Ligun parturointi

Likusteri on saanut kasvaa rehottaa aika vapaana. Nyt ajattelin että leikkuu on pakko tehdä, koska muuten pienet sisäoksat alkavat kuolla.

Ensin lehtien poisto, että näkee mitä siellä oikein on.

Alunalkaen ei ollut tarkoitus tehdä puusta näin töpöä. Puu oli noin puolimetrinen ostettaessa, ja leikkasin sen vajaan 10 sentin korkuiseksi:

Kuvasta ei näy, mutta puu kaartuu eteen aika paljon. Viitisen senttiä kuoli pois, tapahtui ns. dieback. Puu olikin tosi huonossa kunnossa ostettaessa, että sikäli ei ihme. Vähän harmi kuitenkin.

Puuhun ei jäänyt ainuttakaan oksaa. Yleensä puoliksi vitsinä sanon että alinta oksaa myöten poikki vaan kaikki. Oikea katkaisukohta ei kuitenkaan riipu siitä, missä oksat ovat, vaan siitä missä tyven kapenema päättyy. Tuossa puussa oli kapenemaa (vähän toisesta kuvakulmasta) tyven kuudesta sentistä katkaisukohdan kahteen senttiin kymmenen sentin matkalla. Tästä ylöspäin puu kapeni ehkä pari milliä seuraavien 20-30 sentin matkalla. Tasapaksu osa teki tyypillisiä halpisten löysiä kiekuroita. Tällä rungolla ei tee mitään, se vain mitätöi tyven hyvän kapeneman.

Puusta tuli siis töpömpi kuin oli tarkoitus. Nyt tähän on vaikea saada hyvää kapenemaa. Kun runko päättyy, se päättyy kuin seinään, ja sen jälkeen on jäljellä vain risuja.

Jotain pitää kuitenkin yrittää. Ehkä runkoon saisi vähän paremman kapeneman noin:

Kommentteja, kiitos.

Minor nuisances

My new indoor setup been has up and running for enough time to realize some things I could have done better.

First of all, there is a glass top in the terrariums, and this gets dusty real fast. This of course shades the lights. A friend popped around and had an answer  - just buy more lights! I'll leave it to you to guess if this friend is  male or female :).

I think I should have ordered boxes with removable top glass for easier maintenance. At the night humidity condenses to the top and when lights are on, glass gets warm and water evaporates, leaving little markings behind. So I will have to clean underside too. This could be annoying in the years to come.

Second thing. There is already algae under the bottom glass AND on top of the tiles plants are sitting on.

I was kind of hoping things would have been clean and nice for a little longer.

Third. I do not know if all this aerial roots thing is all good.

Carmona is shoving yet another growing habit:

Leaf size is somewhere between what it was under fluorescents and under metal halides. Of cource, metal halide lamp was 70W, and now this has 5 * 5W cree spots (slightly under driven).

New setup

I planned something  new for my indoor trees a few months ago, here. It is pretty much is ready now, and its always nice to compare one's plans to reality :). This is the best setup I have had. Sorry for the bad phone pictures, too lazy to use camera.

I have three terrariums with black aluminium frames, slide doors, glass top and holes in the bottom for drainage. Two are 28 cm high and about 150 cm long. They are for max 25cm high trees, inluding the pots. Third box is for max 30cm trees. 

Moisture level can be adjusted by leaving doors open a little at the both ends.

Terrariums are in wooden boxes, painted black, and there is a matte black plastic background. That makes a huge difference. 

In the evening glasses are very foggy.

In the bottom shelf there is about 20 GU10 led spots, mosty Brillight 4W spots with Phillips leds. For middle shelf I bought 40 Brillight spots with 5W Cree cobs. These are very good! They are 12V, which is safer. Top shelf has 184W of fluorescents. I will order led spots to there too in near future. 

A few words of led spots. These are about as efficient light source as fluorescents, but because these are spots, light intensities are much higher. Under flurescents one can get 10-25 kiloluxes, under led spots there are 60-100 kluxes for about the same wattages. I first bought 6500 Kelvin spots, but growth seems to be better under 4000K spots. I also dropped intensities a little, from 100 to 80 kluxes, and growth seems to be even better. I have bought spots from a few sources, and Brillight spots have been best so far. I prefer 35 degrees spots. 60 degrees are good if lamp is only 5-10cm from the plant. 

A word of warning. Cooling is not adequate for these (or any for that matter) spots when they are in a cramped place like this. There is 3 computer fans behind the spots. That is a must, otherwise  they will get very hot. (Leds are cool, they say... HAH). I also have adjustable driver, I run these for about 4W. Voltage is about 11.4. Spots are cooler and should last longer. Light is abundant, I don't need to worry about that. 

Wife approved bamboo curtain. 

Terrariums have holes in the bottom, because standing water will get algae and smels quite bad after a while.  Shelves have 2 cm walls and a rubber lining and some kitty litter. They are waterproof.

Enough for now! I will explain more if you ask.