fergus banana

Ohio'sBest

Nice job. Are you having a problem keeping the humidity high enough?

fergus banana

right now, i dont really do anything for humidity. i spray them occasionally with a water bottle. i was thinking about getting a humidifier, but i kind of forgot about it. I dont really know how much humidity would play a role in their growth. any info would be helpful.

i am really trying to get a good feed schedule down for them. i was giving nutes every other day, but i think it was too much cause they started to get nutrient burn. they are growing very fast.

these pics represent about 2.5 months of growth under the HPS light. they couldn't have been more than a foot tall when i started them. i do have pics from before dated june 26th. i think.

Worm_Farmer

I wonder if you can overlight Bananas? What would be considered too much light for a banana? Does it even matter if it has too much light as long as you keep the air cool?

I want to try a Nutramist so bad, I have seen such good results with them.

fergus banana

i have them 16hrs on and 8 hrs off. i think the most light you would want to give is 18hrs. i guess you could give more, but i dont know how the plant would react. a good rule of thumb is 14-18 hrs.

fergus banana

i just read about the nutramist. that is an aeroponic system. i am sure it would work great. i dont have any experience with it, but it would be really fun to try.

momoese

Very cool!

Worm_Farmer

Nutramist Ultrasonic Foggers For Hydroponics, Horticulture, Propagation, Foliar Feeding, Greenhouse And Grow Room Humidification And Pesticide Application

You can use the nutramist as a fogger, there is a way to hook it up to a humidistat and it will turn on and off as needed. I was thinking that Nurtamist for humid would be cool, because in FL the air is already humid, I could feed the nurtamist with a water / kelp mix and the plants would be all boost all the time.

I was thinking watts of light, not hours. On young plants I like to run 24/7 for 30days then switch to 18/6 till I think they are nice and big and have good roots, when switch to 12/12. Once they start growing fast move them outside. Your running a 600watt, would 600watt to be much for one plant? Would 1,200 watt be the limit for banana? I am running two 8 4' T5 fluorescent. I was told that each 4x4' fixture is equal to about 450watt HPS.

fergus banana

I think you could use 600W for one plant, but you could probably go lower to like a 400W. I dont know about the limit on wattage - 1200 should be more than enough, but probably overkill for one plant.

I stick to HPS cause I get great growth and I know lots of other people who use HPS. 600W has the best lumen to watt ratio and its inexpensive to run.

I will be growing these bananas entirely indoors. i dont know how well thats gonna work out, but i have no where else to put them.

Nutramist is pretty kewl. you can check out other hydroponic suppliers cause there are different kinds of aeroponic setups. I like Grow Lights, Advanced Nutrients, Hydroponic Supplies and more at Hydroempire
they got good prices and a good selection.

Richard

Net 400W per square meter is about right for the size plants shown in the photos.

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Worm_Farmer

For Lumens my figured claim to put out 20,000 lumens! Pre fixture, I have two fixture's so I am putting about 40,000 lumens right now. Each fixture is 1.94a, so I am only using 3.88 amps. There are higher out put bulbs available now, so I will switch up once these ones are spent. I am going to bring one of my pups inside and put it under these lights and see how well it does.

P.S. Richard, I love you man!

Ohio'sBest

It is good to keep the humidity as high as possible. This way the plant doesn't have to fight to keep itself hydrated. I try to keep mine above 70%.

A 1,000 watt will be sufficient per every 112 square feet or 2-600 watt lights for every 135 square feet. Light movers will increase the area covered.

fergus banana

i totally disregarded humidity, but sounds like it will make a hell of a difference.

peace

fergus banana

look into HPS or metal halide. the hps 600W puts out 90,000 lumens.

word.

Richard

Watts refers to the entire spectrum of light delivered -- at some efficiency.

A 600W HPS is typically 90% efficient, so you are getting about 540 Watts (Joules of energy per second) total output at the immediate outside surface of the lamp. At one meter (a little over a yard) from the lamp in a humid atmosphere, you can expect another 10% to 15% diffuse loss in parts of the spectrum. If there is a wall (or floor) 1 meter away from the lamp, then the total energy per second being delivered to the illuminated surface is about 390 Watts. If that area is 4 square meters (a square a bit wider than 2 yards by 2 yards) then on average each of the 1 x 1 square meters is receiving about 100 Watts. This is what I was referring to as net watts.

Lumens on the other hand is normalized to human perception and tied to specific wavelengths of light. 1 lumen in the green wavelength (555 nm) does not equal 1 lumen in the blue wavelength (e.g., 480 nm). Lumen ratings on light bulbs are calculated by one or another standard of measurement -- the best of which is an equivalent energy standard. To make it more confusing, sometimes the Lumen rating (e.g., consumer light bulbs) is at the immediate outer surface of the lamp, while ratings on instrumentation that say "nominally 4000 lumens" often mean 4000 lumens per square meter at 1 meter distance from the source.

The often cited conversion of Watts to Lumens is only valid at 555 nm, that is 1 Watt @ 555 nm = 680 Lumens @ 555 nm. So for example, a green light source of 400 Watts output will have a consumer rating of 272000 lumens. The 90,000 lumens quoted below refers to only the green wavelengths of the HPS lamp.

To simplify all of this, I find it much easier to first identify light sources with the desired spectrum, and then examine what it will take to obtain the desired Watts per square meter. A good rule of thumb is that if the objects (plants) are about 1 meter from the source, then I'm looking for a Wattage per square meter which is 25% larger than my needs.

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Ohio'sBest

Richard, are you running the bulb vertically or horizontally? HIDs are most efficient when run vertically. Run the bulb beside the plant with no reflector. A reflector will just hold in the heat. Here is a few charts for you Fergus.


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Richard

Chris,

The lumens in the diagram are only for light at 555 nm, not the entire spectrum of output. Output wattage on the other hand, is calculated by integrating across the entire spectrum of useful output excluding raw heat, typically 400 nm to 1300 nm. The needs (and capacities) of plants are usually published in watts per meter or watts per surface area of leaf (small scale studies).

The lights I am currently working with are in 20,000 sq.ft. and 50,000 sq.ft. plant shelters, although I have worked with small systems of 150 sq.ft. enclosures. The present client has the benefit of geo-thermal and water on the property, so that water and electricity come at a very small annual maintenance cost.

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Ohio'sBest

The next project I'll be working on will be roughly 96,000 square feet with skylights. Those will help. Will be a combo NFT/DWC system.

Richard

What will they be growing?

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Bananaman88

Chris,

I'll be following along with great interest. My wife is a plant researcher (currently working with rice) and they grow some rice in the greenhouse and use a lot of supplemental lighting during the winter. I'll ask her what the wattage is on the lights they use just to see if any of the info would be useful to you.

Brent