We are looking for Facebook editors for the forum's Facebook page.
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
What you added should work.
You do need to lower the ph, because like I said above some elements become unavailable.
The mangosteen is a slow growing plant, it likes a sandy red draining soil like 1 peat : 1 loam topsoil : 2 coarse sand. I don't know about your worm castings soil, but if it holds a lot of water then the root system might get damaged. Worm castings should be acidic, so the water source is hard.
The ph would eventually be lower, however keep in mind the salt accumulation in the soil, over time the total salts dissolved will kill the plant.
Rain water in big cities is acidic and full of pollution. To get the best of it, collect rain water after 30 min of raining, the air and the roof will be cleaner.
In potted plants to lower the PH from 7 to 6 you should use:
- 1g powder or 1.5 g pellet per liter of soil (1/4 to 1 teaspoon per gallon) in form of elementary sulfur 99,99%
- it takes 6 months with application now in the autumn, if pots go inside it might take 3-4 months.
- a worm cast or humus fertilizer to provide additional bacteria to the soil to breakdown the S
Hard water is the problem, calcium carbonate builds up in pots which increases ph.
Fe found in fertilizers (the cheap Fe chelate) is not available over 6 ph, Mg as well. P over 7 ph.
Foliage spray of Fe is sometimes useless, unless done every other day, which can burn the foliage. Soil application is better.
I definitely did not follow the instructions. It was an experiment of sorts, and I grossly miscalculated the amount of free calcium carbonate. Surprisingly, most of the trees survived. I did lose several anonas, and my magana sapote looked like it was on the brink of death for a while -- but no more than 10 - 15% tree loss. At any rate, it was a cool experiment.
Works extremely well. I've never monitored its use in potted culture, but I was able to (accidentally) lower the pH to about 1/4 acre of my orchard to the low 3's with a couple thousand pounds of Tiger 90. The effect is temporary though. Three years later, the pH was back to the 7's.
Wow, thats amazing. Some of the trees are hardier than we give them credit for..
Note that it also takes several months for the pH to drop.
Jeff was that following the directions? Thats an extreme drop and certainly hope it doesn't drop that low in my pots. What plants/trees could even survive in a PH that low?
First I will say hello. This is my first post after lurking for a couple of years. Also thanks for all the useful information you folks post on here it has been of great help.
I have used a huge T5 unit 4 foot 12 bulb for the last couple of years as a primary light source in winter.I had considered traditional 1000 watt and even cmh 315 watt options but they would have been within inches of wooden support beams so I decided it wasn't worth the risk. My experience with T5 has been that it will keep the trees alive but they will not thrive under them especially when used as a primary source. Replacement bulbs are pricey with the risk of breakage in transport. When I purchased this unit Led lights were expensive and I didn't care for the options. I need a new light for a single Tangerine tree which will be by itself in front of the patio door. I have found two options that appear to be good options but I cannot vouch for them at this point. The first is Quantum boards from Horticulture lighting group. I have no affiliation with them and will probably avoid them due to high shipping cost to Canada. If you are in America they ship for free so it might be a good option for lighting.
The alternative is to build my own Led light using Samsung F strips which ends up being cheaper. I will be building a light using either 4 or 5 two foot F strips for my Tangerine. If it works well I will build a unit using 4 foot strips for my trees that receive no sun. I have not seen either this type of build or a Quantum board build used for Citrus so I cannot vouch for them yet. Marijuana growers seem to really like both of these types of lights for efficiency and heat reduction as well as good penetration. I will update on the lights once I see some results.
This link below talks about 3 different Samsung strip leds and a bridgelux. It also shows grow light configurations that can be built using the strips. It's a nice little guide.
http://ledgardener.com/diy-led-strip-build-designs-samsung-bridgelux/
Great breakdown, thank you.....Good point about the amount of lights needed for LED as opposed to Halide. How does T5 stack up to these two?
I'm new to plant growing but I understand a decent amount on lighting due to my old hobby, reef keeping (I use to grow coral in my living room). Here is a simple breakdown of LED and metal halide.
