Brazilian Rain Tree

i made the mistake of transplanting my tree in the middle of Winter. Though the tree is tropical and in a well lighted warm basement, an emergency transplant was probably a mistake. Now the tree has completely defoliated but has lots of buds. What light conditions are best for this plant? It is under high fluorescent lights, which might be too bright? Thoughts please.

No experience with this type of tree, but i can imagine that you could never have too many florescent above it. The more light the better when indoors

And be careful with the watering

I went out and bought a water meter! I let the soil dry out probably too much. Do you let it dry out completely between waterings? And how does the tree respond to a complete defoliation? Thanks.

Lucky for you they are tough trees, and if the tree has new buds, then you'll be ok if you are patient.  I have one inside in a sunny south window with a normal florescent lamp above it.  Does great.  Mine dried out once and did the same thing, and came back just fine.  I like to keep mine evenly moist, they don't like to dry out, and seem to like being well watered.  My soil is a nice free draining soil, so keep that in mind when reading my advice.  Don't move it around and break off fragile new roots while it's recovering.

BTW water meters don't really work in the types of soils we use (unless you are using organic soil). Better to stick a wooden skewer in the soil, leave it in there shoved down into the soil, checking it daily. When it comes up starting to dry, then water well.

Thanks for your useful comments...much appreciated! My tree has done fabulously in partial shade, with a couple of hours of sun during its summer growing seasons. So is too much light (14hrs/day, t5 florescents) a possibility?

14 hours a day sounds great, you could even give 16. You could also leave the light on all the time, the plant will only take what it needs from what I understand, but you would be losing money on your power bill like that. The only time you really need to worry about too much light is when the tree is outside in direct sunlight, mainly in summer. Anyone else feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

No. Fourteen hours a day with flourescents is not too much light. May not be enough actually.

The length of time is fine at 14 hours, although I tend to leave mine on for 16. I wouldn't leave the lights on longer than that. It's brightness that matters.

The lumen (measure of brightness) of even T5 floruescents is actually not that bright. Per 2 foot bulb its about 2000 lumens. 4ft about 4-5000 lumens.

I use high pressure sodium bulbs that up top 40,000 lumens. Incidentally, the sun is much much brighter.

Brazilian raintree ican handle a lot of light. Likely much more than you are providing it.

It's likely the shock to the root system that caused it drop its leaves. Ive had mine do that for no reason. Just decided to defoliate like it was a deciduous tree. As long as the buds are swelling and continuing to grow. Just keep it warm, water normally, not excessively and it'll probably be fine. If the buds are swelling, you could give it a deluted feed. Like a 1/4 or even an 1/8 of the normal strength.

I had a surinam cherry tree completely defoliate this year. It was leafless for three months. I thought it was dead actually. But scraping the bark showed some live tissue so I kept it around. It's fully leafing out now. Have no idea why. I just continue to water it when the soil became a litle dry, gave it a deluted feed every week and eventually it came around.

How is the Raintree doing....I hope all is well....