I have many, many AV's and Streps, a couple of Episcias. I wick water them all and they are in every window in my house. My husband and I were talking about who would get my son's room in a few years after he goes to college. I said I want it, he said what for, and of course I said PLANT ROOM :) to which he said...the whole house is a plant room!!!!! So true and I can't seem to stop getting more!
Anyways back to the question, I have recently gotten interested in Columnea, Nematanthus, Aeschynanthus and Codonanthe and one alsobia. I think I can figure the lighting, basically bright or flouescent, but what about the watering. I plan to wick them all, using lots of perlite of course.
I would appreciate anyone's expertise!
Thank you so much,
Sandi
Would I would treat all my gessies the same?
I use full spectrum bulbs.......self wicking inexpensive pots can be bought along with any supplies you need from Violetshowcase....................
good luck
codonanthe does well wicked. i have 2.very easy to grow, also alsobia is too.
mrsbonnie
Does anyone else use full spectrum lighting?? I might learn a lot on this thread.....or do you use other kinds of lighting on gessies???
I use regular ol' shop light fixtures and bulbs. One side covers the warm colors, the other covers cool. So it works the same as buying full-spectrum lighting, but at about half the cost. I also have some under those under-cabinet lights, which just cover the warm spectrum, and they do okay, actually, but I realize I need to switch the bulbs.
I use a two bulb shop fixture on each shelf. Two of the shelves have one warm and one cool bulb. The other two shelves have those sunshine bulbs. I can't tell a difference either way. The sunshine bulbs *look* brighter to me, but I don't know about the difference in light spectrum. I'll see if I still have a package from them and see what they say. I don't put a lot of faith in how the light appears to me, anyway, as I know older bulbs can seem to still be perfectly bright to me, but the plants would hardly be getting a fraction of the light they need.
My first stand I set up still has the under the cabinet bulbs, but my other two stands have the "Grow Light" bulbs. I have noticed a huge difference with the plants under the "grow lights" and plan on changing out the bulbs on the other stand to the grow lights. They do look brighter/bluer and my plants sure grow and bloom better under those lights!
I use the 24" plant/aquarium bulbs from Walmart, I believe they are about $6.00. They seem to do the trick.
Sandi
something to be careful about are the daylight or "full spectrum" tubes they sell in the hardware stores - not the plant grow lights, but regular fluor tubes. Apparently these have the spectrum range, but are spotty in the ranges that the plants need. Mixing a cool and warm tube is a better choice than those.
The full spectrums made for plants are good though.
My current setup is warm/cool alternating. I don't see any difference in the plants between these and the full spectrum grow light fluors I used to have. (The full spectrum is nicer to my eyes but the plants don't seem to care.)
I have both T 12 and T 8 shoplights. I also have some 125W compact fluors, but I am trying to use them less because of heat.