I have a room that has a blocked south window ( another house is in the way), where i have a young bird of paradise plant in a 1 gal pot, its under 2 Argosun dayspot 60 watt grow bulbs.

My questions are I have an aquarium light 48 inches long i could maybe rig up to hang over the plant on a wall. would either have to have a clear plastic shelf there or long nails, i like the shelf idea better as it feels safer.

What would the best light to use be?

Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) require a lot of sun to thrive so I'd say give it as much light as possible. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for a comment from a member who grows this as a container plant.

Plantsmylove: I forgot to say to All Things Plants!

PML, I don't know where you live, but Birds are tropical plants that grow outside in full sun in native regions. I hope you will be able to grow it outside in the spring/summer months. You will be rewarded with beautiful flowers. You might be able to grow it indoors year-round, but keep in mind that Birds can get really huge. Also, I doubt you will ever see it bloom unless you have an awful lot of artificial light (lumens), and the correct light spectrum.

I'll ask the people at world of fish they sell lighting. I live in MN zone 4.

I know some indoor growers use HPS lighting..high pressure sodium light or some use T5 lighting. It all depends too how much money you can afford as you run those lights.

Well I'm lucky in that I live in a group home.- the company foots the electric bill and my rep payee cofoots the bill into one big lump/bill we all pay out of SSA. We get living payments/utilies rolled into one bill. That being said I dont know how they'd feel about a high watt output light in my room. But I do have a light hungry BOP. I did ask and the staff- kim didnt say yes but she didnt say no. I mentioned I would remove one of the clip on lights and use it for seed starting. I do know that we cannot have curtain power strips because of codes. Which could limit my lighting. I could when I clean my room, move the power code up onto the table but I worry about mist/water and electric. DANGER.

I do have 3 grow lights already and feel that saving one and getting more powerful lighting would be wise just dont know if I have enough cord length, keep fingers crossed..

There have been a lot of posts and articles discussing various lights (for plants). I wouldn't think you would want to use a sodium vapor or mercury vapor bulb regardless of whether your "association" allowed it. They gobble up a lot of energy and get very, very hot. T-5 fixtures are economical and you can get fluorescent tubes from 2000K up to 6500 K range. Also you can use 2' or 4' fixtures, with 1,2,4, or even 6 tubes per fixture. Thus for not much money, taking up not much space, generating little heat, having a range of K that is plant friendly, and putting out lots of lumens, T5 fixtures would be my preferred way to go, particularly in your situation.

Thanks i will look into it when i can.

Update on my Bird.



after re potting It's been having issues with leaf curl/burn so i moved it away from the light about a foot or so, and cut off the part of burned leaf. plus the shelf was begining to buckle under its weight so i moved it down. its responded by straitening out its leaves and sending out a huge new leaf. white fleshy roots are already finding their way to the bottom. i think it likes its lighting system because its litterly growing a leaf every month.

I hope it grows flowers in a few years i did put in red sprectum bloom lights too.

That might help.

we can only hope.... this may...... late may i'm putting it outdoors at the community garden sense they get full fun and its safer for things then my neighborhood.. if Helen and Rose say its okay that is.

diffenbochias stay inside/ pothos get devided and so do purple heart plant.

Your bird will certainly do better with some time outside, in full sun.