Wow! I guess I was fortunate that my plants weren't quite that big yet while in my grow room. Some plants were closer than others of course...3-5 feet. I believe that plants will handle it fine if you move them under the light in a slow fashion...nothing hasty. Give them time to acclimate.

Have you discussed cold protection with anyone from the Cloudforest forum? Someone in your area may be trying to grow mangos as well and has learned some valuable lessons. My take is that you forget about the light and worry about protecting the plants. I am not running the light inside the greenhouse at this time. I just throw my arms up to the gods and yell for more winter sun!

As for losing plants, maybe Eggo can throw in some suggestions as to what he is doing to protect his plants this year. Cause we all know HE IS GOING TO PROTECT THEM THIS YEAR! Right Eggo???

Alone in the greenhouse, the metal halide light kept the temps around 60 degrees all night long, when it was 36 degrees outside, running the light from 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM..The hydroponics shop owner suggested this, who sold me the light. ItÂs dark from 5:00PM to 8:00 PM, still warm from the day, so the plants have a necessary dark period. The light did better at keeping things warm than the little electric heater I used two years ago. The ceiling above the light stayed cool, a 12" space, with just the slightest warmth on the pole. I moved all the frost sensitive plants inside yesterday. Now the DomHaus is stuffed full of plumeria, epiphillium, a few tropicals, and the mangos. Last night it still held the temps all night, again 36 degrees outside, from 60 degrees on the floor, to 115 on the tops of the mango trees, around 15 inches from the bulb. The leaves were hot, but didnÂt seem to burn. However, Ice Cream is a foot taller than the other mangos, is going through a growth spurt, and would be right up next to the light bulb, once itÂs repotted out of its three gallon pot. People have posted that Ice Cream is a slow, mildew challenged tree, but this one is quite the opposite. Hope I can keep it that way.
OhioJay, I just read your post. Thanks for your fast response. Too late to give the mangos a slow move. You said the mangos thrived on the heat, so they had plenty of that last night.

You can always throw some of that flexible screen over the plants. I use the soft screen material that you would use to replace an old screen door. It's light and a couple of bamboo rods will keep it off the plants. It should keep the leaf temp down too.

That's really cool that the light keeps the temps up for you like that. Double duty! I remember how hot the upstairs got when I ran that light. It was really really hot up there.

Well...obviously this will get you thru this winter and obviously yet again is that you will have to plan something different for next year. Good luck.

I have a 400 watt halide and my mango was within 3 feet, If I'd known about the 1000 watt, I would have kept it closer!
Now it's outside. :o)

it sounds scary to have that,what if it explodes.I keep reptiles and always have the fear of the high wattage lights exploding.

Thank you everyone for your responses. It still worried me that the light might get too hot for the mangos, especially since the outside temperature only went down to fifty last night, so I bought a 6 foot rail system for the new light. It wasnÂt as expensive as I feared, and moves the light back and forth every twenty minutes, "imitating a natural sun path", covers more than twice the previous area. That way it wonÂt get so hot in one place, above or below. The seller at the local hydroponics store advised to duct tape the tract to the main horizontal pole of the DomHaus, since the mounting screws wonÂt really work there. I hope this works. It sounds too good to be true.
Also, I figured I could dig a hole for the larger tree, and sink it as low as necessary to even itÂs height up with the others. An advantage of a dirt floor temporary greenhouse.
I have to move the trees out to install the track today, so might as well leave them outside for another week. Temps in the 50s, upper 40s, even rain ahead.
Is there any way to do a "Search" on the Cloudforest forum? I went there yesterday, couldnÂt find "Search", and donÂt want to re-post if someone has posted the information already.
The light exploding doesnÂt worry me. It should be okay, as long as it stays dry. I put a double layer of heavy, clear plastic tarp over the DomHaus. My ex-husband used to make and bottle his own beer. Those bottles would go off like a hand grenade, a real hazard.

Nice idea with the light mover. I was just looking at them this morning myself. Which brand/model did you purchase? If you don't mind, please explain how this is setup. I know you can buy extension pieces for the rail but I wonder how far it is possible to make it travel? It has to plug into one spot and then have anough slack in the cord to travel the entire distance if you expand. My other questions was where does that really heave ballast sit now? That's another cord that has to be accounted for.

Digging a hole for the larger plants is a good idea. I would make it deep enough and backfill with some gravel so the container isn't sitting in any water after a good watering. I have all clay and did this with my plumeria. Almost killed it! Thanks, J

hello Altadenamara,
I live in Bakersfield (Z9)and am trying to grow mangoes, I dont have any grow lights though. So far I've a Lancetilla (condo mango)in a pot in my greenhouse. A Valencia Pride in the ground suffering through my espalier attempts, I'm just finishing the costruction of it's GH too. In addition, I've two seedlings with interesting growth traits. I plan on using large-bulbed Christmas lights for heating, if that is not enough, perhaps I'll add a 100w drop light. So far we've only been down to 37f this year.

Another tip, dont use cold hose water for watering, luke warm. My opinion, only use ferts when the mango is growing.

Hey Jay,
they make ballast mover that runs back and forth on a track and ones that rotate in a circular pattern. This allows for two lights to be used, sometimes to increase the spectrum (MH & HPS). They even make water jacketed bulbs and CO2 dribblers to try to relieve some of the heat.

-Ethan

Thanks Ethan, when I researched, I found nothing at all pertaining to the ballast. My light has an 8 foot cord that runs to the ballast and then the ballast gets plugged into an outlet. None of the normal movers looked like they had the specs to carry the weight of the ballast. I need to see a setup of this.

