Indoor Bonsai under LED lights.

Ryan wrote:I don't think I'm going to do anything regarding humidity. I just plan on setting my trees under the lights and leaving them that way. The humidity scares me in terms of bugs and fungus and all that.

Hi Ryan

It is up to you what you want to do with your trees, and how you want your setup, but to be scared of humidity in terms of bugs, fungus and all that, sounds strange in my ears, as the problem is not there.

Kind regards Yvonne

I am definitely considering a Gorilla Grow Tent though...

Would like to take a closer look at theese growtents, they look interesting

Please remember if you want to keep the air humid, you need to have a nice warm temperature in the tent all the time, colder nights, and days will allow the mold to grow.

Kind regrads Yvonne

Growtents are really nice and make things so easy right out the box, and the main advantage is the reflective inside so minimum light go wasted.

One can easily close all airvents and such to get a "Humidity House", the problem is that the lights will be in there as well.. one could use lights with a very high IP rating, but even then cooling of the light becomes a huge problem in a closed setup..

Yvonne, just a small tip.
If you ever consider buying a growtent please make sure you read up on the brand you are looking at to see if there are any recent reporting on any "off gassing" issues with the material used, this was a major problem in the past for nearly all brands since most tents come from China and probably the same factory.

"off gassing" is when the material inside the tent reacts to strong light and high temperatures and then give of toxic fumes that kills all plants and are harmful for humans and animals.

Well now you've got me not wanting to buy one. Hmm.

If I was to buy one, this is probably the one I'd go with. It wouldn't fit all my trees, but it would fit a few. I'd see how they do, and get another tent if they do well.

http://gorillagrowtent.com/product/ggt-shorty-44-cloning-grow-tent/

Ryan, the off gassing problem should not still be around in any known brands tents, i just wanted to mention it so people are aware and read up before buying something that could possibly have a serious flaw.

One rather simple way to protect one self pretty well against getting a tent that could possible kill ones precious trees, is to buy from a respected and well known brand, Gorilla being one of them, and stay away from Ebay and such.

Hmmm. I'm still pondering it.

Just read some reviews and such of the tent you are considering to buy, and like i said known brands should be no problem, its knock offs and old tents that are being sold on auction sites and such that can possibly give you a horrible surprise...

I emailed Gorilla and they said it was an issue with other tents several years ago, but theirs are fine. They use a different product. I just might buy a tent.

However, one of these lights lights up a 3x3 area, so a 5x5 tent wouldn't work. Even two lights would just be 3x6. I'm just going to build a wood frame that's 3 feet wide and 6 feet long and hang the lights from that. I'll wrap it in mylar to reflect light.

If you want to cover a larger area than the 2 Onyx lights can offer then why don't you just use the older lights as well? i would imagine that the light would still be very much white thanks to the high brightness of the Onyx units.

Well, I sold the old lights because they weren't super effective. The plants didn't grow much and they were too far in the red spectrum.

I've always thought that growing plants under artificial light is a waste of time and money, and conidering the carbon footprint it implies compared to the pale result in the end, this seems really weird to me.

I'm pretty sure that in Sweden there are many trees and shrubs that could become good bonsai, and bonsai as original for the rest of the world as the "Premna" that are so spectacular in Indonesia but that none of us -not anyone, can grow here in Europe, from the Arctic circle to Gibraltar, Istanbul or Ulan-Bator.

http://www.wildernessroad.eu/EN_flora.html

http://www.gardenguides.com/93485-native-plants-sweden.html

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110224165724AArw3iN

[quote] What trees are native to Sweden?
I am doing a report of Sweden,but on google i couldnt find any...

Mostly spruce (picea abies) and pine. But there are all kind of trees like birch, elm, maple, linden, beech, rowan, alder, oak, ash, aspen, hazel, bird cherry, willow, chestnut etc.
[/quote]

Wow! All that without depleting the earth's resources?

Otroligt !

Hi AlainK

Her you find the link to bonsai in Sweden http://www.bonsaisallskapet.se/ they use all sorts of trees native to Sweden.

Bonsai under LED is a good thing for the people who does not have a garden etc.
When I started up having ficus as bonsai, did I think a south window was enough, but as the 3 trees developed, did I want to do more for them, for improving them, a very natural thing.

