A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Coleus and other House Plants

Alright, I had a problem but may have just fixed it. My 30 coleus plants had been growing outside all summer in 1/2 to 3/4 shade. Well I didn't want them to die so I set up a little room in the basement for them to live in. (I can't have it upstairs because my dad hates plants and does everything he can to kill them.) Well there is NO sunlight to the little area and I only had a couple fluros to light it with. I lost 5 coleus and 5 geraniums so far and the others are looking down but not out. I've been asking around and a couple people told me to get a 300W HPS light to light the area with. I did all the measuring for the room and it will easily take a 400W hps... so that's what I purchased. Will this help? I love my plants and really don't want them to die. My Grandma also gave me some ancient tropicals that they said needed more direct sun light. They are kinda like palms but I'm not too up to date one these tropical plants. Will the HPS help?

I'm not familure with that type lighting.I have 1 small one I rooted and a small pot of seeds sown.I keep them above 50.they sit in a broke pottery thing so it has its own lil area.& they are placed near the grow light.ever thought of grow boxes?would be a white box and the white would help make more light for the plants.

do you know what kind of tropicals?or able to post pics?

This link pretty well explains everything and it was given to my by mindyourownbusiness who is really great at growing stuff indoors.

grow lights

I hope this helps.

I'm sorry you have to raise your coleus in the basement, but it's best to accept whatever we need to deal with and move on, I guess.

Yes, I like the idea of white boxes - definitely grow lights.

You might want to think about asking somebody who has a sun porch to invite the coleus over for a few weeks, then you can collect them when it's time to put them back in the ground.

I was pleasantly surprised to find, over the course of the last two years, that it IS possible to keep the coleus alive in the house. I have a lot of it - it starts lagging sometimes, but I just persevere with it.

Then come May, out to the table garden it goes - then it starts growing nicely again.

I just did up two of my pots - one was getting so tall the stalks were sagging - I cut it back and dipped the clippings in hormone, then plugged them back into the soil.

I was sorry to see that tall one start lagging, but it was amazing it did what it did.

Ahhhhh! Here I am with pictures - this is the big coleus I was talking about - just look left to right at the montage of pics here - the bottom right is the trim-down I did a couple of days ago.

You can see by the bottom left where it's still outside at the end of the summer and the one in the middle where it's standing in the lobby that this one got pretty tall.



Let's hope she gets tall again this summer.

I've got lots more coleus. It all started from a few sprigs I was given in the summer of 2k4.

Regular flourescent lights would have been just fine. You don't *need* those high wattage HP lights.

Tom

I use full spectrum lighting helps keep light bill a little lower.
Jimmy

Yep, I have lots of white pots and boxes down here. Thanx for all the info too!! My main problem with my 4ft grow lights I have is the ballasts kept buring out for some reason. They also seemed to not provide enough light for the coleus and the palms. My Norfolks LOVE it down here!! I figured if I hooked up the High Preasure Sodium light to a power coverter then hooked that to a battery then a solar panel I'd have sufficient energy for a perpetual light machine... free of the energy coasts ha ha haa. I have a 150w hps up right now and that brought my coleus back to life very quickly!! I also had some sapphire dragon trees starting to grow and they really took off since I put that light up. My friend said it's the closest you can get to the sun with artificial light.

I will see if I can get some pics of my coleus for everyone, they are starting to look a lot better now. I can't wait to get my big light though!!