LED:
Pro: better at producing specific wave length, strong par/watt ratio, less heat (but still produces a decent amount of heat), bulbs are more durable (harder to break and last longer), directional light so it shines on whatever area you want it to
Cons: initial cost although prices are significantly less than what they were years ago, because they are so directional, you will need more to cover a larger area, not as powerful as MH,
MH:
Pro: strong light that can pack lots of punch, can be purchase at big box stores, produces heat so it can provide frost protection, not directional so 1 bulb can cover a lot of area (I plan to use 1 250 or 400 watt bulb to light my whole garage up. This will keep it frost free and give adequate lighting for all 30 or so plants.),
Cons: you need to replace the bulb every few years because the bulb wave length will change as the bulb burns and gets older/used, easier to break as they are made of glass, not as precise in color spectrum (but I think it's healthy for plants to have a arrays of colors vs a few specific light colors),
I personally think it's a toss up on cost. LED cost more to buy initially vs MH. However, 1 MH can cover a lot of area. I had used 2 LED grow fixtures to cover my plants last winter. This year, the plants are bigger than last year. this same area would easily be covered by a single MH. The cost to purchase 2 units vs 1 is a consideration. Also, the cost of running LED bank vs 1 MH cancels that price point out too. The MH bulbs in the aquarium hobby are good from 8mo to 14 mo running around 8 hours a day. After that, they don't produce the wave lengths and algae will start growing.
From my aquarium reefing days, I observe way better growth with MH than LED. The MH just had more punch to the light. This is why I will be digging out my old MH system and will be lighting my plants in the garage with a single bulb.
ThangBom
Works extremely well. I've never monitored its use in potted culture, but I was able to (accidentally) lower the pH to about 1/4 acre of my orchard to the low 3's with a couple thousand pounds of Tiger 90. The effect is temporary though. Three years later, the pH was back to the 7's.
Note that it also takes several months for the pH to drop.
I bought some clamp lights from Home Depot for like $20. With two clamp lights I bought a 42 watt and a 55 watt CFL in 6500k. I have 3 plants under the two lights. my naval orange is doing well my eureka lemon is pumping out new leaves all over and my keylime is flowering like crazy. BTW my plants are in a dark basement with no windows and it's around 65 degrees.
-from the north
I have been using this set-up for years, next month October my workshop look like this. these are led shoplights bought from Sam's Club, 5000, normally $35.00 for$24.00. 10 in total .
I don't know what the cost difference is between using metal halide vs LED. I really don't care what it is, as I'm after the best growth, not cost. People probably spend 100 times more money than any additional cost of lighting on soda drinks, or alcohol. In my estimation it is of no concern.
So you are not trying to grow fruits in the winter. A big sunny window it's enough. If you don't have enough sun, and you only want to winter your plants then I recommend 1 Led bulb per plant.
Now there are many leds, most of the mare fake. So choose a reliable brand.
For instance I use a philips 1521 lumens LED 12.5W (121 lumens/W)
If you have 3 plants and you put the 3 bulbs for 16 hours a day, your energy bill will come 18kWh
Here it's 15 cents/kWh whic will gives me a bill of 3$ per month.
It\s more complicated than this. with specialized LED with a good PAR you get more growth... and so on.
For your purpose it\s enough. Beware that LEDs in shops are like 70-80 lumens/W and those chinese leds from ebay are almost all fake.
Thank you for the replies. I have lots of houseplants that require humidity so aside from pebble trays with water I plan to mist and use a humidifier in the room once a day.Keep in mind purple mangosteen is a lot more sensitive than other common plants that require humidity, and if damaged are not going to be able to recover easily (particularly on young smaller plants).
I have always used a 1000 watt HID metal halide light, along with heating cables in the soil set at 80-F. It is true metal halide uses more power, and thus is more expensive to use than LED but I really don't care at all about the cost. Normally I set the HID light about 2-3 inches above the top of the tree. Every year the tree produces 5 flushes of growth when both root zone heat and light are used. I normally turn on the light a half hour before sun set, and turn the light off around 10.30 to 11 O'clock when I retire for the night.
I bought mine on Amazon, BESTVA brand. It's worked out really well for starting seeds when I'm not using it for overwintering
how big are your trees? There was a guy on another forum who would constantly post pictures of his setup: two 5gal home depot buckets lined with tinfoil and a light bulb on top, in a clamshell arrangement. Seems like a good design if you don't care about appearances and your trees are still small enough to fit. Maybe a heat mat on the bottom if roots don't get warm enough. I think he was using a blowdryer or something that seemed kind of wacky.