Showing my trees, and what I do, and Dreamcast showing hes LEDs, and the conversations there is, and has ben, to them, give some people the hope they can have a few bonsaitrees, without having a garden...other think they dont want, like you....I would not want more ficus trees, the 3 I started up with give me a lot of joy, but the 3 is enough for me.

Kind regards Yvonne

AlainK, Pale results? people are growing "what ever" plants today under the newest Artificial lightning technologies using very little power and with similar if not on par results that they would have seen outdoors, so i don't understand what you are talking about when you say "pale results".

As for indoor Bonsai, just look at what Yvonne is doing right now, she has 3 beautiful tropical trees growing extremely well in the cold north, and she is using only 82,5 Watt for her lights!!.. they grew indoors this summer with comparable results to when they use to be outdoors, that is kinda amazing really.

LEDs are giving us the possibility to have extremely efficient lights even at very low watts, and the chips efficiency is getting better and better every 6 months almost.

Take HID as an comparison to the light me and Yvonne is using right now, these lights have superior spectrum and produce 2.1 μmol/s/W, some of the best HID light produce somewhere around 1.7 μmol/s/W i think, and that's just the best brands and the high power ones like 600 and 1000watt lights, if you take a 50-100watt or even a 250watt light there efficiency is waaaay lower and therefor not even viable as grow lights anymore in this "modern world".
With LEDs you can go from 1watt to what ever watt, and the efficiency will still be the same, this opens up a new world especially for indoor gardening.

I feel you on the whole Carbon Footprint thing, and that's just what i am doing when using LEDs for my garden, thinking about the earth!
One can never really stop people from doing what they want and like even if its contributing to depleting the earth's resources, but one can try ones best to show them that there are better and more efficient ways of doing it that will benefit us all in the long run, and switching from hazardous power hungry old light techs to quality LEDs in all lightning applications including indoor gardening is a step in the right direction to get a cleaner earth for everyone and everything.

And for the record, i grow native species to! but i live in a small apartment with a small balcony, so i can't have that many trees, so indoor Bonsai is a way to expand my hobby and therefor get more joy out of it, that simple really!

I really have no reason to defend myself and what ever i get out of the power i use for my indoor garden, which in this case is pure Tropical Bonsai Magic!!
You are entitled to your opinions off course, but to be honest that post of yours was a little stupid and degrading, like i am not aware of the trees growing in nature around me, in my own country... and that they make excellent Bonsai material... Come on?!?

Riktigt otroligt!!

One more thing which is not to be forgotten, i can work on thriving Bonsai in the middle of winter, can't get any better then that! And i could even grow vigorous Premna's if i wanted to.

Ryan, sounds like a good plan, i am looking forward to see your new setup.

I received my light a few weeks ago and it's waiting for my tent to arrive, hopefully this weekend. Then I'll hang it and get everything going sometime next week or so.

Sounds great, Ryan.

Just remember that you will most likely need some kind of air extraction when using such powerful LEDs in a closed Growtent.

Looking forward to see the new setup.

Dreamcast wrote:Sounds great, Ryan.

Just remember that you will most likely need some kind of air extraction when using such powerful LEDs in a closed Growtent.

Looking forward to see the new setup.

Why do you think that? The light gives off practically no heat.

Well even if LEDs produce a lot less radiating heat compared to HID lights they still produce heat (from the heatsink) that will rather quick build up in a closed growtent and cause problem for both your trees and your new LED lights (Overheating) if not exhausted, you should be able to solve this easily with a 120mm PC fan like i did in my previous tent setup.
Or you may even need a more powerful fan since you will be running very powerful lights, either way you must exhaust that heat some way!

If you let the ONYX be on for a while you will clearly see that the heatsink gets quite hot, and even if the light has a fan built in to cool the heatsink that heat will just go round and round if not extracted from a closed grow environment, eventually casing overheating of the light.

Gave my light a test run today, and it worked perfectly. A nice cool white light. I'll definitely buy at least one more.

Looks very nice indeed! do you run the light with or without the fan cover? from my experience the light stays a lot cooler without the cover.