It would not be hard to mistake the need for light, as they require so much while growing, pmk.

With the heat mat I have. The seed tray sits right on it with a propagator cover on it until 40 - 50% of seeds are up. Then cover comes off. I only keep them directly on top of heat mat until the majority are up. This is when they require good light. If inside under lights, then required distance away and for 12hrs. or more. If outside in summer, then 60%full sun until they have at least 6 true leaves.

Rick

Thank you, Rick. That is what I've done. It's down on the mat and covered with the clear cover. I hope to see some green soon!

Photo update on my Arabicum Singaburi seedlings, or YSB. The seeds came from Bob, all 6 germinated and they are now 5 weeks old. One of them is already beginning to ramify!!!

those are getting huge! they look as good as the ones I started in my aerogarden about the same time. Impressive!

Thanks, Bob. They are ready for their own pots so early on. Normally it isn't till 8 weeks that they outgrow the shared container.

Look at what arrived today! I am going to have to empty the tent completely to install it.

The DEA is going to be knocking on your door soon, Tracy.

Funny you mention that Dain. The police chief lives right behind me. The back of my house glows red from the clip on lights so it always looks like Halloween is happening at my house.
Tracy

I like that light, where are you going to put it.

It the tent I have some dark areas so I will install this perpendicular to the other two LEDs. When all three are installed layout of LEDs should resemble a square U shape.

I am having so many problems with my Adeniums and the Mars-Hydro Light, I had to raise it again today and I am pretty much at my max height for being able to raise the light. I hope it works! Today I flushed out my Arabicums that are in regular media using purified water. I then added nutrients that claim they wont burn my plants. Earth juice grow and catalyst half strength. Macro and Micro about 2-2-3. I then Ph balanced the water to 6.0. My Somalense tips were starting to curl from the lighting, the leaves on my other adenium leaves were cupping and also showing obvious signs of light damage. My dorstenias are on the tables in the tent and they are doing fine. My Arabicums are on crates raised about an inch and a half off the tent floor. I turned the crates over so they would sit on the inside rather than having them upside down like they were. This gave me a couple extra inches from the light as well. I have a zone where the most intense part of the light doesn't reach to the edges of the tent , it is mostly just reflective light.

Hopefully this will finally resolve my issues. I am going to continue watering my plants that are actively growing and that are semi dormant, using purified bottled drinking water until I start seeing some strong new growth(the semi dormant ones wont get it as often but when they do I will allow the water to run all the way through.) At least until I can find something on my new cities/counties water. I will also allow the water to drain completely out of the pot for my growing plants which is how I usually water, I had only stopped giving my plants so much water through the winter months.

I have the biggest grow light Mars hydro makes from their reflective series. I want to say it is the 192, I would have to check to be sure.

So the top of my Adenium somalense tanzanias are 48 inches from direct light, my Adenium multiflorum is 40 inches from direct light. My arabicums are 48"-54" both in direct light and the light that reaches out from my light (reflective light?) My arabicum seedlings in my tent sit about 52 inches under the light but on the sides as well in "reflective" light. When I say direct light, I am just referring to the fact that the plants sit directly under the bulbs that many inches away. (hope you can make sense of all this)

Tracy, You know how you said your lights are going to be in a square u shape? That will kind of help you imagine my light set up. I kind of have the reverse of that. My light is in the middle then moved up to the door so along the sides and back is where I keep my plants that are not having light issues. The light there is almost perfect.

I know it sounds like I am having a lot of problems. because I am. I feel like I just need to get through this winter. My aerogarden seedlings and my tent seedlings are doing okay some of them have a little yellowing but I really only seem to be having problems with the plants that went dormant or semi dormant later in the fall. When I look at my plants that are doing well I feel like all this work is worth it. I can't wait to document my progress after 1 year.

Sorry this was so long.

Sorry to hear you are having so many issues, Bob. Perhaps the sensitive plants need to be acclimated slower by starting at an initial far distance, then moving them closer each week.

I have my big DK just 10 inches away from one of my lights. When I say 10 inches, I mean distance between the longest branch tip and the lamp. I haven't had any issues with it. I have had problems with crispy young seedlings, but after routinely arranging them they seem to be happy and thriving. I am eager to get through the winter as well. Spring will arrive soon!

