Grow Light for Pachypodium

9 years ago

I have a nice Pachypodium lamerii that I grew from seeds. It's currently about 24-28" tall (tallest stalk - 4 total). I just moved it a little bit further from its window (rearranging the living room) and I think it might appreciate a little supplemental light. I was wondering about grow lights. I use an LED fixture over my planted aquarium, and also over my reef aquarium, and I see that there are LED grow lights too. I don;t mind the look of a fixture hanging from the ceiling - I think it's kind of cool, actually... So my question is, what sort of wattage, spectrum, etc., should I be looking for? The plant is in an 15" pot and doesn't spread much beyond that. It still gets plenty of indirect light, but I think this plant would do better than it ever has if given a lot of good quality light... Any thoughts or recommendations?

Comments (2)

rooftopbklyn (zone 7a)
9 years ago
If you aren't tied to LED philosophically, 6500K "full spectrum" CFL (the twisty looking bulbs) work quite well. The advantage is that they can go in any old light socket/fixture and are widely available. LEDs can be great but there's a lot of trashy LEDs out there for big $ with big marketing claims I'd take with a grain of salt.

T5 tubes (also 6500k) work great as well, but the fixtures are more expensive - though some of them are also more efficient, mainly due to reflector design.

You really can't go wrong with fluorescents, especially if you stick to 6500k color temperature.
keltic_pickle
Original Author
9 years ago
Interesting... I will look into that. Certainly would save some money. I guess I should go with the highest wattage available in CFL? And find a fixture that would help focus the light better I guess... Thanks!
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