No subject

[Arisaema Enthusiast Group (AEG) Discussion List (and other=]

hardy  Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL> Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
Sender: "Arisaema Enthusiast Group (AEG) Discussion List (and other=
From: Marge Talt <mtalt at CLARK.NET>
Subject: Re: Growing under 24 hour lights
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transf er-Encoding: 7bit

Well, haven't grown Arisaema under lights, but have grown seedlings
of other plants that way.

Second the motion for you to start weaning them from those humidity
domes...think you will need to do this gradually.  Simply removing
the domes could put them in shock....like crack them or lift an edge
and over a week or so open them more and more until they are off.  If
you think the air in your basement is too dry - and if it is heated,
it will be - then set the pots on trays of gravel that you keep
topped up with water just to below the top of the gravel - you don't
want the pots sitting in water.  That will raise the humidity around
the pots and foliage.

You may want to run a fan - plain old box fan will do - to increase
air circulation.  Run it on low.  Slight breezes help to toughen
stems plus good air circulation helps ward off disease problems.  You
just need to watch so pots don't dry out on you.

Trick to growing seedlings under shop lights like that is to make
sure the lights are close enough to the plants to provide them with
high enough light levels.  You can do this by lowering the lights or
raising the plants up.  As the plants grow, you either raise the
lights or lower the plants so that the lights are about a foot above
the foliage.

Your A. flavum are stretching because they aren't getting enough
light.  Not a light engineer, but I know that artificial light,
except from those very high intensity lights used by indoor marijuana
growers, is much less intense than outdoor light in a very shaded
area, so you have to get the plants close to the light source.  Even
most plants who grow naturally in shady areas outside need high
levels of light indoors to stay compact.

If these are growing up against a wall, you can cover the wall with
aluminum foil to help increase light reflectivity.  You can also
drape foil off the shop lights like a tent if they're out in the
middle of the room.   You also want to make sure your lamps are new -
fluorescent lamps tend to dim with age.  Regular cool white lamps are
fine.  You may need to shift the pots periodically so the ones at the
ends are moved to the center - ends of lamps put out less light than
the center of the tube.  The plants will tell you if you need to do
this by leaning toward the center of the light tube if they are on
the ends.

Once danger of frost is past, start hardening them off by taking them
outside in a shady area for a few hours a day - lengthening the
period over a week or so and then leaving them outside and moving
them to a place where they get bright light - some morning sun is
good - and you can keep an eye on the pots so they don't dry out.

Even if they get a tad leggy and floppy, they will do fine, you just
have to be careful as stretched stems are pretty fragile.


Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt at clark.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
-----------------------------------------------
Current Article: Online Nurseries 2001 - Weird Dude's Plant Zoo
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/shade_gardening
------------------------------------------------
Complete Index of Articles by Category and Date
http://mtalt.hort.net/article-index.html
------------------------------------------------
All Suite101.com garden topics :
http://www.suite101.com/topics.cfm/635

----------
> From: Chris Wilhoite <chriswil at INDY.NET>
> Does anyone have any experience in growing arisaema seed under 24
hour shoplights? I currently have five or six varieties under 48-inch
flourescent shoplights in my basement and I wonder about the results.
They germinated in paper towels and are now in clear plastic humidity
domes and doing fine. The only thing I have noticed is that the first
ones up (A. flavum) are getting a bit leggy. Anyone care to comment
on this approach, or does anyone have any recommendations?
> --
> Chris Wilhoite
> Carmel, IN
> USDA Zone 5