a1nipper

I ordered some dwarf citrus trees and a dwarf Cavendish banana plant. Not too worried about citrus trees ( yes, I am an over confident sob) but worried about banana plant. Attempting to grow bananas entirely indoors. Plant has yet to arrive but am starting prepping. I have a large picture window to supply natural sunlight but realize I will need additional lighting. So far have 4 daylight CFLs and two soft white CFLs. What other supplemental lighting will I need? Also am I being totally rediculous thinking I. can grow bananas entirely indoors?

caliboy1994

I'd say let them grow outside during the summer. Just make sure to acclimate them to full sun first. Bring them inside after the first frost of the fall and bring them outside when nighttime minimum temps are above 50 degrees. As for the lighting, I have no idea

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Richard

You want to supply a total 55W to 75W per square foot of broadcast light to the plants, in the 6500K color temperature. The soft white bulbs are not the right color temperature, but check the label on the daylight CFL's. Typically the most effective way to do this is with the 4-ft long TF HO 6500K bulbs.

As an example, if you are going to be broadcasting light downwards from hooded fixture(s) that have an 6-ft by 6-ft "footprint" on the floor, then you'll want a total of 1980 to 2700 Watts of power. Direct sunshine through a window at your latitude can supply about a 1/3 of that. Windows reflect back a significant amount of power in the visual spectrum, and since the light is not coming overhead on all sides of the plant, you only get a fraction of what you would outdoors. Rotating the plant will not help. You'll actually make it work harder by having to process input on one side one time, another side another time, etc.

The power rating should be actual power, not "power equivalent in luminescence". So for example, a 23W bulb with the "brightness equivalence" of a 100W bulb, is only giving you 23W of power.

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a1nipper

The daylights are 6500k but was under the impression that the soft whites aided flowering. I will slowly add additional lighting as the plant matures. Thanks for the info.

a1nipper

I understand growing them outside in the summer would be easier/ smartest? but really want to attempt indoor growth only. Figure I'll attempt indoor growth with this plant and if all goes bust, I'll go outdoor route second time around.

mksmth

Im more a citrus guy getting into bananas but I wanted to say that youll probably have more problems with the citrus then the banana. Reason I say that is if you dont get the right combination of light, warmth, and humidity you will have a bad case of leaf drop.

for them to grow indoors youll need to keep the root zone above 55 degrees F and really crank out the lighting.

mike

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a1nipper

[quote=mksmth;192893]Im more a citrus guy getting into bananas but I wanted to say that youll probably have more problems with the citrus then the banana. Reason I say that is if you dont get the right combination of light, warmth, and humidity you will have a bad case of leaf drop.

for them to grow indoors youll need to keep the root zone above 55 degrees F and really crank out the lighting.
Grew oranges as a teenagers and managed to get fruit indoors. Had around thirty of them before cat killed the tree. I didn't know at the time to thin the crop. Looking forward to both citrus and banana challenge
mike[/QUOT