jfaunda

Hey everyone. I am new to growing banana plants and just wanted to run some ideas by everyone. I've been doing research for the past week and the hardest part to figure out has been the lighting set up for my not doing so well 10" Dwarf Cavendish. I have looked through as many of the posts I can find on here relating to indoor lighting and have seen a decent number of Richard's comments. I've also read the cannabis forums as some users have suggested.

I've seen the following numbers as the main guideline to follow from Richard's comments and also their grow guide (all at 1 meter distance from plant):

1200 W per plant for 10 hours a day
This number was also broken down to 300 W/m^2 due to the spread of the plant in another comment (300 W/m^2 * 4 m^2).
30 W/ft^2 (323 W/m^2) for minimum over wintering
50 W/ft^2 (538 W/m^2) for minimum outdoor style growth
70 W/ft^2 (753 W/m^2) for optimal outdoor style growth / flowering.
(Also not sure if these numbers are for full grown or 1 size fits all)

When seeing these numbers at first, I thought equivalent watts was the units and I believe this is definitely not the case, that instead I should be using actual wattage of the lights. Because of that misunderstanding, I have been under-lighting my plant for about a week.

Currently I have a 35W 5000K LED @ 4000 lumens being used (I realize it should be closer to 6500K). Now following the inverse square law, theoretically I should be able to replicate the minimum outdoor growth to ease my plant back into the light using my current setup at 10 inches. At 6 hours a day of ~500 W/m^2 this should be the same amount of light as 300W for 10 hours. This is my goal as I want the plant to first bounce back and grow some before I invest big bucks in a good lighting system for the winter months.

Does this make sense to anyone else and actually check out? According to the law it would be the same as a 400W light at 34 inches away which seems intuitive to me. Obviously this is a rough calculation and doesn't involve spread, reflection, PAR, micro mols, etc. Please let me know either way, my feelings won't be hurt if I'm completely wrong and I am willing to learn.

Kingt82

I'm curious about this as well. Anyone have experience with this?

Jfaunda, nice to see someone from Dayton. I grew up in Beavercreek. Class of 2000.

cincinnana

Just to understand the setup.
You have 1 plant 10 inches tall with a 2x2 footprint.
This plant will eventually have a 5x5+- footprint.
You plan to move plant outdoors in summer.
You will only be using lighting during our 7 month winters.
The current light you are using is a pendant type PAR38 35watt daylight led spot light set at 10 inches above plant.
This is the only plant you are growing under lights.
Lights are on for 6 hours a day.

__________________

jfaunda

Correct on the lighting for winter months and only 1 plant. The foot print at the canopy is closer to 1'x1'. After reading up on spectrums of LEDs and CFLs, I switched from the household style 35 W LED 5000K which wasn't PAR38 to a set up of 2 13W CFLs at 5000k at 8.5 inches away following the inverse square law with the light on for 10 hours as I have added on 30 minutes every day for the past several days to ease it into hopefully "better" and more intense lighting. For whatever reason the hardware stores around me don't carry 6500K lights in E26 sockets. Currently looking at a 200 W CFL 6500K and horizontal reflector, just need to find a source without wild shipping prices. Will try to upload pics soon.

jfaunda

cincinnana

Here are two vendors which I have used in the past for CFLs.
Do check them out��

https://www.1000bulbs.com/fil/categories/light-bulbs
https://limostudio.com/collections/bulbs
You can also purchase an E26 adapter for use with the oversized mogul bases with the large bulbs.

The Menards up the street has a pretty decent selection this year of indoor growing lights and pendant fixtures. Their CFL selection is decent too.
5000k bulbs work fine if 6500k is not available.......dont sweat it.

I use a few DYI configurations that work for me.
This one is a simple CFl setup.
IT consists of three 68 watt full spectrum daylight/warm white spiral CFLs.
Output per bulb is equivalent to 300 watts for a total of 900 watts for the plants below.
Daylight bulbs are for the white and blue spectrum and warm white bulb is for the red spectrum.
You can mix bulbs to customize the color spectrum you want.
Lights are on 12+ hours a day.
Works on a 5x5 area with plants up to 4-6 feet tall depending on your ceiling height.

You can do the exact same thing with smaller wattage standard CFLs for a smaller area or just one plant like your current configuration.
With splitter sockets you can put as many lights above the plant you want and still be under 25.00 for the setup.
It will grow your plants just the same.
Usaully it takes about 2+- weeks to notice any difference with a plant after lighting changes.


Grow lights 3x 68 watt spiral cfl
by
Hostafarian,
on Flickr

.Splitters to get more light to the plant on a budget.
Splitters come in configurations from 2 additional sockets on up.


CFL splitters
by
Hostafarian,
on Flickr

__________________

jfaunda

I've seen that set up you have suggested several times on here and it is interesting. The only issues I see with that is no reflectors to utilize more light and also the W/m^2 numbers that Richard always stands by. I'm not necessarily trying to get this plant to fruit purely indoors as their numbers go by, but as you know with our weather in Ohio isn't always the greatest so it may be indoors for longer time so a better lighting set up would be nice. Have you found you follow the W per area more closely or your set up has honestly worked fine with ~200W actual any where from 3-6 feet away?

Also not sure if you had the time to check the link I posted. Just wondering if the browning leaf edges are light, water, or nutrient issues. My temp is 75°F, humidty ~50%, and using citrus/succulent Miraclegrow soil as it is supposedly quick draining, and I didn't add any other fertilizer to let it settle.