Winter 2010-2011: Growing plants under lights indoors!

Ohhhhh, I like that beautiful Diluted Fuji No Murasaki and A. bloom. Good job Becky!!

Beautiful!

Beautiful plant Becky!
I haven't planted any seeds yet but now I have some reading to do first anyways. :)

Thanks Jackie, Helena, Debra, and Pixie!

I hope you get some of your seeds planted soon, Pixie!

Here are a few new blooms I photographed over the weekend.

This one is Antoinette's Chocolate Picotee x Ten Ten after the blooms opened up.

Close-up of the blooms.

This is Diluted Fuji no Muraski which may change with future blooms. Often the blooms start out looking like the typical Muraski blooms and then the diluted colors (mainly white) start showing up. But then again, this could be a recessive original gene coming back. :-) Either way, both blooms on the vine were really pretty. It almost looked to me like the white was disappearing ... what do you think?

Here is the entire plant and you can barely see another bloom on the backside of this plant.

Here is a close-up using flash:

Without flash (a little grainy per photo):

This is the bloom on the backside of the Diluted Fuji no Muraski vine. Notice the shrinking of the white ray in this bloom:

This is one I am calling Cinnamon because of the color. It is a NOID from Onalee's homegrown mix. No idea what it really is, but I'm naming it to keep track of it.

Here is it with flash. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the entire plant. It has variegated leaves.

This is Antoinette's cross Chocolate Picotee x Ten Ten. She got some different blooms (from different seeds) from her cross that were solid dark pink (see post and some like this that were speckled.

Entire plant:

This is a close-up of the bloom. The bloom looks like Ten Ten and the leaves look like Chocolate. Pretty cool what genes showed up on this vine. Always fun to do those crosses. :-)

his one is a NOID from Colin that he labeled NOID Black. It actually looks to me like it could be a cross from Heian no Izumi, Heian no Umi, a diluted version of Akatsuki No Muraski, or maybe even Hama No Murasaki. Also ... the leaves curl at the edges, so I believe it may be a cross from possibly Kyushu University in Japan. He sent me others from KU, so it's quite possible. Whenever I see those curled ends on the leaves, I immediately think experimental cross/cultivar.

Entire vine:

Close-up of bloom.

Here is a photo from the KU website of one of theirs that look similar in blooms, but the leaves don't match:

Lovely blooms you're getting Becky.

Beautiful.

Thanks Jackie and Debra! I had another one blooming today.

One of the perks about growing them under lights is that they stay in bloom all day! They don't wilt for about 12+ hours. I see them in the morning and then come home at night and they are still blooming! That would never happen if they were outside in the sunlight! :-)

I have two Diluted Fuji no Muraski vines blooming at different times. This is the other one.

The color of the bloom looks too blue to me in the above photo. This is a close-up of the bloom which looks correct to my eyes. Camera's can do weird things to color at times ...

That looks pretty perfect to me.

A very pretty bloom.

Gorgeous!!!
Getting excited here.....I have seeds sprouting!!

I appreciate the compliments, even if I don't have anything to do with the genetic make-up of these indoor vines/blooms! Just a real winter treat for me to behold! :-)

I'm growing Ipomoea nil 'Keiryu' and 'Seiun' indoors in an interior room – no sunlight whatsoever. They're getting light from a 2 foot long, 4-tube, T5 high-output CFL fixture.

Here's 'Keiryu' showing a flowering bud at about 7 weeks from germination (I estimate 5 to 7 days until bloom):

nifty413 - Very nice looking bud there! Congrats! You are definitely doing something right to get buds! I hope you'll post a photo when it blooms. :-)

Let's see if this link works:

http://retirees.uwaterloo.ca/~jerry/orchids/light.html

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edit:

GOOD !!!

The link works!

Folks, this is the best single source of indoor plant lighting info I have ever found on the web.

It might have more tech info than you need, but you can do what I did: plough through it once, then go back

and (if printing it out) highlight the facts that apply to your situation.




Once you understand Kelvin temperature ranges (and corresponding wavelengths of light), you can make

INEXPENSIVE purchases for year-round gardening.

Turn that dark bookshelf in the corner into a mini-greenhouse!

I use adjustable "student's" clamp-on desk lamps that have a long/high reach,, and I use Feit lightbulbs in 2 different Kelvin (wavelength color) ranges.

The lightbulbs are the "Compact Flourescent Lamps" that are about the same size as the classic lightbulbs we grew up with, but have a "curly-Q" shape.

Available at Walgreens/Walgreens.com.

They go on sale every so often at the brick and mortar stores.

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This message was edited Dec 19, 2010 11:26 AM

This message was edited Dec 19, 2010 11:40 AM

Thanks for the link.. I use those, I like them. Joe and I have been re-placing typical light bulbs for a year now.

As many of you already know, the CFL lightbulbs may cost more, but their extra-long life makes them cheaper in the long run.

I mix my lights up in my grow areas//// using the 300 watt "incubator" bulb with the large clamp, together with the 26 cfl using 2700 lumins seems to bring me the best results with seedlings and cuttings.

Using the highest lumins on a cfl on soft white gets me good results with tropicals. the typical shop light bulb seems bit cold ( the long tube type) , so I warm it up with a halogen shop light at the same time for 6 hours. It is a good mix here for me downstairs. At work, there is an office that has the under cabinet tubes and his plants are all very happy. But, he doesn't grow seeds. I do.
This is an example of what is in the closet here.. the bulb in the celling is warm, the bulb on the door frame is bright, but cool, both are cfls.

Your plants look "happy" too!

Thanks, I have been trying and trying to pollinate this thing, and taking cuttings, as well, and can't get pods or cuttings to take root. Bleah. I have had this Tropical morning glory for two years and it just now decides this is where it will bloom. In the dang closet. It's arms are however, sneaking out to the main area on the leader wire. I am pleased it doesn't have the crystals or the black sooty stuff on it's leaves that it got last year, when it was hanging under the south basement window, where it was breezy with cold air. Out side it went everywhere, but did not bloom. None of those 6 ft pieces rooted either, that I had to cut off to be able to bring it in. .

Debra,
Maybe it was cutting it back that induced it to bloom. Some plants do seem to bloom better after a trim.

I have to post this alba blooming in the basement..

I just wanted to see if I could keep it going, I have three of these going..

Cool!

Love the muted yellows in the lighting, flower and background, Debra - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=8273091

Very nice blooms Debra.

'Keiryu' first bloom ever for me.