artificial lighting for cephalotus

[cephalady]

hi,

i would like to enchance the coloration on my cephalotus but i couldn't get much sun at my balcony..but i have a 2ft aquarium t5ho light with 6 x 10000k tubes and thought of using it..will the light be suffient enuf to bring out the color of the plant?any suggestions guyz?

regards,

anne

 

[BigBella]

When I do use grow lights, I am partial to compact fluorescents over the standard tubes -- those in the 640K full-spectrum / 125 watt range. They color up Cephalotus and Heliamphora nicely, run on the cool side, and are, as their name implies, compact . . .

But it does seem like you have enough light on hand to add some color to your evil vegetation. My only concern would be in parboiling the plants . . .

 

[cephalady]

thnks bigbella..would running a fan help to cool the area down?the plant is on a shelf and i'll be hanging the light fixture from the ceiling,so that i could adjust the distance btween the fixture and the plant as and when required..

 

[jimscott]

The rule of thumb is for artificial lighting to be ~4-6" above the plants. That's how many centimeters? 2.54 times 39.36 minus 32 times 9/5......

 

[cephalady]

thanks jim..and that'll be for FL lights rite?and how high shud my lights be from the top of my ceph if i'm going to use LED light?

 

[jimscott]

Since I'm not sophisticated with lighting, other than the general rule of thumb, someone else should answer about LED's. I just keep my lights a few inches above the plants and see how they respond.

 

[cephalady]

hmmm..okie..anyone?

 

[Frilleon]

With lighting the closer the better! The reasen most people want to keep the light 4-6" from the plants is so they don't burn them. So the distance with any type of lighting really depends on how hot your light fixture runs. LED's tend to run on the cool side just like fluorescents so I would experiment with how hot they run and adjust if needed. But yes the general rule of thumb is 4-6". Also with lighting the farther away the plants are from the light the less lumens the plant receives. Light degrads over distance exponentially. Meaning 0-6" from light you get close to the light bulb output. 6-12" you get half. 12-24" you get half again. This will differ with different lights and fixtures but is a close enough discription for you to get the idea.

 

[cephalady]

hey frilleon..thanks a mil..that clears everything on lighting distance for me..

 

[Not a Number]

Light degrads over distance exponentially. Meaning 0-6" from light you get close to the light bulb output. 6-12" you get half. 12-24" you get half again. This will differ with different lights and fixtures but is a close enough discription for you to get the idea.

Your math isn't right. Light energy is subject to the inverse square law - 1/r²

So if you double the distance you get 1/4 the amount of light. Triple the distance gives you 1/9 the amount of light, quadruple the distance gets 1/16.

What you're saying - 12" = 1/2, 24" = 1/4
when it should be - 12" = 1/4, 24" = 1/16

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/light/intensity.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse_square_law

BTW: 6 tubes of 2 foot T5 lighting is probably more than adequate but will throw out quite a bit of heat. Use with caution.

 

[Frilleon]

Yeah I didn't know the exact numbers. I was just trying to get the point across. In fact I had read one of your post on this before.

 

[cephalady]

well,thanks for the pointers frilleon..it really did shed some light to the question that've been hovering over my head..sori for being paranoid..its my first ever cephalotus..