bringin' the lophies in fa winter...

[philistine]

hey all,

Ive recently set up a small grow room with a 400watt Metal Halide globe with the intention of keeping my grafts (lophs on various Trichs.) and other warmer climate friends happy and awake over winter.

Anyone got any experience with this sort of thing?

Ive got them on an 18/6 light cycle and they're roughly >1 meter away from the light. Average temp (at that level) seems to sit between 22c and 26c...

How my doin so far?

[ 19. May 2005, 04:08: Message edited by: philistine ]

[2b]

I read (maybe here ?) that Lophs can get 24 hr light with above average results ? Don't know about the power bill though

[apothecary]

I don't see why they couldn't, but I'd rather give 'em a few hours rest, better safe than sorry when it comes to lophs

Salvi is the person you should be talking to about this anyway.

[Trip Dr]

Not the most useful info, but i saw an episode of John Safran vs god the other week where he went and joined up with this peyote church in the us. They had a massive hydro setup chockas with lophs, didnt give any growing details though...

[apothecary]

trip dr, that wasn't a hydro setup. It was soil with pebbles on top.

I didn't think their setup was all that impressive, I've definitely seen bigger loph farms than theirs.

What annoyed me about the Peyote Way church was that they felt they needed to grow their stuff indoors, instead of propagating it in the appropriate area that surrounded them. I mean I understand if there is a Peyote Way church in England or something and they need to grow indoors there, but these guys were in Lophophoras natural habitat!

[ 19. May 2005, 05:13: Message edited by: apothecary ]

[Trip Dr]

I stand corrected! Goes to show how little i know, i just saw what looked like clay balls and assumed hydro. Damn if i walked into that room with all those lophs id be pretty impressed anyway, but im easily impressed

[philistine]

Im not too fussed about the power bill. Having a computer and associated gadjets on 24/7 would be roughly the same wattage if not more...

But my main concern is the distance between the plants and the lights..

Since they've been in there, the colour has changed from a vivid green similar to a pachanoi to what seems like a more grey/blue-ish hue... Maybe this is a good thing? They don't seem to be getting red/purple like they do when they're sunburnt....

Re; the John Saffran episode

I was thinking the same thing with that farm... That is why grow in an enclosure when your in they're native habitat anyway.

maybe they just didn't want to show the real stash on camera ;-)

That guy who said he became pychic was muse...

[ 19. May 2005, 11:08: Message edited by: philistine ]

[_e_]

yep ive had plenty of success with increasnig growth rate via longer light hours and intense artificial light..

however ive since changed light regime to 16hr on dual spectrum and the growth rateis a lot slower then at 24 on 10 off with hps...

and i noticed a more grey blue colour, however it was accompanied by a firming off which defnately signalled positive growth...

Apoth- where have u seen bigger loph farms?

u must be hard to impress.

peace

***E***

[Gunter]

Aren't Trichocereus CAM plants? I can't get them to grow under 24/7 lighting, they need a dark period to breathe.

Wouldn't a graft need at least 4-6 hours dark for best results?

Are Loph species CAM too? I would imagine so.

That means that they open their stomata at night and then obtain carbon dioxide for use during the light cycle, which they then store in the form of various organic acids for use during the day.

This is a stategy to avoid having the stomata open when the heat of the sun would promote evaporation. Instead they can 'breathe' in the night air which is more humid and cooler.

The best way to see though is to try for yourself and see what your own results are.

The set up you are using sounds good and 18/6 sounds nice. I have had great results with many types of succulents with an 18/6-16/8 light/dark range.

Also the red/purple is a sign of intense light but it is not a sunburn, I have seen it on seedlings growing well about 30cm from 40W fluorescent tubes and it is common on younger plants.

In my experiance a real sunburn results in ugly scar tissue on the plant that is actual irreversable physical damage and not just a pigment response.

Plants can produce the pigment and grow quite well, though if they produce it and don't grow then that is a problem.

[Salvi]

 

quote:

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Since they've been in there, the colour has changed from a vivid green similar to a pachanoi to what seems like a more grey/blue-ish hue

---

Could it be that it's just the light's different spectrum making them look this way?

I really have no experience growing any lophs, so I can't help too much here. However, if you have any sun loving plants, I would put those in the center under the light and arrange your lophs and other plants that don't like full sun around the edges. That way you can make use of the dimmer light off to the sides.

I think a meter to start off sounds like a pretty good starting point.

An 18/6 cycle is what I like to use, although I've used a 24 hour light cycle on stuff like tomatoes with good results. I can't say I've tried the 24 hours of light on cacti yet.

Oh, and don't forget to put up some reflective walls if you don't have any. (Flat white paint or mylar is best)

Good luck

[teonanacatl]

yeah cacti are cam plants so they need dark, though it would be interesting to see if they needed dark or just dim, contrary to popular belief the dark cycle (calvin cycle) does need light to work, so a little light and it miht be great.

[philistine]

Cheers guys, most helpful!

Salvi:

quote:

---

Could it be that it's just the light's different spectrum making them look this way?

---

Yeah, that did make them a little different, but after about a week the lophs themselves seem to have chanegd a bit...

I'll try and take some photos, one of them looks really impressive, it doubled in size in 2 months.... another one just seems like a grumpy old man and just looks sick all the time... still grows slowly though...

Ive got seedlings under some fluro tubes that are on 24/7 but they've only been there for a few days, still trying to work out how close they can be to the light as well, so I don't know how well thats working...

But with the older plants and the grafts, I like to think they need a bit of rest...

But who can say, they've already been cut off from the ground, frankensteined and shoved under High Intensity articial lights

and they're still going strong... Im sure a little 24/7 light couldn't be too bad for a short period.

The whole plan is to get them to a decent size then cut them off and plant them in soil for a few years and just leave them alone to sleep and grow slowly.

[Rev]

They love artificial lights

but they love the heat provided by them even more

if you coud mainatin a dry heat with any source then there is no nee d for HID lighting

fluoros or High intensity fluorescents now available at grow shops will do just fine for light

the blue grey stuff is sunscreen

nothing to worry about its a good sign

give them a chance to warm up and get actie for a couple weeks befeor starting to fertilise with 1/4 strenthgh liquid fert - not organic cos it enciurages moulds and rots indoors - even out

i never use organic ferts on my mineral soil cacti only on the wet zone species

(i retract that - i ONLY use dilute seaweed emulsion on them at the end of the peak outdoor growth season to tone them and the soil up)

[ 22. May 2005, 17:09: Message edited by: Rev ]