Lighting for tropicalas and Bonsai indoors.

[dancing with butterflies]

So We are doing some carpeting remodaling in our house and ive got promission to buy a hanging light for the kitchen upstairs ( We hardly ever use it to cook so its more of an extra room) I will post photos of the area later on, ( I'm at my work right now)


Right now my setup consists of two clip on lights plus whatever natural light there is. Again I will post photos when I get home. My Ficus natalenis and others are doing great. What Brand of hanging light is the best you can get. I useally shop on Amazon. I plan on using the lights oct- may. and then summering plants outside. I'm in st paul mn zone 4.

 

[Glaucus]

 

[dancing with butterflies]

thanks i will look at this later on.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

How many square feet are you trying to light? The light listed by @Glaucus is a good product... if you are lighting four square feet. This could be plenty of light for four small plants, or one large one. Note that the hanging height was 10" above the foliage.

 

[dancing with butterflies]

Here's my current set up

 

[dancing with butterflies]

This is where I plan to light up and grow them

 

[Gollum169]

One thing to think about as far as placement goes is that these lights are very bright to look at. You don't want them in a place where you are sitting and can see the underside of the light. If this is an "extra room" that sounds fine. I might have learned the hard way!

 

[dancing with butterflies]

Good to know it's not a room people frequent much

 

[Eckhoffw]

Howdy, neighbor!
I live in Shoreview Minnesota and just moved from St. Paul three years ago.

If You want to spend a lot of money, I have no recommendations for what to buy.
However, if you’re like me and don’t want Spend an entire paycheck, then I would suggest buying some 4 foot hanging shop lights.

They’re cheap and you can always add more. I currently have Three units -So 6 four foot tubes hanging above 25 tropicals and/or succulents.
I will be getting the better white grow lights at some point

They’ve done pretty well for the last three years.

 

[Glaucus]

If it is a dedicated room for growing plants (kinda) and not your actual kitchen (like you say), or a room you want to look good/fashionable, then the dedicated grow light is the way to go. Either that light that the MiGro YT channel video reviews, or some similar light. They have another video where they do a full overview of all budget grow lights. It is probably the best YT channel that is reviewing grow lights. These are all around 100w and/or enough for a 2 by 2 feet area/one cannabis plant size.

If you are looking for decorating lights that look clean, then you need to look at something else.

 

[milehigh_7]

Look into the Spider Farmer SF series. Get the one with the dimmer knob. I have the SF 1000 it is great but it does need to be further above the plants than I have it.

 

[ShadyStump]

"Best," is pretty darn relative to expectations.

For cheap and available, I have one of these mounted on the wall above my plant shelves

Feit Electric 4 ft. 54-Watt Vertical Mount White Full Spectrum LED Non-Dimmable Indoor Linkable Plant Grow Light Strip, Daylight GLP48FS/VM/54W/LED - The Home Depot

Grow better, stronger plants with the Feit Electric GLP48FS/VM/54-Watt/LED 4 ft. full spectrum grow light fixture, Rated for high humidity, this plant light is ideal for soil or hydroponic gardens, assisting

www.homedepot.com

And a couple of these hanging in the interior to reach the interior and bottoms.

Feit Electric 17-Watt E26 A21 Selectable Spectrum for Seeding Growing Blooming Indoor Greenhouse Plant Grow LED Light Bulb (1-Pack) A21/ADJ/GRW/LED/HDRP - The Home Depot

Fill your space with bright light by choosing this affordably priced Feit Electric Equivalent LED Plant Grow Light Bulb.

www.homedepot.com

They've done pretty darn well by me the past couple years, especially considering the cost. I have to be strategic about the positioning and light needs of each tree, but then we should always be anyway. Some trees will start to get leggy by spring with big leaves, and others lose a bit of interior and lower foliage, but small price for the great value.

Lights are on a timer and already off for the night, but that's ALLOT of plants, a very few lights, and just over $100 at the time I bought them. I do have more lights I may add I see the plants struggling, but this is the baseline. They all sit in a north facing window, BTW. That's part of why I need the lights, and why I can compromise on them.

 

[Russ1]

I have used shop lights for many years with 5k (daylight) bulbs. A few years ago I started to switch to LED shop lights that I just buy at the Hardware Store or Ocean State Job Lot sells/(sold) the same.
They used to be $19 but went up to $24 this past year. They are also 5k and 4300 Lumins each, cheap, work well and so far have lasted a few years (MaxLite brand). Tried others but they didn't last. I probably have a dozen or so including ones that I use in in my shop. Note: just checked Ocean State and they don't seem to have this brand listed anymore.

 

[dancing with butterflies]

Yeah we found some old lights downstairs that we are goimng to Edvaulate and go over to see how strong and valueable they are for the purpose intenmded.

 

[dbonsaiw]

I use the one Glaucus suggested and it works well for me. I have 3 of them in a fairly small grow tent and just 7 trees in there. The third light may be overkill, but I'll see how it goes.