Good stuff! Please keep us posted as to how the cuttings do. I am very interested in vegetative propagation under lights My aluminum T5's were too expensive to simply replace. When more lights are needed I'll certainly be looking into these UFOs. Do they come in different color combinations?

Thanks for all the work you have done posting pictures and documenting your results,

Barbara

Yes, they do. All of them have red and blue (of slightly different wavelengths), since plants love red and blue and because it just so happens that those are the most efficient LED colors. The next most common color to see is orange, as orange can stimulate carotenoid/antioxidant production (although it doesn't provide the growth efficiency of red and blue). A couple UFOs throw in some random other stuff like white or yellow or green, but from the research I've read, that seems really counterproductive. Yellow and green, for example, are not only extremely inefficient colors for LEDs, and for photosynthesis, but one study I ran into showed that they actually retard lettuce growth. And white LEDs are just blue LEDs with a phosphor, so you're wasting energy (the phosphor) to make frequencies that are generally less useful to your plants.

My okra cutting -- the one that went into the "hospital" first -- has proven that it's fully healed. Its leaves are growing and I don't need to keep its pot in standing water anymore. I'm trying to decide whether to go ahead and plant it or just grow it as indoor okra ;) One of my geranium cuttings is flowering, but I'm not willing to give them a clean bill of health until I see new leaf development. The sorriest thing I put in the "hospital" was a muskmelon, which I think most people would have called dead -- leaves completely limp after sitting out in the sun after its stalk broke, perhaps an hour away from having them sticking to the stalk. They've really filled back out in their humidity bag, so tomorrow or so I'll probably remove their bag. I also have two rubber tree cuttings in there. They're no real challenge, though, since they store lots of water and energy.

Your a wealth of information Karen...this is great!
My sister, an orchid enthusiast, would love these lights as they obviously promote blooming. Is it my imagination, or are you getting some really early flowering with these UFOs?

I'm propagating conifers, so green growth (and roots!) are wanted. Do you feel the UFOs provide a good light quality for cutting propagation? What kind of light distribution are you finding, as in "growable" square feet?

Thanks!

Barbara

Sure seems early to me. My pumpkin bloomed crazy early, and the pepper seems pretty young, too.

I haven't lost a cutting indoors so far, although I've only been propagating cuttings with them for a couple weeks now. But, as I mentioned, the okra has my seal of approval as "fully recovered", since it's leaves are very clearly growing again and it doesn't need standing water any more, and the others all seem to be doing quite well.

In case it matters, I'm rooting them with rooting hormone powder (although the okra didn't have it), leaf-bagging in the early stages (for humidity), standing water at the bottom of the pot only (so the pot stays constantly moist but not flooded); and a custom potting mix (I'm experimenting with using nothing but insulation vermiculite -- not horticultural -- and osmacote)

Checking back, hoping for an update...How is the experiment progressing?

Barbara

PS one of my t5's bit the dust so it may be time to start watching eBay!

Here's an update on the chamber.

* Pepper plant: They got infested with some kind of white bug that eats roots :P Right after they started setting fruit, too! Oh, and to top it off, somehow a caterpillar got into its leaves and was eating one. :P I ended up pyrethrin'ing the root bugs and I picked off the caterpillar, but not after the plant had lost all its lower leaves due to water stress. I transplanted it into a bigger pot -- I want it to have all the room it could want for reestablishing a good root system. But all in all, that probably set me back a week or two. Oh well... It has about two dozen buds/flowers in various stages of opening and two or three set peppers.

* My coffee seedlings, which all nearly died outdoors and I expected a very low survival rate on (their seed leaves had turned about 80% brown and crisp), have had literally a 100% rate of putting out true leaves under the grow lights, and most are working on their second set. Yeay! So I still own a veritable plantation, perhaps 50 plants. (anyone want to trade something for kona coffee seedlings? ;) )

* Okra plant is getting ready to flower. I've decided not to transplant it outdoors, but to just keep growing it in the grow room to see how it compares to my outdoor okra.

* Two more plants have come out of the cutting tray: both of my geraniums have started putting on true leaves, meaning that they're no longer in damage-control mode, but have moved on to regrowth. So I now have two clones of my geranium. :)

* My nearly-dead muskmelon (it was outdoors and snapped in half from strong winds, and then exposed to the sun for several hours before I found it) that I tried to save via rooting never did root, so I took it out. The same goes with two cutworm-cut corn seedlings I tried to save. Oh well. If I had gotten to them sooner, the results probably would have been different.

* My rubber plant cuttings are still in the cutting tray -- no signs of dying but no signs of new growth yet either. I imagine they're still working on those roots.

* My eggplant is getting ready to flower. I moved it to a larger pot. It's such a beautiful plant; I'm just so proud of it! :) I should do a photo shoot of it. I love the leaf spines.

* I started a tray of lettuce seedlings for a challenge. They're looking great, at least so far. :) Also new is some cat grass and oriental poppies.

* Because I wanted some indoors, I potted up some broccoli and cinnamon basil and moved them under the grow lights. I also took some tomato cuttings to root, but that's just too easy; tomato cuttings will root if you look at them funny ;)

* I'm going to be getting some Thuja plicata seeds soon, so it should be interesting to see how a conifer likes my LED grow setup.

HI karenrei,
Since you are having so much fun with LED's it might be challenging to try stretched out "pulsing" of the light exposure.
Light on & light off apparently make the leaves' renewed photon response more dramatic, instead of steady passive adaptation to wavelengths.
Make 'em work at photosynthesis & apparently it's for their own good.

dude try this site
college agriculture information on pest in garden and house plants

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef406.asp

now it says use soapy water on broad leaf, my grandma always had me periodically runaround soaping all her plants even the garden and house plants, broad leaves or not.