Tracy

I'm having problems with my big one, too. I don't think it's the light so much as my very hard water. I'm going to have to buy water or ph balance it, but that still wouldn't take out any of the hard minerals. I'm getting lots of brown edged and spotted leaves, and it's definitely not insects doing it.

my dorstenias are pretty close to the lights and are fine, luckily nothing has gotten sun scortch. just the curling and cupping of the leaves. I may try to do a little acclimation by only running by light part time and working it up over the next few days to see how they react.good idea! thanks.

plantmanagerKaren
ever since limes scale showed up on my terracotta some of my plants have been acting nuts! like I said above, hopefully flushing with distilled and purified water yesterday then PH balancing their water with some nutrients in it will help my adeniums...this has worked in the last for me with other plants I've had. I'll be watching them closely
goodluck!

Karen I think it is ridiculous the amount of crap that is loaded in the water. I had a filter salesman actually show me the contents of my water and I am not sure how I am still alive! When I use a wash cloth and hang it to dry it turns to STONE!

I am looking at ways to better ventilate the tent. At work I am preparing to implement a new software platform that will require me to take a week long training course in California. This means I have to find a way to flush the air in my tent, stat!

Of all the equipment I have looked at, none of it does as good a job as I do by opening the tent and flushing the air out with a huge fan. No matter how much I spend it still isn't going to open the tent for me twice a day. I am going to need an Adenium-sitter. LOL how insane is that?

Hope conditions improve for the both of you, Karen and Bob.

Tracy

Thanks, Tracy and Bob. I will need to do the flushing and then the balancing, but it still won't get the minerals out. Our washcloths turn to stone, too, Tracy. Toilets,showers and dishwashers are totally limed up. Showerheads need to be de-limed about every 2 months or so. :(

The room my tent is in is fairly cold, so when I ran the ventilating fans, the temps dropped in the tent. I turned them off, and just do the twice a day ventilating like you do. Sounds like you do need a plant sitter, lol!

Tracy, hope you do not mind me chiming in on the subject of air flow in tent.

I do not know the make up or design of the tents as to what is available in them to ventilate.

It seems to me that they require an exhaust fan on upper portion of tent and a intake for fresh air from lower down. This would exchange the warm/hot air from the top and bring fresh air in from lower. Whether this is done on a timer of sorts or continuous.

Rick

I installed the new LED yesterday. Took some pictures in the process, including a a couple of Dino King. I tweaked my back putting her away underneath the LED. Let me tell you how not to bend over while carrying a heavy plant. You have to be almost kneeling to put her away. It's a very awkward position and now I will pay.

Just so everyone knows last night I did some adjusting on the height of my LEDs and lifted them all up some. They were way to close to start with.

Tracy

I wouldn't go lower than 18 inches/45 cm under Mars Hydro Reflector units (5 w). Yes, some bigger seedlings and trees can handle the light intensity, but the question is how much energy they put into damage repair compared to actual growth.

Thank you, Rick. This was the direction I was considering. You have an intake fan that is installed, they call these inline fans. Then the duct work is routed at the top of the tent to ventilate exhaust, etc. I may go lurk over at the MJ grow boards where they are heavily invested in this sort of thing to get a feel for what they are using.

Tracy

Thanks, Martin. I think I will set them all at 18 to 20 inches today.

Your new acquisition DK is looking so nice. You have quite the set up there. I hope that you get your air flow set up figured out.

In many of the Greenhouses here in the winter months the warm air inside the house is pulled into the two layers of cover to insulate and exhausted outside. Kind of a neat feature.

Thanks for the compliment on DK, she is filling out nicely with leaves. Her roots are setting nicely also. I can see a nice web of brand new long feeder roots beneath the top layer of coir. Still trying to figure out when she needs water. It is hard to gauge how much she is using since I can't pick her up daily. I really can't wait to get all of these trees outside, there will be so much more room to work with.

What a great use of the heat as a resource Rick. I hope to have my own greenhouse some day and utilize this method.

Stuart I have some brand new Chada Petch babies, one week old. Let's see how they do.

Took a couple of pics of my seedlings today. The first picture are 2 of my sensitive plants that have to be positioned properly or they receive too much light. The rest of them enjoy the light intensity thoroughly. The 2nd and 3rd are obesums from KO seed. The last is a somalense.

