Indoor Setup for Tropicals?

[dbonsaiw]

Looking out at my bare (and unramified) deciduous trees, I'd like to expand my bonsai experience into tropical species. What kind of indoor setup do I need for this to be successful? I have a grow tent that could accommodate enough trees for the time being, but is that needed/preferred?

Could I simply use grow lights with no tent? If I build display boxes with grow lights to hang on the wall would that work? If so, I could even rationalize more trees with the wifey as "home decor".

 

[Gabler]

I keep a handful of ficus trees in a dark room with only a $40 Amazon gooseneck grow lamp thing. It’s a glorified desk lamp with four palm-sized arrays of LED chips, one per adjustable neck.

They’re just cuttings I’m growing out, but they’re growing like weeds, about a half inch per week with reasonably tight internodes. They’ll get full sun in the summer and grow much faster. They get fertilizer year-round.

Anyway, my point is that you don’t need a “setup” to grow tropicals. You can just set a ficus next to a south-facing window and turn it occasionally. Heck, an east-facing window should work just fine.

 

[LittleDingus]

It depends on what you want out of them. If you want to see/display them over winter months, better lighting...taking into consideration its impact on living space...would be warranted. Otherwise, a tent or corner of a basement/little used room could suffice.

I have a large corner of my basement with bright grow lights for the bulk of my stuff. I have a set of shelves with dimmer (in a living space) grow lights in my kitchen for things I like to keep closer tabs on...usually things that flower or that need more attention to avoid issues...like seedlings. And I have a couple of gooseneck grow lamps in places like my desk for viewing. I'm thinking about making a display cabinet as well.

Do not discount how harsh grow lights can be in a living space and plan accordingly: angle them away from wandering eyeballs

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

Looking out at my bare (and unramified) deciduous trees, I'd like to expand my bonsai experience into tropical species. What kind of indoor setup do I need for this to be successful? I have a grow tent that could accommodate enough trees for the time being, but is that needed/preferred?

Could I simply use grow lights with no tent? If I build display boxes with grow lights to hang on the wall would that work? If so, I could even rationalize more trees with the wifey as "home decor".

I have my tropicals in a spare bedroom with two SF1000 lights hanging from the ceiling, and a lighted plant stand with T8 grow lights. After having it for a few months I'm getting getting really good growth, on quite a few plants. The plant stands T8 grow lights seem to be performing better for me than the SF1000. It's close but noticeable.

Here's a thread about it.
Lighted plant stand

 

[Paradox]

Looking out at my bare (and unramified) deciduous trees, I'd like to expand my bonsai experience into tropical species. What kind of indoor setup do I need for this to be successful? I have a grow tent that could accommodate enough trees for the time being, but is that needed/preferred?

Could I simply use grow lights with no tent? If I build display boxes with grow lights to hang on the wall would that work? If so, I could even rationalize more trees with the wifey as "home decor".

They will do better under proper lights than in a window.

I have my tropicals on tables in my basement under 4 foot shop lights with daylight florescent bulbs. I don't use any kind of humidity tent.

There are tons of threads and discussions here about winter setups for tropicals. Do a search, you'll find plenty of pictures of people's setups

 

[penumbra]

I can't see that you have even decided on what tropicals you ant to keep. That my friend, should be the first question. Everything else follows.
Also ask yourself, Do I want to hold these plants until they can go outside, or do I want to grow and develop these trees inside only. These are the things that determine my indoor plant set ups.

 

[Carol 83]

I keep my tropicals (which I have way too many of) in my kitchen. They are on nice plant stands that makes it a little more acceptable to my husband, under T8 lights. The sun lovers get the southern exposure of my patio doors, the others get the eastern exposure windows, but still do fine.

 

[sevan]

I bring my tropicals in for the winter and keep them on wire shelves with some cheap grow lights. They are in my sunroom next to a south facing window, so they get some bonus sunlight. However, I do not provide humidity or extra airflow, so they are at about 45% humidity with only circulating air from the heater.

