Best lights for growing baby palm trees indoors, before eventually planting outside. Also thinking about one that'll also give me a tan!

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island

Cordyline australis / cabbage palms are pretty hardy
for example:
https://www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/...QibTCJujikAcgX-K6J0r_938CtB8CUqRoCiUMQAvD_BwE
My neighbour had some potted Cordylines. Kinda' ugly looking things, but nice enough.
I think my other neighbour now has them (given to him, not stolen).

Forgot to mention ours is a Trachycarpus Fortunae which is pretty hardy - survived last winter no problem without being covered/wrapped up at any point (mind you, we are in Kent so hardly the Arctic).
You see Palms in certain coastal areas of the West Coast here in Scotland. The gulf stream has a part to play in that, seemingly.
View attachment 774448

looks like Accy's was too, a fine specimen. Chusan palm for those not of a latin bent.
That's nice!
 
Last edited:

Once a Wheeler

…always a wheeler
Never had a problem growing palm trees in the UK, probably because of my self-selection system. I throw palm seeds into a pot on the window-sill where they lie around for months in a thin compost cover getting watered every time the compost dries right out. One day a shoot will appear: take the seed and plant it in a drainpipe full of earth, then water the dish the pipe is standing in from time to time. Roots quickly go down a metre or more. Feed and water, enjoy your oasis. Doubtless the seeds that need special lighting never sprout in the first place; natural selection does the job for you.
 
OP
OP
Accy cyclist

Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
looks like Accy's was too, a fine specimen. Chusan palm for those not of a latin bent.
It was until I came home one day to see some idiot had cut most of the fronds off! Prior to that, the idiot who hacked at my palm tree watched her family move it, again without my permission, from the spot where your photograph shows it to the middle of the garden area! The latter described act happened one Sunday afternoon, when her drunk and doped up (probably coked up as well) family turned up for a booze up in the garden area. Yes, they are allowed to come here as obviously residents can invite their families and friends round, but a pissed and doped up mob.....really??!! I saw them from my window lifting the heavy planter, then struggling as it'd taken root through the drainage holes in the planter's base. I shouted from my window "Hey, that's MY plant, please leave it alone'!, but by then they'd moved it, replying 'It's ok, we're only putting it in the centre of the garden'! I went out after they'd left to see the ripped out roots still in the ground from where it'd stood for nearly 7 years! That was bad enough, but the former described incident was very bad as the fronds on the top half of the tree's trunk are meant to be left on unless they've turned brown and grey which means the frond is dead. If the frond is still showing green it has to be left on as such fronds feed vital nutrients back into the tree via the tree's trunk, plus they play a vital role in the photosynthesis process. After both acts of barbarism I checked the palm's centre bud which is vital in producing new fronds to keep the palm tree from dying off. Sadly I didn't see the usual new healthy frond appearing, which happens even in the depth of winter. Instead all I can see are dried, grey fronds which to me look dead! I've water fed my palm and heavily watered it in the drought we've just had, hoping to see another new frond, but so far nothing has appeared! The older fronds still look healthy, which gives me hope, but I'm very worried if both barbaric acts have had such a detrimental affect on my palm tree that it won't ever be the same again and might even die! I've cared for and nurtured that palm tree since buying it soon after me and the former Mr's Accy separated 8 years ago. I saw that horrible stupid woman in the garden area today and had serious hate thoughts about her! If my palm tree dies I won't hesitate to let her know what I think of her's and her family's total interference in something they had no right to touch! To make matters worse another neighbour who I thought was the most friendliest of my neighbours, on telling her said quote....'Ah well, when you put such as your palm tree in a public space like our garden area it then becomes the property of all the residents, not just you'! When she said that my thoughts were shut your gob you f..k..g stupid cow! How tactless eh!!!


That's nice!

Yes, but look at it now!! :unsure:

_-5Efpca9_Rv5LuM&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.fman2-2.jpg


Those new fronds don't look too healthy, wouldn't you say!!:unsure:

UMsZLf6XsC2hd6w8&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.fman2-2.jpg


uPXxD-rUqZRobdz0&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.fman2-2.jpg


I keep looking to see if a new spear shaped frond is appearing, but so far I can't see one! :unsure:
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Accy cyclist

Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
🟨Yellow card for Accy one more long header and it's red and off.

The next long thread title is going to incorporate your CC name Postie!! One way or another I'm determined to fit it in!:okay:
 

T4tomo

Legendary Member
The little roots that suck up the water / nutrients have been snapped off, plus it's pot bound, IE the pot is full of roots with very little room for soil.

What is actually needs is a bloody big hole digging and planting in the ground and I reckon it would recover. You could try digging a shallower hole and smashing all the bottom of the pot off it so the roots get access to the soiled that way.
 

PaulSB

Squire
Plants utilise the red and blue areas of the colour spectrum. Plants can and do use UV and other light colours but increasing these levels won't bring much benefit. Additional red and blue light will aid growth.

Blue light stimulates the production of chlorophyl which is important for photosynthesis. The opening and closing of the stomata is stimulated by blue light to aid respiration. Blue light improves overall growth at the seedling and young plant stage promoting compact growth, one reason why large scale commercial nurseries use lighting.

I don't know much about red light other than it's important to overall growth and stimulates flower bud development. I don't recall any nurseries using light for this purpose.

Commercial horticultural lighting concentrates on blue red light. Your first link looks relevant. I won't open the Temu one as it will simply send me weeks of spam.

You don't really need to buy a special lamp. It's the bulb which produces the light. I'd put my £29 towards buying a plant. Far better value for money.

If you decide to buy a plant go to Barton Grange. Easily the best quality, and most expensive, plants in the northwest.
 
Last edited:

winjim

Straddle the line, discord and rhyme
I've just linked two lights from there. Do they sell crap stuff? 🤔

Yeah it's all cheap dodgy knockoff stuff. I wouldn't expect it to work, or to be safe, or to have been made under anything like decent working practices.
 

MontyVeda

a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
many many years ago a guy i know was growing plants under a sunlamp, the type for tanning. He was warned not to look at the light but ignored everyone and spent all evening 'watching them growing'. The next day he woke and couldn't see a thing and had to get himself to A&E in his near blinded state. Luckily A&E was only a couple of hundred yards from his flat and he could follow a wall all the way there. A couple of eye drops cleared his vision in an instant and no long term damage was done, but what a bell end!
 
Top Bottom