Grow light recommendations?
 

I'm about a month from taking my new banana tree in for the Ohio winter. I live in a home where there isn't too much all day light in the house and I'd like my tree to continue to grow.. I've got a room with very little light, but it always gets super warm during the winter, so it will be a nice room for the banana. I wanted to add a couple of grow lights to keep it going as well.

Can't seem to find any threads about this on the site, so I wanted to ask some recommendations. I know they can get expensive, into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars. I was hoping for something significantly more economical that will do the job for the banana. And just the banana.

I found this on Amazon as an example. Any idea if a couple of these around the tree would work?

https://amzn.com/B00GNWK2XO

Any other ideas for grow lights that banana trees thrive under during the winter?

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

Most of the best recommendations are in the Youtube video and cannibis forums....keywords "grow lights for cannibis"..
The lighting requirements are the same. ALOT OF LIGHT FOR THEM TO THRIVE

There are also good informative Youtube videos keywords Growlights for bananas.

Do you have a ceiling fan in that room?
I have a set up with 3- 68 watt spiral cfls which works well in a ceiling fan.


There are also many threads on this lighting subject in the forums which are pretty helpful and detailed to get you started.http://www.bananas.org/f2/grow-light...ght=growlights
I find watching the youtube videos the best. you will also find a lot of DIY lighting projects which could fit your budget.


Just pick and choose what you want to use /spend and go from there.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

I have tried several and my last pick would be what you have chosen. Leds are great for germination, but must be very close up to the plant, so coverage is minimized. I myself use cfl lights as they have proven to be quite adequate although led is less expensive to run and do not get hot to the touch. I also have bought my cfl from amazon, they are relatively inexpensive, offer a wider coverage area and the electricity used is minimal. Hope this helps,
Bill

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

I built my grow light. 8 x 23 watt cfl's (100 watt equivalent) gives me 800 watts of light. Watts isn't the best way to measure but it gives you a ballpark idea.

With that light through winter I was getting 1 new leaf every 3- 4 days and it costs me about 5$ Canadian a month to run. I'll try to post a pic later but if you can't wait I posted the pic in another thread about a year ago.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

Covering how many plants and at what distance. I have 2 of the same as you and wonder if they are enough.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

At the moment, my tree is still new and growing. But the ceiling is 8 ft. I was going to take a few adjustable floor lamps and put it around the tree with appropriate lighting.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

I had them over a dwarf Cavendish, Meyer lemon, calomondin, coffee, chilli peppers and many others. The dwarf Cavendish was the largest at about 3 feet tall but the small size doesn't matter, I had the light about 6 inches away or it would burn the leaves. Had to check it daily because of the cigar leaves hitting the light.
The fixture was made of aluminum ducting lined with mylar blanket and then I hung the mylar over the light down each side of the shelving unit and a container of water on the shelf. The heat of the light was kept in as well as stray light and it kept the humidity up. This year I have an ice cream, 2 dwarf Cavendish, 2 basjoo and about 20 truly tiny amongst a bunch ofnother fruit trees so I will be adding a second light with another 8 bulbs. I'm not trying to produce or get optimal growth, just keep the plants happy over winter till they can go back outside in pots or in the ground.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

Oh and just to add, I've tried led's instead of cfl's and had terrible results. Cfl's have easy color spectrum led's are way more complicated.

If you use cfl's 6500k is for vegetative growth and 2700k is for fruiting. But 6500k is usually best unless your growing for profit (different hobby). This all carries over to aquatic plants fyi except you need to take into account the depth of water.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

You mentioned that you would like them to thrive. Your best bet would be T5's or Metal Halide. Check the craigslist gardening page and buy used.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

In my opinion t5's don't come in the ideal format making them expensive. They are the best when it comes to fluorescent though. As for metal halide....expensive....hot and inefficient. But that's just my 2 cents.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

Your best choice for most plants are an array of fluorescent bulbs with 6500 Kelvin color temperature. You can buy these in CFL, or 2' or 4' bulb lengths. "Color Temperature" is listed somewhere on the packaging of all fluorescent bulbs. Don't be fooled by HPS etc. bulbs claiming 6500K.

If you want to duplicate sunlight you'll need multiple fixtures of 8 x 4 foot T5 HO fluorescent bulbs placed side-by-side and end-to-end so that the power density (as listed for each bulb) adds up to 1200 Watts per square meter.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

Last year I hung 2 bulbs above my plants in the garage. The plants grew like crazy. The following worked perfectly. 2 pack PHOTO bulb. 105 watt, 6500K, 800 watt output, daylight fluorescent. $30.99 Amazon

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

I just found a site that I consider to have the least expensive cfl bulbs, for instance, a 68 watt 6500k cfl sells for about 15.00, anywhere else, it's 22.00 and up. It's called 1000Bulbs.com..Hope this helps.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

My goal isn't for the plants to thrive for the winter, just to survive. I have florescent lights and spot lights with the grow spectrum curly bulbs set up in several spots in my basement. It stays at least 50 degrees down there, if not warmer. I reduce water, enough to keep the soil damp. The plants may put a leaf or two out during this time, but mainly they stay green, ready for when I can put them out in late spring. I will get leaves that turn yellow and brown, so I cut those off as I get them.

I do keep some plants upstairs, some of the bigger ones that are hard to go down steps, and those don't grow too much more than if I had them in the basement. I also have a set of shelves and a series of spot lights in an east window upstairs where I do keep some plants actively growing as much as possible.

I lose very few plants during the winter if any and I've been doing this for 5 plus years now and have over 20 varieties, and over 30 plants just of the banana varieties, so I must be doing something right.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

When you say keep soil damp...could you elaborate. That's my biggest problem with keeping plants dormant, I tend to over water, but in my mind I was keeping the soil damp.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

Just checked 1000bulbs.com Looks like it might be the winner. They also make something called a dual-arc grow light that looks like it may be the best of both worlds, but I can't use a standard lamp for it. So that might take a little more research.

Thanks Saxybill1, for that suggestion.

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

Gee, it feels great to help someone of this site as I have received so much

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

I always dug mine up and put them in buckets in the dark, damp basement in winter. I let them go dormant. About a teacup of water once a month or so is sufficient. You want the soil to feel dry but not be dry. I tried keeping some upstairs in pots and watered in the sun, and the dormant ones always caught up to them in about a month once planted back in the ground. I, personally would not bother with the grow lights, but to each his own.
I encourage all to test it out themselves. I would be thrilled to hear of other's conclusions. Get two plants about the same size and kind, dig them up. One goes dormant, the other, keep in sunlight or under grow lights. Put them out in spring next to each other and treat them the same. at the end of the season, how do they compare?

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

I'm just not sure I have the right area to keep them dormant. I'm in an apartment building in eastern Canada where it's cold as sh*t!

Re: Grow light recommendations?
 

So followup question: Following many of your suggestions, I keep seeing I have to get a different ballast. E39, M55, others depending on what I decide on. Does an adapter exist I could get to put them in the normal edison incandescent socket for a normal lamp?