There werenÂt a lot of choices in grow light movers at the Hydroponics store, so I bought HydrofarmÂs Light Track. The light attaches to a special heavy metal clip, and a chain moves the clip back and forth. It will probably be this weekend before I can put it in, see how it works. Temps are in the 50s now at night, with a rain storm on the way, so the mango trees are outside again, for now.
Thanks for the tip on the warm water, Ethan. I have a slush pump from a few years back that I used to fertilize a lot of roses. That with a water wand should help with the watering. I hope to collect some rain water from the storm, store it in the greenhouse in a covered trash can, add warm water, for watering.
My mango trees are: Alfonso, Carrie, Cogshall, Ice Cream, Keitt, Lancetilla, and Mallika. A combination birthday, Christmas, retirement present to myself. The nursery goofed and sent me Cogshall instead of Carrie, sent me Carrie the next week after I called them, let me keep Cogshall.

Here is a link that might be useful: Light Track System

Is it possible for you to grow them outside? Mine is outside here in Sacramento. I did the inside thing and just got mealies galore, I think I was a mealie farmer. :o)
I mean, I'd die to have So. Cal's winters.

Perhaps IÂm over protecting my mango trees, but the January freeze last year killed off a number of my tropicals, and I donÂt want that to happen again. Even a 15 gallon avocado tree died to the graft. Any threat of temps under 36, and the mangos are going back in the greenhouse until March.
A local nursery was growing a Valencia Pride outside in a 15 gallon pot, and it looks like a pothos vine, cascading around and down over the side with curving branches. Perhaps itÂs been frozen back too much?
The ballast I was sold is a remote one, with a 15 foot cord from the light to the ballast. Lots of room for movement. The seller advised putting the ballast on one or two concrete bricks, because it gets hot, and thatÂs working well.

They grow mangoes commercially somewhere down in the desert in SoCal. Very cool! I have two mangoes in pots up here in Wisconsin, no grow lights, just the sun. They are doing OK. I just try to keep them alive over the winter so then they flourish during the summer.

Franktank, If possible, look into getting a light setup. My mango actually bloomed inside the house with my lights.

Frank,
the Coachella valley (near Palm Springs) is one of the places they are growing mangoes here in CA. I think last winter might have hurt them some?

-Ethan

I installed the Light Track System yesterday. It made one and a half passes, then stuck, wouldnÂt move. The seller says I can return it, swap it for a more expensive, motor driven model thatÂs more reliable, when they arrive, toward the end of next week.

I talked to a local hydroponics store and asked them about the movers. They definitely recommended the motor drive type versus the chain driven. They also told me that if using more than just the one track, they have to match near perfect in order for it to work correctly. They also told me that I would have to fashion some sort of platform up near the track to hold the ballast along with an extension cord for it. I would need to run like 18' of track. Good luck with the new mover.

I keep my mangos outside and so far they're okay... last year I had to haul my tropicals into the garage for a week, but they survived. This year, so far no freeze, THANK YOU! :o) If it drops into the 30's I move them under the eaves. I am deeply suspicious that the BF is getting me a greenhouse for Christmas, so maybe all that heavy moving won't be in my future. :o) Now to just get enough rain so that I can afford to water the darn things.

The "special platform" for my ballast is a large concrete construction block, 6"x6"x12" (I think), hollow in the center. A half a block would probably have worked.
The mango trees are in my kitchen for now, with all the lights turned on, until I can get the new light track installed. Several of the new trees have some tender new growth that wouldn't survive temps in the 30s.

I returned the broken Light Track, and installed a new Light Rail system. It works great, and can be adjusted to any length under six feet. Just in time. All the outside water this morning was iced over, in spite of weather reports predicting temps only in the low 40s.

Sounds good. Glad you got that taken care of before the temps dropped. You mentioned having your mangos in the kitchen...brought back not so fond memories of how I had to place my plants prior to getting my greenhouse! Don't be shy! Let's see some pics of your setup and plants.

i installed a 800w super spectrum lighting system 3 weeks ago , and by necessity, the tops of my plants (orange, tangerine and lychee) are only about 12 inches from the light. they have been doing pretty well so far

lychee

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lychee

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orange or tangerine

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Lycheeluva, your plants look great! The light looks like itÂs really working well for you.
This is a picture of my temporary greenhouse at night. It's really bright, but the neighbors haven't complained yet.

i would have guessed that it never gets below 40 in south cali but i guess if u r using a greenhouse, im wrong.
what r u growing in the greenhouse?

There are some plumeria that need sheltering, some epiphillium, a few tropicals like murraya koenigil, and the mango trees. This is what it looks like inside during the day. Poor Ice Cream Mango on the left still needs to be lowered.
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By altadenamara, shot with E4500 at 2007-12-16

This is half of the light track on the top.

This is a branch or two from my Owari Satsuma out in the "cold".Citrus do okay outside.

Nice pics! Thanks for sharing. Wow, that's a lot of Satsuma's out there. Looks good. Hey, we need your bio on the "beginnings" post!

The weather is finally warm enough to take the mango trees out of the greenhouse, and it seems the light was a success with the majority of the mango trees. Six of the eleven are flowering, even two trees that are only three feet tall- Keitt and Alfonso. The five that aren't flowering are showing swelling green bumps of emerging growth. One plumeria has put up a bloom spike. I hope they continue to do this well outside over the summer.