from them.  But in such a closed little humid environment, they might just sneak in and out of the bottom of your pots instead... Worth a try though.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

A week ago, I marked a bunch of my palms with a sharpie.  Both in and out of the growbox.  

In 7 days:

Lytocaryum hoehnei:   In window sill, 1/2" growth.  In grow box, 1 3/4" growth.  That's over 3x as fast. 

Jubaea:  Under grow lights, 1/2".  In grow box, 1".   Twice as fast.  

Sabal palmetto and minor (seedlings) not measured but all have visible growth in box.  They just don't seem to budge when they're in the greenhouse.  

Trachycarpus seedlings all visible growth, but no numbers for comparison.  

Not in growbox, but under growlight:  a 6' and 7' Syagrus romanzoffiana put on 3-3.5" of new spear in one week.  I'd always heard that they need Florida heat/humidity to do well.  

Phoenix roebellinii under growlight has 2" of spear growth in one week.  They normally don't move that fast for me.  

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Sounds like you got it dialed in.  By the time you can put them outside next year they'll be putting on some size.  I'm totally convinced it is the best way to grow seedlings up in the PNW.  Otherwise it just takes too long to get them into bigger pots.  I germinated a ton of S. minor (emerald isle var.) last winter and they grow so slow outside compared to my inside grow room that I brought them back in for the winter.  Sabal of any type are very slow in the PNW in my experience.  I've got some Parajubaea torallyi (var. microcarpa) starting to pop roots now so I'm really excited to see how they progress in the grow room.  Obtaining seeds for those was not easy and then they take quite awhile to germinate.

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On 10/8/2021 at 10:32 PM, Jesse PNW said:

I looked at grow tents, I built basically the same thing but with materials I had on hand.  The inside is lined with that reflective mylar-covered styrofoam, so it does a good job of using the light that's in there.  I caulked all the corners so the only place light leaks out is through the fan opening and the edge of the lid.  Nothing a loosely draped blanket doesn't cover up. 

The humidity is staying around 65-70% when the humidifer is running, but it shuts off automatically at 12 hours (and I'm not always home) so it will sometimes drop back down to ~35%.  I will keep an eye out for gnats, thank you.  I've got an abundance of airflow as well, you can feel the air blowing nicely out of the crack at the lid.  

Palmlover_78, I just got a dozen Adonidiai seedlings, unfortunately several of them look like they probably won't make it.  Which is understandable since they came bare-rooted to Washington from Puerto Rico.  I need to give them a few more days to acclimatize before I put them under the hot lights.  

Marijuana is a pretty good looking plant, looks kinda like a Schefflera or Aralia of some kind.  

I got germinated seedlings from Thailand and they half of them didn't work out. I've discovered that you don't need a huge elaborate lighting system for palms. I have mine under 400 watts of full spectrum and they are growing like weeds. A year old and pushing out 6th Frond. How hot are we talking?. Coming from the mail,  cooler temps and no light environment to instant heat will and bright lights will shock the little guys, and I think that is what is going on.

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No i normally acclimate my bare-rooted seedlings for at least a few days.   Pot them up, water substantially, set in the shade to chill before they go into direct light. 

Some palms seem to handle being bare-rooted and shipped without skipping a beat.  Trachycarpus, butia, syagrus have all had 100% success for me.  Phoenix reclinata was something like 95%.  Caryotas have had probably 70% success.  

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As I've stuffed more and more seedlings into the growbox, 2 things happened.  The temp went down and the humidity went up.  I assume this is because there's more thermal mass exchanging heat, and more surface area where the soil/growing media is off-gassing moisture.  

So I had to turn the humidifier down to the low setting, and put an incandescent light bulb into the box.  Now we're at about 89f and 77% humidity. (temp is good, humidity is a touch low I think)  Better than 75f and 90%, which it's been at for the last couple weeks.  I think the lower temp has slowed down the growth rate although I've been too busy to stop and take any measurements.  

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4 hours ago, ZPalms said:

Do you know where you got those square tall nursery pots? Do they have grid bottoms or big holes?

