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| I live in nyc- zone 6-7ish- I plan on growing a whole bunch of tropical fruit plants (lychee, mango, citrus, mangosteen, pommegranate,and maybe a couple more) in my garage. They will only be in the garage for the winter- for the remaining 7-8 monthsd of the year, they will be outdoors.
I plan on heating the garage with gas heating, and lighting the garage with 2 or maybe 3 x 1000w superspectrum lighting systems on a mechanized track. (see link below) I will probably also obtain a misting machine, to provide humidity for the plants.
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Here is a link that might be useful: super spectrum lighting
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Sounds like lot's of light. It's difficult to say, depending on total reflectivity of the garage environment. dcarch |
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- Posted by lycheeluva (My Page) on Fri, Dec 28, 07 at 9:47
| dcarch- what I really meant to ask, is, can artificial light ever be sufficient to grow tropical fruit trees- or will it always require supplementation by natural sunlight, regardless of the amount of artificial sunlight utilized? |
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- Posted by shrubs_n_bulbs z8/9 UK (My Page) on Fri, Dec 28, 07 at 9:58
| You can grow anything you want using only artificial light. Whether to glass over your garage is a difficult question. Natural light is free, you would probably be able to overwinter your trees without any artificial light at all, although they wouldn't grow much or flower. Heating would be more difficult since glass is not a good insulator. You would need less artifical light but would lose some through the glass and would be lighting up half the neighbourhood. And you would have a greenhouse for summer! Don't just look at cost of any construction, look at the total costs. Lighting would cost you best part of a thousand bucks to buy, plus about $150/month to run them. Building a greenhouse is chicken-feed compared to that. |
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| You don't need a mechanized track. Just properly placed lamps, I would use Gavita 600W HPS supplemented with regular 400W 4000K pulse start metal halides; halides should be mounted in Adjust-A-Wing reflector (now available for reasonable best offer on ebay) for nice even spread and overlap with the HPS. You should have no problem. No need for windows, they'll just lost heat and probably not add a significant amount of light either. You can buy the Chinese Gavita which works just as well as the regular Gavita from HTG supply. I think Gavita actually oursources to China anyway. I use Gavita lamps and they're fantastic for reflector efficiency, even light spread, and high output, so you don't need mechanized tracks or movers, save your money, but the proper lamps (which are also pretty reasonable, electronic metal halide ballast from Lumen Lab, $125 each, adjust a wing reflectors - whatever you can bargain for, Reflectorized lamps - totally kick butt. ) Paul Mozarowski. |
Here is a link that might be useful: 600w Gavita lamp, also check Rambridge for specs
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- Posted by lycheeluva 6/7 (My Page) on Sun, Dec 30, 07 at 8:59
| Thanks paul. please can you e-mail me your contact details so i can talk to you about your suggestion a little further. my email address is grunsfeld at gmail. many thanks |
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- Posted by mayeendu2013 none (My Page) on Thu, Feb 21, 13 at 9:50
| Sounds good that you are growing plant |
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- Posted by mayeendu2013 none (My Page) on Fri, Feb 22, 13 at 9:09
| Hi lycheeluva , like indoor sunshine. KenkoLight® II provides full-spectrum, balanced light that replicates sunlight �" the natural form of light that helps human beings to thrive. Evidence suggests that regular exposure to broad-spectrum light can promote a healthy, normal sleep/wake cycle. Did you try it? |
Here is a link that might be useful: Full Spectrum Light
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