Overwintering indoors with a big light

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Leo S
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Location: NE Illinois, zone 5, USA

Re: Overwintering indoors with a big light

Post by Leo S »

Ingenious yet simple. I like the watering system. Nice.

I just read the post. In the first images you showed back in November of blotchy leaves on some of your bamboo. My thought was spider mite or false spider mite. They are too small for me to see, but I recognize the damage. Your rose didn't bring the spider mite in, you already had them. They went nuts on the rose.

For what it is worth, you can to some extent make up for low light intensities with longer day length. I run my light garden with 18 hours of light. All year round, no adjustment for season. Have had excellent results, been doing this for over 20 years.

A fan in your growing area will help with keeping mites and pests down, improve health of plants generally. Still air promotes bacterial and fungal problems. A cheap, box store 7 inch or 9 inch fan left on 24 hours a day, enough of a breeze to keep the leaves moving slightly, will work wonders. They will be fine even if some leaves are "flapping in the wind", though adding a fan may require you to water a little more frequently. Since you are back home, it won't be a problem. I raise orchids under lights, and Chimonobambusa marmorea. The C. marmorea is in its first winter under lights and seems to be doing fine.

Gnat eating carnivorous plants - Pinguicula - the Butterworts. Pretty flowers too. Widely available, google them.

Plieoblastus viridistriata is remarkably winter hardy. I am in zone 5b, Planted in the ground, no winter protection at all, my planting as survived almost 30 years. It frequently kills to the ground, but always comes up in spring, with more culms, and fresh and lovely. Leaves on P. viridistriata that are over one season old tend to look ratty, so in years when the winters are mild enough that the leaves survive, I end up mowing the entire bed with the lawn mower, in late winter before new culms come up. The fresh new growth is incredibly lovely. It is a great ground cover bamboo. I'm tempted to allow it to take over my entire lawn. If you plant it out in spring, it will have plenty of time to settle in for next winter. Plant it where you can enjoy it in spring.

You have a nice little light garden. I went crazy and let mine get out of control. You can tell I am currently single, no spouse would let me get away with this. I have roughly 1000+ orchids in this 2008 photo. Fans are off camera on the right, and behind a ballast hanging off the ceiling on the upper left. Air movement keeps thin grassy leaved plants moving slightly anywhere in the collection. If I had to start over - I would have installed a vapor barrier to prevent humidity from migrating out to the rest of the house. With this many plants in one spot, no humidifier is needed, plants create their own "weather".
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JWH
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Location: Seabeck, Washington Zone 8b Elevation: 531 Feet
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Re: Overwintering indoors with a big light

Post by JWH »

Wow! Leo S, THAT'S an indoor garden you have there!!!

Very cool.
Rufledt
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Location: South WI

Re: Overwintering indoors with a big light

Post by Rufledt »

wow!!! you're right, there's NO way my wife would let me get away with that! I got my M-H light on craigslist for really cheap and the guy still has some left. When my wife asked why I don't just go get another one I said "because then I'll want 3. Then 4." Next time i'll show her your picture! Currently I have a space maybe 5' x 4', the 1 light seems to keep everything more than happy. I only had the pictured plants under there until just now, I'm starting some seeds that will hopefully fill the space under the light by the time I can safely put the japonicas outside. I've heard the viridistriatus is root hardy, i'm just trying to perk it up as much as possible before planting in the spring to give it a head start.

As a side note is that a bright CFL light you have on the ceiling? I've seen those on some youtube channels and wondered about getting some. Do you like it? What are the other lights?
Rufledt
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Location: South WI

Re: Overwintering indoors with a big light

Post by Rufledt »

ok I have an update. Here the before picture when I first put the japonica under the light:

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And the after shot:

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I couldn't take the pic in the same spot, but you can definitely see multiple new culms at the height of the original 2 tallest culms. They are also actively putting out new leaves at the moment, and many new shoots. Seems like a great success here.

Now the multiplex before shot:

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And after:

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Sorry for the flash shadowand now I realize the lens was dirty. Multiple new shoots upsized in thickness, but i started topping them. I also cut out a LOT of branches and leaves that started looking pretty nasty. As it started growing outward and shading other plants, I tied it up and pruned heavily. It still upsized significantly and I'm happy with the result. The whole tall section in the middle was all new, you can see the 2 shoots before branching in the first shot.

Some of the leaves got pretty gross looking on all of my plants. I was away for that month and used the irrigation thing that needed distilled water, could that have done it? a month with distilled water with no added fertilizer? I also stopped using the humidifier so it could've been dry, but probably no drier than 40% RH
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