Me? Got them from mypalmshop.com

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3 hours ago, Will said:

 

Me? Got them from mypalmshop.com

Haha, I meant jesse! Appreciate it though! Sadly they don't deliver to the states :crying:

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I normally use either red solo cups with some holes cut into the bottom, or a couple different sizes from amazon. 

These are mostly what I use for now.  Next time I'll probably buy some 3" or 4" pots.   You just have to watch the quality, sometimes the holes in the bottom are defective and you have to hit it with a drill to ensure they drain ok.  But they are very cheap. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HWIAOA4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

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Check out my grow room on southern Ontario palms and tropicals. I have a ton of videos growing seedlings indoors. A lot of times with too soggy of soil and in cooler conditions root rot will kill. Humidity wise don’t care I keep the room at 40 percent and not a brown too or issue anywhere. Dryer is better than wetter indoors 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Has anyone used lights similar tho these?

https://www.amazon.ca/Upgraded-Spectrum-360°Adjustable-Gooseneck-Dimmable/dp/B087JDG94L/ref=mp_s_a_1_21?crid=UNRFRKBH6GN5&keywords=led+grow+light&qid=1638337427&sprefix=led+gr%2Caps%2C208&sr=8-21

I don’t have a setup were I could use the big overhead lights (don’t think I could get that by with my wife haha). I could clip a few of these on a table I have. The room gets lots of natural light already with big south facing windows and skylights, just looking to supplement the light during the short winter days we have here. 

Zone 8b, Csb (Warm-summer Mediterranean climate). 1,940 annual sunshine hours 
Annual lows-> 19/20: -5.0C, 20/21: -5.5C, 21/22: -8.3C, 22/23: -9.4C, 23/24: 1.1C (so far!)

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On 12/1/2021 at 9:38 AM, ShadyDan said:

Has anyone used lights similar tho these?

https://www.amazon.ca/Upgraded-Spectrum-360°Adjustable-Gooseneck-Dimmable/dp/B087JDG94L/ref=mp_s_a_1_21?crid=UNRFRKBH6GN5&keywords=led+grow+light&qid=1638337427&sprefix=led+gr%2Caps%2C208&sr=8-21

I don’t have a setup were I could use the big overhead lights (don’t think I could get that by with my wife haha). I could clip a few of these on a table I have. The room gets lots of natural light already with big south facing windows and skylights, just looking to supplement the light during the short winter days we have here. 

Those lights are very low powered.  I have 3 sets that all use similar LED boards to those.  I think they're OK-ish for my little strap-leaf seedlings, but not anything bigger than that.  

I really like my Mars Hydro LED lights.  They're much better than the cheap(er) alternatives that look like almost the same thing. 

Edited by Jesse PNW
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4 hours ago, Jesse PNW said:

Those lights are very low powered.  I have 3 sets that all use similar LED boards to those.  I think they're OK-ish for my little strap-leaf seedlings, but not anything bigger than that.  

I really like my Mars Hydro LED lights.  They're much better than the cheap(er) alternatives that look like almost the same thing. 

Thanks for the tip. Yea it’s just for raising any seedlings that may germinate over the winter months. My greenhouse is pretty dark and cold this time of year, don’t think baby palms would appreciate it in there. Come February I get a lot more sun so just need to make it till then. 

Zone 8b, Csb (Warm-summer Mediterranean climate). 1,940 annual sunshine hours 
Annual lows-> 19/20: -5.0C, 20/21: -5.5C, 21/22: -8.3C, 22/23: -9.4C, 23/24: 1.1C (so far!)

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11 hours ago, ShadyDan said:

...... My greenhouse is pretty dark and cold this time of year, don’t think baby palms would appreciate it in there. Come February I get a lot more sun so just need to make it till then. 

Same here.  I went through all the trouble of rigging up automated systems for irrigation and heat management, and now I barely even use my greenhouse during the winter months.  I end up bringing my palms inside where they can continue to push out new growth for the winter. 

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