Ikea growing lights

[bonsan]

Hi,

I'm looking for a way to keep a Ficus Microcarpa actively growing indoors for the coming winter.

Has anyone tried the Ikea growing lights, such as the E27 10W Vaxer led bulp which can be mounted in an old work lamp?

Kind regards, Bonsan

 

[Paradox]

I use a shop light with daylight flourscent bulbs in it. My ficus and BRT grow all winter. I took a willow leaf ficus from a 1/4 inch trunk to a 1 inch trunk in 2 years under those lights for 7 months and outside 5 months.

 

[cbroad]

Honestly, don't even mess with it, one bulb isn't going to induce any vigor in your tree. Stay away from any bulb that fits a standard screw base (incandescent). Like @Paradox said, use fluorescents (2 bulbs minimum, but 4 are better), I recommended 4' bulbs but if you don't have the space, you can use 2' bulbs. The fixtures and bulbs are pretty cheap. I use a 4', 4 bulb t5 HO (high output) fixture and bulbs. I highly recommend a high output fixture, my ficus is kicking ass

Good luck!

 

[bonsan]

Thank you for your replies, much appreciated! Could you perhaps include the full units with your answers (such as feet, inches and watts) so I can convert them into SI units for my reference?

I'm located in Central Europe, btw.

-Bonsan

 

[cbroad]

Just looked your bulb up, it says 400 lumen output. A single standard 40w 4' fluorescent bulb puts out around 2,500 lumens. With 4 tubes you could have 10,000 lumens. A 4' 4 tube HO puts out 20,000 lumens. Seriously consider fluorescents...

 

[bonsan]

So I gather that normal screw in led bulbs are no good, eh?

 

[bonsan]

@cbroad at which distance?

 

[bonsan]

Ikea specifies that a distance of 1 feet to the plants is to be maintained.

 

[cbroad]

2 feet=24 inches=.6096 meters=60.96 centimeters
4 feet=48 inches=1.2192 meters= 121.92 centimeters

Typically, they don't have enough light output, the exception would be the compact fluorescents that fit a typical incandescent base but I'm not sure what the output is for those, but for vigor you'll still need more than one bulb.

Any of the fluorescents could be kept within 3-7 cm but the HO ones will burn if kept that close. The light output decreases pretty fast as the distance increases from the plant, so the closer to the top of the plant the better but you'll sacrifice the amount of area illuminated.

 

[Paradox]

Thank you for your replies, much appreciated! Could you perhaps include the full units with your answers (such as feet, inches and watts) so I can convert them into SI units for my reference?

I'm located in Central Europe, btw.

-Bonsan

My fixtures are a 4 foot shop light that holds 3 32 watt T8 bulbs that are 6700K. I have 2 of them hung on a bracket I made to keep them together so 6 bulbs total. There are pictures somewhere on this site.

I have to constantly keep trimming my Brazilian rain trees under those lights. My ficus grow all winter. They grow a bit slower than the BRT so don't need constant trimming

@cbroad Edit, here is a thread where I posted my winter set up

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/winter-lighting.26038/#post-418030

 

[cbroad]

Sorry my mistake, the bulb you're talking about is 800 lumens but my recommendation is still the same

 

[cbroad]

@Paradox
T8

 

[cbroad]

@Paradox
I wish I had anything that looked that good under lights or sun!!!

Here's my setup as of last February:

IMG_20170213_151014

• cbroad
• Feb 14, 2017

And a shameless or shameful plug of my ficus kicking ass, but I never told Bonsan that I cheated...
httpsw.bonsainut.com/threads/ficus-experiment.27965/

 

[Paradox]

@Paradox
I wish I had anything that looked that good under lights or sun!!!
/

Thanks for the kind words.
Keep working at it, you'll get there.

Those ones you have look very healthy. That's half the battle.

 

[Fishtank307]

I just bought a new lighting system for my paludarium (sort of relevant...): 2x 75W t5, 10 080 lumen in total. I grew some ficus cuttings in the enclosure and the growth has been spectacular! Also very short internodes. I think the high humidity plays a significant role in their growth btw...

 

[JoeR]

my paludarium

Oooh got any pictures?

 

[bonsan]

so, is anyone other than me sick and tired of easy solutions not working out?

 

[JoeR]

so, is anyone other than me sick and tired of easy solutions not working out?

These work amazing for high light coral, maybe they'd work for an easy solution too if you got a couple? There's blue ones, red ones, white ones, mixtures, all sorts of ones to choose one from so you'd have to figure out what would work best. They work amazing on my SW reef tabks.

https://www.amazon.com/ABI-Aquarium-Light-10000K-Actinic/dp/B073V64KC9?th=1&psc=1

 

[bonsan]

Here is my current "set up". Im trying to root these ficus cuttings.

 

[JoeR]

Here is my current "set up". Im trying to root these ficus cuttings.
View attachment 161707

That's the exact lamp I use for my tank too... ikea is life lol