Hibiscus under Metal halide lighting ?

[Nievesgirl]

Hello Everyone ,

I live in apt and used to own hibiscus from hidden valley when I was in a house. My apt does not get much light so I decided to use my MH system to supplement the Hibiscus with light. Do you think I will have success with MH ?

I use MH for my reef aquarium  but the kelvin rating is around 14k-20k to keep the colors of the corals bright and pretty. I think I will use a bulb that is 6500 or 10k for my plants. I have a 175watt ballast I will be using.

[Charlie]

Hi Nievesgirl,

Metal Halide is the right choice for a situation where there is no sunlight or very little. With more sunlight a High Pressure Sodium bulb is usually best for plants. We are fortunate in our current house in that there are large windows facing both east and west so our many houseplant hibiscus get enough direct and indirect sunlight to not need supplemental lighting.

All HID (High Intensity Discharge) lights give off a fair amount of heat but they are considered to provide the most useful light per dollar spent on electricity. They cost more to buy but are cheaper to operate. We encourage anyone growing hibiscus in winter or in spaces that do not have adequate sunlight to use HID lights to grow beautiful hibiscus that will also bloom.

There is also a newer type of fluorescent light on the market that uses more powerful wattage bulbs and matching ballasts. These are cheaper than HID setups for equivalent light levels and would be worth exploring too. With any artificial light source a good reflector will increase their value by focusing all the light onto the plants.

We'd love to hear from anyone using HID or other lights to grow their hibiscus.

Charlie

[Nievesgirl]

There is also a newer type of fluorescent light on the market that uses more powerful wattage bulbs and matching ballasts. These are cheaper than HID setups for equivalent light levels and would be worth exploring too. With any artificial light source a good reflector will increase their value by focusing all the light onto the plants.

Yes they are called T5 lighting I used those on my aquariums also. I like T5's if you get the right bulb combination ( aquarium) I am not sure what to do. I will look into the HID lights. I only suggested MH because I have a reflector and ballast all I need is a new bulb.   I also know about LED lights but these are too expensive even though you would never have to replace the bulb I am on a budget lol.

[Charlie]

Whoops, looks like I confused the issue referring to HID lights. The MH (metal halide) and the HPS (high pressure sodium) bulbs are the main 2 types of lights that are called HID.

I would do just as you are thinking, get a new MH bulb for your ballast and give it a try. If you end up with pretty plants that don't bloom you might be tempted to add an HPS lamp that stimulates blooming better than MH. They may bloom just fine with just the MH so give that a try first.

Charlie

[Nievesgirl]

Whoops, looks like I confused the issue referring to HID lights. The MH (metal halide) and the HPS (high pressure sodium) bulbs are the main 2 types of lights that are called HID.

I would do just as you are thinking, get a new MH bulb for your ballast and give it a try. If you end up with pretty plants that don't bloom you might be tempted to add an HPS lamp that stimulates blooming better than MH. They may bloom just fine with just the MH so give that a try first.

Charlie

O ok I was just about to look up HID lighting .  As for Kelvin Rating what is the best spectrum for plants to grow under?

[Charlie]

Plants need several different color of spectral energy for optimum growth and blooming. When you get into HID lights you have choices not available in standard bulbs. For instance, Hortilux makes several bulbs that combine red, blue, violet, and green spectrumes of Metal Halide (for growth) with HPS (for blooming). There is some good info about lamps you could get at http://www.nationalgardenwholesale.com/ngw/default.aspx

We are a dealer for this distributor and can get anything in their catalog for you at a better than MSRP price.

Charlie

[Nievesgirl]

Plants need several different color of spectral energy for optimum growth and blooming. When you get into HID lights you have choices not available in standard bulbs. For instance, Hortilux makes several bulbs that combine red, blue, violet, and green spectrumes of Metal Halide (for growth) with HPS (for blooming). There is some good info about lamps you could get at http://www.nationalgardenwholesale.com/ngw/default.aspx

We are a dealer for this distributor and can get anything in their catalog for you at a better than MSRP price.

Charlie

I decided to get a t5 fixture instead, That link you posted is the same company sunlight supply I am familar with their aquarium fixtures which are the same for the gardening.

since I am looking to get 8 bulb fixture what bulbs should be bought for growth and blooming ?  I am going to buy another for my new aquarium but thats another story lol.

I will email you for a price

[Nievesgirl]

Its getting closer for me to start buying my lights. I have 162 seeds i have yet to grow because I rather start them under the t5's my seedlings I have now are not growing to well since they are short and don't get enough light.

I am going to buy or build something like this for the seedlings.

[helixturnhelix]

Kerry I think that sounds like a great idea.  What I want to do with the seedlings I have now, is grow them under grow lights too for about a year, then wean them outside in the sun so I will hopefully get buds and see flowers.  My thinking is it takes about a year for the plant to mature to a stage in which it could produce flowers, so why not save precious sun space for your cvs that can bloom and switch them out when it will be ready to do so.  Once you see them bloom, for a while you can try propagating the good ones  and send wood to your friends on the forum to try out

[Nievesgirl]

Kerry I think that sounds like a great idea.  What I want to do with the seedlings I have now, is grow them under grow lights too for about a year, then wean them outside in the sun so I will hopefully get buds and see flowers.  My thinking is it takes about a year for the plant to mature to a stage in which it could produce flowers, so why not save precious sun space for your cvs that can bloom and switch them out when it will be ready to do so.  Once you see them bloom, for a while you can try propagating the good ones  and send wood to your friends on the forum to try out

Of course you guys are about to be my testers soon

[helixturnhelix]

[Nievesgirl]

So it looks like my hibiscus growing season on my balcony is coming to an end
I just won 3 new wave 24" fixtures on ebay  Now I just need to buy one 48" with 8 bulbs !

[Charlie]

An 8 bulb fixture should give enough light to get some blooms!

Good luck!!!

Charlie

[Msoar16]

I am suprised that you think that it would take a minimum of 8 48" T5's to get blooms.  I am no plant expert at all, but I do have some experience in satwater reff aquariums and I have found t5's to me just as or even more powerful than halides.  I was running a 250W halide on a small tank and switched over to a 6 bulb 24" T5 fixture and burned all the corals in the tank to to an increase in light output.  For those that do not know, that is 144W from the T5's vs 250W from the halides.

It just gets me a bit nervious, as I was going to purchase a 4 bulb 48" T5 fixture to keep my 8 new hibiscus happy this winter and was also hoping to get some blooms and growth out of them.  Maybe I need to just hope to be giving them enough light to make it through the winter.

[Nievesgirl]

I am suprised that you think that it would take a minimum of 8 48" T5's to get blooms.  I am no plant expert at all, but I do have some experience in satwater reff aquariums and I have found t5's to me just as or even more powerful than halides.  I was running a 250W halide on a small tank and switched over to a 6 bulb 24" T5 fixture and burned all the corals in the tank to to an increase in light output.  For those that do not know, that is 144W from the T5's vs 250W from the halides.

It just gets me a bit nervious, as I was going to purchase a 4 bulb 48" T5 fixture to keep my 8 new hibiscus happy this winter and was also hoping to get some blooms and growth out of them.  Maybe I need to just hope to be giving them enough light to make it through the winter.

I have 162 seeds I just planted 17 seedlings 15 4"-8" potted CV's and 6 more on the way.  I need a fixture that can cover a lot of plants  I have been in the reef hobby for at least 4 years now.