With that setup, my tiger bark ficus, ficus phillipensis, and port afra seem reasonably content. My willow leaf ficus, harlandii boxwood, and Brazilian ironwoods are surviving, but clearly hate the low humidity. Last year I also had issues with powdery mildew, likely caused by the still air.

So, I would say if you would like to setup a nice indoor display to enjoy, pick species that will do well in the environment you will provide. Alternatively, if you use a grow tent with good lighting, a fan, and manage the humidity and temperature properly, then you can probably keep whatever kind of tropical plants that interest you.

 

[luvinthemountains]

If you opt for a decent-sized grow tent with venting to the room, consider getting a dehumidifier to prevent moisture damage to your paint, furniture, etc. I have a bunch of tropical bonsai and prebonsai in two 4'W x 2'D x 6'H grow tents in my garage, and my dehumidifier is pulling several gallons of water out of the air every week.

 

[Thegrants82]

AeroGarden grow light

 

[MrFancyPlants]

My setup is not required, but the LED hydro setup works pretty well for me, driving growth, and being hands free enough to take winter vacations, not having to worry about the health of the trees. Ah, and not a spider mite to be seen since I switched to this setup. I think the humidity and moving air (cpu fan) keeps them away.

 

[jradics]

Looking out at my bare (and unramified) deciduous trees, I'd like to expand my bonsai experience into tropical species. What kind of indoor setup do I need for this to be successful? I have a grow tent that could accommodate enough trees for the time being, but is that needed/preferred?

Could I simply use grow lights with no tent? If I build display boxes with grow lights to hang on the wall would that work? If so, I could even rationalize more trees with the wifey as "home decor".

Lowes and Home Depot sell a big plastic tray for under washing machines. I taped (using foil backed tape) up the hole and use two of them to contain the mess under my many tropicals all winter

 

[Carol 83]

Could I simply use grow lights with no tent?

Yes. I overwinter mine on regular plant stands with full spectrum LED lights .

 

[Ian_P]

Does anyone spray their tropical trees with anything when they bring them in to winter from outside?

 

[Paradox]

Does anyone spray their tropical trees with anything when they bring them in to winter from outside?

I never have. Neem is kind of stinky and I dont want that smell in the house. Plus I don't know how BRT and Ficus would respond to that treatment.

I do usually get some scale on my ficus during the winter. When that happens, I spay them every 2 weeks with a soap, rubbing alcohol and water mixture (2 tbs, half a cup, quart - need to add alcohol each time you spray, it evaporates) for 2 months to make sure I get through the scale life cycle and that usually takes care of it.

 

[Ian_P]

My current set up.

 

[Badge30]

My BRTs in for the winter.

 

[Carol 83]

Does anyone spray their tropical trees with anything when they bring them in to winter from outside?

I do. I spray everything with Bayer 3-1 a week or so before I plan on bringing them inside.

 

[Lorax7]

Does anyone spray their tropical trees with anything when they bring them in to winter from outside?

I haven’t always sprayed them, but in recent years I have. I spray with either Neem or with a horticultural oil (a.k.a. dormant spray). I don’t do it immediately before bringing them in though. As others have said, Neem is stinky, so I give it a few days between the last application and when the trees come in. I try to spray twice with a couple weeks between applications.

I have found that my Albizia saman doesn’t like Neem, so I will not spray that one with it again. Ficus tolerate Neem just fine.

 

[Lorax7]

Could I simply use grow lights with no tent? If I build display boxes with grow lights to hang on the wall would that work? If so, I could even rationalize more trees with the wifey as "home decor".

Yes, it’ll work without a tent. I don’t have one. I just have my trees on plant racks in the basement. I have seen photos of someone else’s setup where they have their tropical trees inside dry aquariums used as display boxes in their living space and that works quite well as home decor.

Here’s my setup:

I have the wire racks sitting inside the shallow plastic tubs that they make for mixing concrete so excess water collects in the tub instead of spilling on the floor. I use immersion watering for my indoor trees, so I have another rack off to the side with a plastic storage tub on top of it filled with RO water with a bit of Miracle Grow in it, so I can dunk my trees (and do it at waist level).