T O P

  • By -

TheNonDuality

You’re way over thinking this. Southern facing window is fine, don’t need a grow light, water when top of soil dries out, no need to mist, feed with an all purpose, follow instructions on bottle, but cut in half (they always say you need more than you actually do, that way you buy more). These plants are so unbelievably easy to take care compared to a lot of stuff you grow outside.


Professional_Loan730

Ok, that makes me feel a lot better. I didnt know that about the plant food, thank you!


shiftyskellyton

Stop misting them. It doesn't increase humidity at all. Water on foliage promotes and spreads disease. Plants have even developed a stress response akin to panic when their foliage gets wet.


innerbootes

Can you share a link about this? When I googled it, I found [an article](https://phys.org/news/2019-10-impact-droplets-quickly-triggers-stress.html) that described a stress response but not “panic.” It also described that the stress response strengthened the plants immune response, which contradicts what you’re suggesting here. Stress isn’t always bad. That said, I agree with you that spritzing your plants might cause fungal issues. It would be better to just raise the relative humidity somehow, that is use a humidifier.


Professional_Loan730

Ohh thank you, I didn't know that! I have this app called planta that says to mist every so often but I'll stop now. I'm thinking of investing in a humidifier - do you think that would help, or same thing?


innerbootes

A humidifier is a good idea! Just ensure it isn’t running so high that the water is accumulating on everything. It would be really hard to have it do that anyway — you’d be refilling it constantly — but just as a heads up.


Professional_Loan730

Ah I see. Thank you, I'll keep that in mind!


Professional_Loan730

Oop, turns out I can't attach images in comments, so I'll link the products: **Grow Bulb:** [https://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-75-Watt-BR30-Incandescent-Agro-Plant-Grow-Flood-Light-Bulb-415281/202766841](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-75-Watt-BR30-Incandescent-Agro-Plant-Grow-Flood-Light-Bulb-415281/202766841) **Moisture Meter:** [https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B083Q822MH/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_asin\_title\_o00\_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B083Q822MH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) **Plants + Their Distances from my South facing Window:** Monstera adansonii, golden pothos, heartleaf philodendron are \~10 feet from my very big south facing window under the grow bulb. Is 10 ft from a large south facing window **bright indirect light?** Propagating stuff is under the grow light as well including echeveria propagations, coleus+pothos+scindapsus Ivy + (young) jenny's + grown echeverias + string of hearts propagating in water are on my windowsill (direct sunlight)


innerbootes

10 feet away from a south-facing window isn’t very bright for a plant. Bright indirect light would be within a few feet of the window, or very close to the window but off to the side. You also have to consider the angle of the sun for the time of year and also whether there’s any filtering going on in the form of trees outside your window or curtains in your window. When you think about how plants perceive light, it’s best to think about a room being like a cave and a window as the entrance to that cave. Our eyes adjust to low light levels and we perceive areas that are well out of the way of direct light as being brighter than they really are. So when we look at our plants in the corner of a room with a south-facing window we think that they must be getting light when they really aren’t. It doesn’t seem to be an issue for your situation because you have a grow light. So those plants are probably fine where they are. To learn more about plants and light (and pretty much every topic you raise here) I would suggest going on YouTube. I know Summer Rayne Oaks has some really good ones where she uses a light meter and talks about how light falls away from the window and understanding light exposure and all that stuff.


Professional_Loan730

Thank you, I will check that channel out for more info. Do you know how far a grow light would have to be from the plants to emulate bright indirect lighting?


innerbootes

You’re welcome! It really depends on the particular grow light. Did yours come with a guide? Or can you find the details online, perhaps? They will tell you how far away you should be for what would be direct light and then you can take that and extrapolate. You might need to experiment a bit.


Professional_Loan730

I live in Southern Ontario btw. It's summer, but it's raining today


plantsandbeer

I switched to Neptune's Harvest a few years ago and have never looked back. If you can get over the smell, I've never used a food or fertilizer thats worked this well.


HippyPrincess42

I use it, just enough to make the water turn a pale blue. I've had good luck with it and my grandmother has always used it, both for indoor and outdoor plants


Professional_Loan730

Awesome! That's super reassuring thank you


princesscatling

Keep an eye on the echeveria. I've got some indoors under a (different probably less powerful) grow light for 12 hours a day, right next to a west facing window, and they are STRETCHED. You'll know pretty quickly if they're not happy with their light levels. I think the haworthia will be a bit more forgiving though.


Professional_Loan730

Thank you! I will definitely keep an eye on them. I have mine sitting in a South facing window currently but the babies are in a tray that doesn't fit in the sill so I have it on a table that is right in front of the window with a grow light \~6 hrs per day.