Windowsill vs Grow Light

[JohnAndSancho]

These 2 Sabal Bermudana both sprouted at the same time, they're in the same soil, both watered and misted regularly, etc etc. 

 

One was grown under LED lights and one was grown in a NE facing bathroom window. Guess which is which! 

 

 

It looks like it's vogueing. 

[happypalms]

Nice one, now all you have to do is multiply it by a couple of hundred or more!

[JohnAndSancho]

I've got a dozen or so. I'll plant out a few and post the rest for sale or trade for other Sabals. I'm surprised at the speed, a few of these are already seriously rootbound after just one year from seed, grown in bedrooms and bathrooms. 

[happypalms]

46 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I've got a dozen or so. I'll plant out a few and post the rest for sale or trade for other Sabals. I'm surprised at the speed, a few of these are already seriously rootbound after just one year from seed, grown in bedrooms and bathrooms. 

There’s always room for few more!

[Harry’s Palms]

They look very healthy ! Harry

[JohnAndSancho]

3 hours ago, happypalms said:

There’s always room for few more!

I just wanna diversify. Where I'm planting and trying to plant, I'm trying to protect from the north and west winds for wintertime since even though I'm 8b technically, we keep getting blasted with these polar vortex storms from Santa Claus land and it ends up looking like one of those scenes from The Empire Strikes Back. I mean, technically you ain't wrong though, if you've looked at my thread you know I've got room - and I haven't even taken pictures of the field.... The overgrown grass field full of pine and maple saplings.... It'd be a great place to grow if I had a mulcher and winter didn't exist. 

[JohnAndSancho]

And since nobody guessed, the bigger stronger one was the plant grown above my mom's toilet. But in all honesty, the 2 worst looking ones were also grown in her window and all of the ones under grow bulbs kinda look the same, they're more consistent. 

[sonoranfans]

"growlight" doesnt say much.  300W LED equivalent, 600W? or 12 watt LED equivalent.  Sun is king for sure but glass sometimes removes important light wavelengths.  Sabals like heat and if they are getting more heat in one area than another it will have impact.  My sabal causiarum seedlings have about doubled in 2 hot wet months(outside) they sat there in our mild winter in full sun doing very little for 3 months.  If you have to grow indoor with lights I'd use a heat mat while they are small, big difference for a heat loving palm.

[JohnAndSancho]

I'd have to Google the specs. They're really nice GE bulbs. You're right about the heat though. Somebody pointed out to me the other day that growing indoors brings on a whole new set of challenges, and now that I'm putting stuff in the ground I'm realizing just how much easier it is. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Okie dokie - for all the experts, @sonoranfans @teddytn @Sabal King @Allen @kinzyjr - in the sprout stage where they're just barely peeking out of the ground, what's more important - heat or bright light? I can put them on a heat mat which gets a little but not much light, or I can put them under the light on a wire rack which doesn't give them the bottom heat, or I can put them in windows where they'll get a little of both. 

With the Bermudana, I left them in the baggies on the heat mats until they actually showed green, but I've got so many Mexicana I can experiment. I'm honestly afraid of them drying out if I move them to the bright windows, but I can always find some Tupperware or something and just let the water sit in that after I water them and put baggies over their containers. 

They're in a ridiculously well draining mix of coco chunks, pumice and compost. 

[sonoranfans]

19 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I'd have to Google the specs. They're really nice GE bulbs. You're right about the heat though. Somebody pointed out to me the other day that growing indoors brings on a whole new set of challenges, and now that I'm putting stuff in the ground I'm realizing just how much easier it is. 

yes there is a  huge variability of LED emission profiles.  If its a bulb with LEDs in it needs a specific distance where the LEDs are focused. evenly across the plant leaves.  Too close and you project a bunch of hot spots and not much in between, too far and you lose intensity with the square of distance.  High pressure sodium does not have the sensitivity of focus to distance but also drops off in intensity with the square of the distance.  With LEDs they give a much more narrow beam so the lens has to even the spatial intensity profile out and this is optically calibrated in design at a specific distance. to the leaf matter  LED's work but are more finicky to use properly.  Too close you burn the leaf too far they get low PAR(photosynthetically active radiation).  That said outdoor sun is a huge improvement in intensity and the distance to the illuminator vs any grow light.