Believe it or not, plants need darkness at night. Lower temperatures combined with shortening days (longer nights) signal some plants to bloom and other plants that its time for a well deserved rest. In spring, lengthening days (shortening nights) and warmer temps tell them its time to wake up.

Don't deprive your plants of darkness. Instead, adjust your timers to give them long summer days and shorter winter nights. They will thank you for it.

I was wondering about that as to whether plants need darkness as well as light, I knew some plants did but wasn't sure if it was the same for all plants but it makes sense as that what they'd have in nature out in the wild.

One of my palm tree seeds has grown a little shoot I'm so excited by it it has taken less then 4 weeks for that palm seed to grow its tap root and shoot up a little green shoot.

We brought a coconut home from Hawaii one time. It sprouted 3 days after planting!

I'd love to grow a coconut tree here in the UK but I've heard its next to impossible to grow one here, I don't think Kew Gardens even has one...lol I was told that Mango's are also impossible to grow here but after doing some extensive research there have been people growing them as house plants and can last up to 10 years until they get to big for the plant pot. They will never fruit tho but are interesting to look at and have as plants. I have 6 mango seeds that I've planted so far. I'm hoping that I will get one or two good mango plants out of them. Its more of an experiment I must admit I'm quite abscessed with the idea of growing a mango plant, if I succeed I'll try growing a papaya next although I'll probably just try grow one any how. One thing I wish I could do is have the roof on my house removed and have it replaced by a glass roof, then my whole house can become a jungle of exotic plants.

I just saw this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I've grown them as house plants in the past until they got too large for my space. They do make nice plants. Give it a try if you have the space.

Nice music too.

We kept ours in our sunroom (8 ft x 12 ft) - it quickly grew fronds that were at least 6 ft long. When it was about 9 months old and the only way into the sunroom was under the palm fronds, we had a week when the temperatures never rose above freezing. The Coconut Palm died pretty fast. Don't tell the kids but I have never been so happy to lose a plant.

plantmanager said:I just saw this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I've grown them as house plants in the past until they got too large for my space. They do make nice plants. Give it a try if you have the space.

Wow thats amazing I love videos like this. I'm going to try grow one now I wonder how its doing now?.... They might be good for putting outside during summer...

My palm seed that I'm growing is a phoenix date palm. I think coconut trees over here will be dead in 2 or 3 months so I'll probably won't bother with attempting to grow a coconut tree.

And then reality set in.....(don't you hate it when good sense takes over?)

Friend of mine just found papaya growing in her compost pile, so papaya seeds may be easy to start. I've had mango pits in the garden in summer but never had one grow.

I friend of mine told me that papaya plants don't make very exciting plants when growing them in the UK plus they have very long tap roots so they may not be good to have as a pot plant indoors, however I might grow one or two any how after I've got my mango plants going.

Ah, coconuts, mangoes, papayas and bananas...so common to grow in the tropics ...I do admire your goal Kevin. These trees/plants really require intense humidity, water and sunlight. Well, if your goal is not to have fruits, I guess it is worth trying to grow them just as ornamentals and see how far along they will survive. But the hot temps and corresponding humidity it needs to thrive will be a big issue. Growing them in ground is best. In containers it will be very thirsty. In the Philippines where I come from, they endure over 6 months of rain, and high temps ranging to lows of 78F and highs of 85F or much more. It will be too hard to replicate indoors, it will be too steamy to say the least.

It may be best to find other kinds of tropicals that are more indoor friendly.

Bananas grow here in the UK or at least here in the south of the UK. I have been very amazed to see people growing banana trees in there back yard with bananas in fact just at the end of my road there is a banana tree in somebodies garden that has bananas on it. We have had a lot of mild winters here recently and also some very hot summers, it probably has something to do with global warming... like 10 years ago it was thought that was impossible for banana plants to bare fruit here in the UK but now they have become a very popular plant amongst UK gardeners. I expect that there covered up during the winter time but even so its nice to see and very interesting as well. From my research with people growing mangoes here, people have successfully grown mango plants in pots from store bought fruit as indoor plants and last for many years. I think the UK has almost the right conditions as long as the plants are looked after.

There are many different varieties of banana plants as well maybe the ones here are hybrid banana plants which adapt to UK climates lol

4 of my Mango seeds have started to grow, there shooting up pretty fast I would have had 5 mango plants but I accidentally snapped the tap root on one of them when taking it out of the container I sprouted it in so I don't think that one will survive.