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Have any one try grow light in so cal?

James-hoon
12 years ago

I live in zone 9a(Moreno valley), I believe, but kind of cooler area (at night) than those of orange or LA county. So from what I see I lost about a month of growth period during early spring(in my area still too cold). I'm wondering if I use grow light at night for just couple months will that help all my fruit trees. And also what kind of light do I use? Will solar flood light good enough?

Comments (6)

  • newgen
    12 years ago

    Last winter, I used a metal halide grow light in my garage, all the trees showed good growth. Under the light, I had plumerias, papayas, jack fruits, and some other odds and ends. The key is to also water them, as the light can dry them out. I used a timer to have the light on 12 hours per day, at night time. The reason for my choosing to have light on at night, is to also provide heat.

  • James-hoon
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    But my set up gonna be outdoor, because I dot really need to move any of my plants into garage. I plan to use light for my mangos, cherimoya persimmon, and longan, if the light gonna help them go faster in order to have enough time to bloom and set fruit.

  • nullzero
    12 years ago

    You want to use a HPS a 400watt or 600watt should do. You could do the LED route, the LED grow light UFOs are ebay are pretty good if you get a good model. If you go the LED route you want to use at least 300watts of LED lights.

  • ThuyHieu
    12 years ago

    Hi everyone. I live in zone 6 (Utah) and now I start to move all of my tropical fruits trees inside the house, i'm looking for the grow light to help my tropical trees, can you suggest what kind of grow light that i need? (I grow June plum, guava, barbados cherry, and sugar apple) I'm a new grower, not so experiences with plants, but I love tropical fruits so much. Please helpppp

  • samuelforest
    12 years ago

    I suggest you to buy at least a 600w metal halide kit with a bulb of the color spectrum of 6500k for you trees and when the trees will begin to bloom you'll need a hps conversion bulb or just a normal hps if it is a swithtable ballast to help bloom and fruit formation.If you don't want your electric bill go up I suggest you to buy a 90w UFO led lights for each tree.The las option is fluorescents bulbs ,but these are weaker in terms of liight power and you'll need a lot of these for your trees ,so these are my suggestion.

    P.S.I have a mallika mango tree in a pot under a 400w mh 12 hours per day and he's doing wonderful.

  • newgen
    12 years ago

    thuyhieu: I used my metal halide system for a couple months. The whole system is for sale, if you're interested. I'll be coming to Brian Head in December 2011, and can bring it for you.