Hidden Valley Hibiscus Forum

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.

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

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.

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 :P.  As for Kelvin Rating what is the best spectrum for plants to grow under?

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

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.
(http://www.collins-consulting.org/orchids/shelf2-1.jpg)

(http://www.mrlight.com/product_image.php?imageid=392)

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 :D

:D :D :D

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 !

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

Good luck!!!

Charlie

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.

Hi Msoar16,

Thanks for that feedback about your experience with the T-5s.

I think the issue for Kerry and most of us growing plants indoors where there is not enough natural light is how to get sufficient light to cover the needed area. You can find charts online that show the drop off in light intensity the farther the lights are from the plants or whatever is being lighted. It is quite a large drop in light intensity for every foot higher the lights are raised. However, they need to be raised in order to cover enough surface beneath them unless someone can afford to buy a lot of lights and pay the electric bill!

So, the question becomes what lights will provide enough foot candles or PAR light readings at the leaf surface for all the plants we need to cover. Commercial growers usually use 1000 watt HID lights that are many feet above the plants so that they get as many plants covered as possible for each light they install. That wattage is too intense for use in a normal room seems to me although I know of one guy who uses a couple in a big basement when overwintering his hibiscus.

Back to your situation - whether you will get blooms or just keep the plants healthy will depend on the total amount of PAR light they receive in each 24 hour period. You can use an increased number of hours of operation to make up for lower intensity since for hibiscus it is the total light received each day that matters. I have even run lights non-stop with no periods of dark and the hibiscus seem to like it. In any case, getting your hibiscus through the winter as healthy plants should be the main goal, and if you get a few blooms that will be a nice bonus, too!

Charlie

This is my main focus just to have them nice and healthy :D  I think I will try 3 3000k bulbs and for the rest use 6500k.  I will probably be able to run the lights from 7am to 12am ( yes bedtime lol)  so I will see if that helps. I am not sure if I will run the seedlings fixtures this long probably not because they wont be blooming anytime soon.

Thanks for the info Charlie, it makes me understand things a bit better.  Funny how there is such a debate in the plant world as there is in the reef world concerning HID lighting vs T5's.  For me, T5's are the clear choice.  Well just have to see how the hibiscus react from the change of being out in our intense Colorado sun to life under the T5's.

I agree about MH vs T5 I only like MH because of the slimmer lines other than that t5's are just as good. I ran t5's before I got my mh, I got mh because there are no 20" t5 fixtures that other brands were making bulbs for. Current USA is the only company with a t5 fixture that would fit but I did not want to just have their bulbs you know :P

What type of fixture do you plan on using on your hibiscus?

I just realized I can put my 17 seedlings on this window seal at work !! ;D I already have midnight flyer on it, So tomorrow I will be bring my seedlings to work. I wonder what my co-wokers will say lol

Funny because the fixture I put on my reef tank is the 20" Current Nova Extreme Pro.  I didn't like that they are the only people making the 18" bulbs, but to be honest I like the colors and so do my corals.  Plus I figure that the other bulb manufactures will have to jump on board at some point since there are so many nano tanks where the 20" fixture is just about the only option. 

As far as what fixture I'm considering, pretty much everthing from a 24" - 4 bulb fixture up to the 48" with 8 bulbs.  I'm checking craigslist and the local reef club forums to see if I can find any deals, but I figure I have about another month before I'll have to move everyone inside.  I really like the Tek unit, but it is just a little too expensive for my taste.

Haha that is too funny. I wanted a specific look but like I said the current only have 18" and they only have two color bulbs. I wanted to do a combo with giesemann bulbs.

I got 3 new waves on ebay used. the new wave fixtures are cheaper than the tek.  The sun blaze are the cheapest models sunlight supply offers.  I checked cl in my area but with no luck too many MH ads.

Just a quick T5 update.  I put together a 4 bulb, 48" HO T5 Retro kit and all my plants have responded very well to the move inside for the winter.  I got some yellowing leaves, but that all seems to have stopped.  My Simple Pleasures is continuing to flower and bulb and my Space Oddity had it's first bloom this week as well.  I can not recomend this light source enough.  I am running a 14 hour light cycle.

Hi Msoar

I am glad the t5's are working for you. My plants love it so far, I have some that I am waiting to see if they will bloom under t5's but, black dragon, carolina breeze, stormy rainbow, heartbreak hotel, and e ku u morning dew are producing buds.

Hi MSoar,

I'm glad to hear that your T5 fluorescent light setup is working for you and that Simple Pleasures is blooming!  How high to you have the light fixture above the plants?

Thanks,

Charlie

I have the plants on a 2 tiered rack with my bigger plants on the bottom and the smaller ones on top.  The plants are anywhere from 4" to 12" away from the bulbs.  The Space Oddity that bloomed was only 1" from the bulbs, but since I finally got to see the flower (which I LOVED), I cut it back to get better brancing.  I also have a Gator Pride that is growing like a weed under these lights, lets just hope they keep responding as well 6 months from now when they can finally go outside again.