Ficus in The cold north ( Denmark)

Yvonne, trees are looking good as always!

I am glad to hear that even if you had some problems the new setup is now working well i was a little afraid that you would see some bleaching or other problems from having the M30's that close to the trees, they simply got a light-overdose from not being use to that amount of light.

According to SANlight the lights running hot is no problem at all, and i think they are right, but i still know for a fact that the cooler you can run your LED chips the higher efficiency they will have and the longer they will last, so i run small fans to blow air over the fins of the heatsink and the units then run warm to the touch, but any normal household fan just blowing over them a little from a distance will create better air-circulation which will make them run cooler.

Would you mind showing a picture of how you have everything set up at moment? gonna totally redesign my own setup to get higher humidity around the trees, and i think i will be copying your setup a lot.

Hi Dreamcast and Ryan

This is Photos of my setup






Even though the very hot LED's are close to the wooden windowframe, is the wood not hot at all, only the LED, so I find there is no danger of fire at all...also is the white part with the lights not hot, only the ribs behind.

The frame for the tent is a role of gardenfence I bought in " Helly Hansen"...the plastic is from a role of middlestrong coverplastic from " Hem og Fix "

Inside are the trees standing on trays, not in ....and as the humid rise during the day, is water running dawn the plasticframe, to the buttom of the tent...you will need to have the tent held up so high, that you can tap the water out of the tent into a bowl, and reuse it.

Any question please  ask.

Kind regards Yvonne

How clear is the plastic up top? Is it the same opacity as the sides? Or do you have a different top that allows the light to penetrate?

Hi Ryan

It is one large piece of plastick I used to wrap the metalframe...it is inexpensive, and to the clear side...not a firtsclass see through, and not opac, just cheap clear plastic.

Kind regards Yvonne

So you aren't concerned that the plastic blocks some of the light?

No, I just used the plastic that was awailable...A long time ago I was told ficus dont need much light, and that appears to right, they grow nicely in a window...but as you can see, have I added strong lamps to grow them the best way possible...in this case with the lamps so close to the plants, is some lightblocking maybe not a bad thing.

Kind regards Yvonne

How do you prevent the buildup of mold and fungus on and around the trees? Is there a fan to circulate air?

Hi Ryan

There is no need for a fan if the temperature is fairly high...I keep a temperature all year, also during nights, at 24 degrees...if sun, it becomes much warmer... the trees love it.
As far as I remember is 17 degrees the lowest temperature that can work...higher is better. but try for yourself, if a little mold appears on your tree, can you just spray the spot against fungus, and raise the temperature.

As the temperaure give high air-humidity, is it not very important to water the trees, they can be held in dry soil for at least 10 days...I would not worry going away away for a week during summer, as long as the tent is dense.

If you water regulary, and keep them moist all the time, will they probably rootdieback.

Kind regards Yvonne

Great info, Yvonne!

You have probably covered this earlier in this thread, but what substrate do you use for your Ficus trees?
Also do you have moss growing on the soil surface all year long?

Hi Dreamcast

Yes, I grow moss all year on the surface of the soil.
I use a cup of cocopeat, and a cup of lecapearls.

Happy you can use the info

Kind regards Yvonne

Yvonne wrote:Inside are the trees standing on trays, not in ....and as the humid rise during the day, is water running dawn the plasticframe, to the buttom of the tent...you will need to have the tent held up so high, that you can tap the water out of the tent into a bowl, and reuse it.

So you mean that the tent is 100% sealed and all humidity is closed inside, no holes anywhere in the tent?

And then a tray in the bottom that the water runs down in and then the trees elevated on something to keep them from wet-feet standing in the water which is collected in the tray?

Sounds like a closed ecosystem one can do in those big bottles.

Hi Dreamcast

Let us say the tent is fairly closed....what is important is that the humid air stay inside, and water/dew from the sides stay inside and dont run out of the tent...if the air can dry out, is the tree not doing well if you keep the soil dry.

The thought of having trees in bottles does freak me out...but if the bottle is big enough, then maybe...the trees need air enough, so I assume the tent has to have some sice.

Kind regards Yvonne

Thanks, now i have a good idea of how your setup works and how to implement some (if not most) of those ideas to my own setup.

Hi Dreamcast

I look forward to see what you ad Ryan come up with.

It does not take much to make a prettier setup, than I did...I just wanted it to work...noone but me come in this room, was it in the livingroom, would I have to come up with something more nice.

Good luck

Kind regards Yvonne

Yvonne, this is a photo from one of your previous posts in this thread, is there water is see between the trays on which the trees stand on??

Hi Dreamcast

What a terrible picture you send...no wonder I freaked out when I saw the new setup for the first time
This is how the setup look now, I think I a kind of adapted to the situation and moved the trees and light, intill they looked better...the trays was supposed to be cleaned by now, but the trees never made it to the garden this year, due to the cold summer...will clean them very soon

What I do...I let the trees dry out, it is not a problem as the air is very moist...then I water the trees and trays and the floor...water run out/dawn on the floor in the tent, and water that became damp run from the inside of the walls dawn to the floor, not the trays...from there I collect the water and reuse it again next time I water the trees...and  add more water if needed
The floor must never dry out...the water level is about 2 cm.

Kind regards Yvonne

Haha, i remember you where quite freaktout

How would you say the growth have been under the LEDs this summer compared to when they use to be outside over summer?

That's just what i wanted to hear regarding the water, this is my new setup, have had it running for a couple of days now, its working very well! growth have improved and aerial roots are already coming on most trees!

Open.


Closed.


The 2 tents are almost completely air tight thanks to alot of "silvertejp" i think its called duct tape? 27-30 degrees and very high humidity, i use a big tray with this plastic grill to elevate the pots from the water.


I will go over the setup more in detail in my LED thread, thanks for sharing your setup and answering my questions.

Thats a great setup, I hope it work well for you...will ask some questions on your page.

If we had had a regular summer, would the trees go in the garden about beginning of june, and the trees would do almost as nice as they have done it in indoors this summer...year after year have I notished they have their best time in august and september...some of september would be indoors again.

Kind regards Yvonne

Great growpower in those little LEDs then!

Any possible questions you may have i will gladly answer.

Thanks Dreamcast

Hi Yvonne!
Sorry to hear your fine trees didn't spent some time outdoors.
There's always hope, for the next year

@ dreamcast
Very nice setup! Congratulations!
Yvonne's semicircular window is irreplaceable though

Nellie, thanks!

I agree, Yvonne's window setup is epic.

Thank you both

The most epic thing about this setup is, that it has showed, that avoiding mold is a matter of keeping the temperature high enough, and proved that lack of airflow, witch was believed to be the problem, not was the point, and was not needed.

Also the high humidity in the tent gave arealroots good conditions to grow, witch has ben a problem for many ficuslovers, who wanted them, but did not know how to grow or keep them.
I countries with OK temperatures for having ficus outside during summer, could a stay, short or long, in a humidtent, give the wanted arealroots...they dont need extra humidity when they have hardened off.

Kind regards Yvonne

Yvonne, could not agree more.

Closed.


just like cakes in glass counter. creative