Colorado’s Tiger Bark Ficus

[Michael P]

Thank you!

 

[pandacular]

really great tree. I find ficus really appealing, but am holding back on collecting them until I have a solution for a grow light in my home.

I've been to the shop you got this one from... really weird place, but some of the ficuses there were quite nice.

 

[Colorado]

really great tree. I find ficus really appealing, but am holding back on collecting them until I have a solution for a grow light in my home.

I've been to the shop you got this one from... really weird place, but some of the ficuses there were quite nice.

Thank you! I understand your dilemma. At my last house, I had a perfect south facing window to keep my tropicals over winter. I recently moved and so now I have to figure out a new overwintering solution. I am not quite sure yet what I’m going to do

 

[jszg]

I was thinking about buying those new-fangled white LED grow lights, hopefully that will save on the electric bill. They're a lot more expensive than the sci-fi purple grow lights, though.

 

[ShadyStump]

I was thinking about buying those new-fangled white LED grow lights, hopefully that will save on the electric bill. They're a lot more expensive than the sci-fi purple grow lights, though.

The full spectrum lights are also more effective. It's been uncovered relatively recently that most plants do need a small amount of the green chunk of the spectrum, even if only because including it helps fill out the full spectrum.

These bulbs, available off the shelf at any Home Depot, are cheap, durable, and provide much better light than you might think.
Most grow lights you find like to look good by listing their max PAR/PPFD, coming up with numbers often in the hundreds. That's the highest reading at the sweet spot. Feit Electric and a couple other brands prefer to list the average measured over an area. This is a much more useful number for me as I'm using just a fistful of lights as supplemental lighting to a large North facing window. Using the app on my phone I find measurements well over 100 PAR/PPFD.
So I guess that's my personal product evaluation: 3.5 stars for a high cost/quality ratio(though, admittedly, that's not saying much), and being a known quantity at every purchase.

My point is; don't over think it, and don't buy the box.

 

[Carol 83]

The full spectrum lights are also more effective.

My trees do great under them in the winter. And since they are in my kitchen where I spend a lot of time, much easier on the eyes.

 

[Eckhoffw]

I second what others have said. You can get relatively cheep ballasts and grow bulb conveniently at the big box stores. I haven’t yet upgraded to the full spectrum white lights.

My succulents and tropicals have been fine under the “blurple” lights. I have three 4’ lights with six bulbs to cover all my plants.

 

[ShadyStump]

Yeah, I find the blurples to be plenty if you're not expecting active growth. They're great for maintaining your trees over winter.
Like @Carol 83, mine are in a main living space, so something closer to full spectrum is much more appreciated.

 

[Colorado]

Well, this was a fun tree. I really liked it a lot.

Shockingly, it turns out that Colorado is a pretty tough place to grow tropicals. The summer is great, but the fall, winter, and spring are a struggle. For that reason, I ended up selling this tree. It’s going to live in Florida, where I think it will be very happy

Good times! Cheers!

2021


2023