View Full Version : what lighting need for indoor Banana Plant
curlydrew
09-18-2012, 07:24 PM
please Please anyone what kind of indoor light do I need to grow the banana plant. I live in Maryland it get cold here Please need help
Abnshrek
09-18-2012, 07:45 PM
Depends if your augmenting natural light or not.. Does your indoor plant get any light from a southern view? :^)
KYpalmer
09-19-2012, 12:16 PM
Get a UV energy light for reptiles and also keep it near a south facing window. At least that's what I did for my baby palms last year and they done fine. Not sure about bananas.
timmko
09-19-2012, 04:38 PM
I have used a MH bulb 400 watt and supplimental window light for 4 smaller plants. Otherwise I purchased a t5 florescent 6 bulb fixture for all my plants elephant ears and bananas'. The MH covers with a good reflector about 3 square feet and the t5 about 4 square feet but uses less power. Heres a link to look at the t5 bulbs. They are all over the internet.
T5 Fluorescent Grow Light Systems for Plants from ACF Greenhouses (http://www.littlegreenhouse.com/accessory/lights2.shtml)
d-lilly
09-19-2012, 10:28 PM
i have just 4 bulb shop lights,,got at menards or home depot,,i have 2 warm bulbs and 2 cool bulbs..if your intrested,,ill look up the #s on the bulbs tomorrow for you,,its worked great for my indoor tomatoes and starts,,does not burn or get hot at all.. i have them on my bananas and ele.ears now,,,2 look red the othere 2 are light bluish...
That is all I use on my bananas in the winter time...shoplights with bulbs they sell at LOWES. Way cheaper than all those fancy lights they sell for plants only. My bananas stay in the garage all winter and do fine under the shoplights.
Sib
donddr
10-22-2012, 05:03 PM
Where are you going to put your plants for the winter? I would like to see some others chime in on this thread as I have one in the living room, large east facing window, and one off the dining room, north facing window. When I got them, the were grown together in the same pot, about 36-40 inches tall. I cut them apart and repotted both. The smaller one is off the dining room and now (3 weeks after cutting them apart) has a pup and is doing great. The larger of the 2 in the living room is very happy and healthy but not growing as fast as it did with the north facing light. As the days get shorter I want to augment the light for them and I like my house bright. But I dont want shop lights in my living areas. I am installing a 400w MH in the dark corner of my living room so my Page Mandarin tree can come in for the winter.
So where I was going w all this. I would like to hear from others that have tasteful affordable lighting on their plants. Sorry to be so long winded.
Thanks.
sverrirb
10-23-2012, 08:07 PM
It is blue spectrum wich is a cfl cool white or metal halide wich is really strong suplemental lights, i dont reccomend hps lights only in garage ay least not for plants wich havent rooted properly. You could also use led lights with alot of blue bulbs in it. I think the blue spectrum is 6000k i allways mixe the red and blue in k maby it is 2700 k google it at least i know that the blu has much higher frequencies then the red.
I don't know much about bananas yet, but plants respond to red, far-red, and blue light. Red light lets them "know" it's day time. Far-red offsets the effect of red. Blue affects most other responses like getting leggy, bending toward the light, and opening stomata. Different blue-light responses use different pigments, so they presumably respond to different wavelengths.
Fluorescent lights are described with a number called color temperature, which basically tells how much blue. Higher numbers mean more. But that's "blue" in the sense of short enough wavelength to stimulate the human eye. I don't know whether a high color temperature on a light is enough to guarantee that it will have light at short enough wavelength to count as blue for a plant, for any particular response.
designshark
12-09-2012, 01:10 PM
I'm using an old flourescent black light from years past I dug up and my nanners seem to like it. I turn it on at dusk for about 5 hours a night. The plants enjoy a south facing room though during the day as well.
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