Hi Tracy. How old are your seedlings? Their leaves and branches look healthy. I want my addendum to look strong and branching like that. But how did you make some of the leaves reddish pink and others white? They look cool

Thanks, LJ. These seedlings are between 7 and 10 months old. The pink and white leaves are on a plant that has a chlorophyll deficiency, which makes it partially variegated and partially albino. I have 3 like this from the same seed batch and they are very slow growing and sensitive to intense light.

All of these seedlings have branched naturally, I did not pinch or prune them to achieve the branching. Good genetics and environment have produced this. I have pruned many of my seedlings hoping to reproduce this but a tree is only going to branch as much as its genetics are programmed to do in most cases. I have a couple that are the exception to this rule, that pinched at 2 months have produced a ridiculous number of branches. But this is a rare occasion for me.

Thanks for your compliment!

Tracy

EDIT: Plant #3 had the tip cut off at some point but the branching had already begun.

Gill you are a genius!!! Adenium rotisserie anyone?

Tracy, What a cake. Kinda looks like the "Big Guy". Looking so good. The wheel is a good idea. Would work great for getting light all around.

What a great idea.

Rick

Thanks Rick. I cleaned out the tent yesterday and took a series of photos of my seedlings. This cake platform is going to save my back from needing to lift the big DK to rotate her. Gill made the suggestion and I am so glad I took her advice.

Tracy

Continued...

Any finally, for anyone that recalls my twin obesum pair that was struggling to produce foliage this summer. One of them has begun to produce foliage, the other still nada. I am starting to suspect that these two may have encountered some sort of frost damage. How the smaller tree continues to live is way beyond me.

Tracy

So I managed to overwater and kill my prodigy 1 month old Gold Tank. The caudex is soft and I am so mad at myself.

Do you think that it is on it's way out, Tracy. The roots look nice and white (healthy)?

How would it manage if you where to pot it up into new dry soil and monitor it?

Had some go soft and it turned out to be under watering on my part. Watered and the bounced back.

Rick

The more I see it, the more I realize that I must be strange. I cannot throw out any plants. They either grow, or I turn them into compost. I just can't throw a plant out that may possibly live.

I am getting so many now that I'll have to add another item to that list: 'I give them away or sell'.

I also think this plant can still make it, but maybe that's the 'strange' talking, LOL!

Thank you both for your input. I potted it up in completely dry mix and put it in the tent. I hope you are right Rick. I left a tray of seedlings out overnight after cleaning out the tent with intentions to repot them today. They got a bit cold overnight. I am crossing fingers that this one bounces back. It has been quite a show off in regards to ramnification. I don't usually repot them at this young age but this one is hogging the light from its siblings. I will keep you posted.

Tracy

Jedoba I had to throw some away today due to lack of space. It isn't easy for me either.

Are you sure it was over watered, rather than under?

I have been watering every day, this is why I originally suspected overwatering. I am now thinking that I watered them heavily yesterday and then left them out of the tent overnight that they got cold. Of course the only seedling that shows signs of trouble is the one that is pushing out branches at 2 weeks old. Its just a month old now, fingers crossed that it makes it.

Tracy

Well the leaves have all gone droopy and a 2nd Gold Tank from that same pot has turned soft.

They are both still alive tonight, that has to be good. Will keep y'all posted.

Did you check the tap root for rot? The feeder roots and leaves look fine. I am not convinced that it is rot.

One of my three biggest somalenses was rotting and had been for weeks. But it was actively growing and I only found out after wanting to repot it. All feeder roots were just fine, but the fat tap root was rotting badly, the rot spreading upwards into the lower part of the main stem. Now I have a nice cutting. ;-) I am still puzzled why it got affected by rot in my controlled warm/hot environment. I suspect that I accidently wounded it during a transplant.

Martin I think they went into shock from getting too cold. The taproot is fine. I left them out overnight after watering them. I was so beat after unpacking cleaning and repacking the tent that the repotting got postponed until the next day.

As of today both Gold Tank seedlings have northern facing grow tips so I am taking this as progress. They look terrible! But alive.

Have the same issue on couple of my seedlings, any thoughts on how to make them survivie?

Oh dear, they look sad don't they? Hope you can get them back again, fingers crossed :-)

Gill

Sorry to say that these two Golden Tank seedlings didn't survive Shimolee.

Tracy

That is so sad Tracy.Seedlings which dont make it eventually after being so promising initially break ones heart.

Tracy, send them to me and I'll nurse them back to health with some caribbean sun & a little TLC. I'm like Jerry ... Never met a plant I didn't like and there are no DNRs on my watch!