A New Direction for Indoor Grow Lights

It is That time of year the pine tree behind Me is losing all its old needles and They’re just coming down like crazy Today I’ll show you a shot of the ground You can see the needles just covering The ground now It’s a good thing I have all my show Trees in the greenhouse This is the time of the year that many Of us are bringing our tropical trees Indoors for the winter and today I want To talk about light Unlike grow lights the sun doesn’t stay Static above the tree shining straight Down on it all the time And that’s part of the problem with grow Lights In nature the sun rises in the East Gives directional light to this side of The tree Throughout the day it slowly moves Across the sky at noon hour it’s shining Straight down on the tree and then as it Gets closer to Sunset it’s setting in The west and lighting up this side of The tree so again a naturally domed Canopy to the tree getting less light to The North and the South of the tree so You end up with this kind of shaped Canopy in nature In nature the light is very even from The top of the tree to the bottom

Branches because the sun is so far away There’s no variation in intensity with This short distance with grow lights if You have a grow light above here it gets The most intensity here And the light diminishes with the square Of the distance so the bottom branches Get less intense light and the top gets Really intense light so that is another Disadvantage with grow lights With most trees they’re epically Dominant so the strongest growth is on The top of the tree and with a grow Light that’s also the strongest light Source so your trees quickly grow out of Shape the Apex gets really really strong And the lower branches get weaker Because they’re weaker in the first Place and they get less intensity of Light I’ve always thought the perfect lighting For an indoor tree would be having a Light over here that starts off really Dimly simulating Dawn Increases intensity as it gets into the Sky Travels across and then sets Decreasing in intensity until Nightfall I think that would really accurately Simulate sunlight When Ross came down with the auction Ficus he mentioned his lighting system Where he had some clip-on lights that Kind of gave even light all the way

Around the trees shining in on the lower Branches some above and I thought that Was a really good system When Manuela and Reno were down last Picking up their Mall Ficus those giant Ficus benjaminas that we reduced down They gave me a gift and I think Ross had Something to do with it let’s head Indoors now and I’ll show you what they Got me Here is a look at the lighting system They got me so it’s three LED lights on Adjustable arms so you can position them Wherever you want to light up different Sections of the tree move them closer to The tree further away Very flexible system and you can turn Lights on and off individually so I’ll Show you that So there’s two lights on one light on All three lights on so you can just Manually change it if you want You can also adjust the intensity of the Lights you can go from Very dim To very bright There’s also a timer so you can have it So it automatically turns on and off In you can have it on for three hours Six hours or 12 hours So it’s quite a quite a versatile light The three lights have arms that come Down to the base here which is a clamp So you can clamp it to any bench or

Anywhere you want and it’s a very strong Clamp so it it won’t fall off Here’s a look at the controller for the Light so you can turn them Off On There’s the timer Which lights you on on and the intensity It comes with a little user’s manual and It also comes with three gardening tools Kind of cool I’m not endorsing any particular brand Of Lights I just wanted to show you this Concept having the three lights kind of Surrounding the canopy giving even light To the entire crown of the tree Indoor lighting for Bonsai is a little Different from like grow lights where You’re just trying to grow the trees Vertical Um Indoor lighting for Bonsai has to be Even like this ideally and I I think This will really really help the trees Kind of grow that Crown out so you won’t Get all that kind of vertical growth at The edges it’ll be more Flowing in more directional so I’m very excited to try these lights out Over the winter I think they’re going to Be fantastic [Music] Foreign [Music]

[Applause] Just yesterday I also got a late Birthday gift from reg and he got me an Indoor grow light which is really really Nice It’s a chip on board high intensity grow Light It comes with Glasses Hanging straps Yeah it looks like a really really good Quality one so I’m excited to try that Out over the winter too so thanks very Much reg I really really appreciate it While I’m in the plant room here I’ll Show you a quick update to my progress Or lack of it here in the plant room Up in the ceiling here I have all the Beams in place for my attic up here Which will tie all the ventilation into One chamber up top and then it’ll vent Out the side and I just got a call today That my My turbine vent which is wind powered Will suck all the air out the side here So I’ve got to pick that up today so That’ll be exciting I’ve just got some Minor work to do up here and then I can Close all this section in There is only two days now before the Toronto Bonsai society’s fall show so I Was working on this bamboo stand I added Legs to it I’ll show you that This bamboo stand started out Life as a

Bathroom mat so it’s designed to go on The floor of your bathroom so when you Get out of the shower or the bathtub you Stand on this That’s what it was sold as it’s by a Company called toiletry products you can Find them online And it’s been repurposed as a bonsai Stand now so when I was over at Matt’s Last time we cut out some legs for it Just to bring it off the The show table a little bit to elevate It so I’ll show you what it looks like Underneath So here it is So you can see there’s a leg each end And then there’s one in the middle just To support you know if you have a heavy Tree on here just so it doesn’t Buckle Or anything it’s pretty strong this so I Don’t think it would but it’s always Good to have a bit of safety So you can see it sit really good you Can’t see that middle leg you’d have to Come down really really low to Even get a glimpse of it so I think it Looks really good I I varnished These new legs with a violin varnish I Had that I made And it tones in really nicely the colors Go really really good with the bamboo so I was really happy with that My show trees are enjoying life here in

The greenhouse it’s nice and warm and Humid it should really help the moss Green up in time for the show I want to do a correction today too this Miniature Garden set Was not sent to me by Harlem Friesland That is a city in the Netherlands it was Sent to me by Klaus So thanks very much Klaus sorry I got Your name wrong My red Maples are getting some nice fall Colors Some nice Reds and yellows Yeah it looks quite nice even though This isn’t a very refined you know Pending It still looks nice and Autumn Very very nice [Applause] The Osage orange Forest is getting some Nice yellows to it It always gets nice fall colors My sugar Maples get a nice red color to Them and fall So I can hardly wait to plant all these In a forest for next spring That’ll be really cool just for the Fall Colors alone My Norway maple here is getting Beautiful yellows on it you can see the Nice kind of deep yellow color So that’s really nice beside it is the Mulberry It’s got a paler yellow color to it

My Oaks are just starting to turn Some Maple down here that’s almost a Purpley red Here’s my Royal Oaks they’re getting Some nice yellow colors on them now The black maple here Getting some nice kind of Yellows and I don’t know tan color The Trident Maple here it’s getting some Nice fall colors The elm Forest that Ricardo gave me is Getting nice Fall colors on it looks really really Cool My Willow here my black willow Getting some nice yellows on it The Larch in the northern bog Forest Continue to get their yellows and straw Colored needles There’s not a whole lot of color on my Larch Forest yet but the one tree at the Back here Is definitely turning colors My tall ash tree here has almost lost All its leaves My plan for this tree I’m going to cut It down just keeping It about this high so all this main Trunk Will get cut back and I’ll allow all These Kind of uh Sucker type growth or Clump style growth To grow up

And yeah I’ll keep it a very small Planting with very thick trunks I think It’ll look good and then slowly develop Larger and larger The catoni aster has some nice dark Purpley red leaves on it now Looks really good My Nightshade Vine the berries are Turning some pretty cool colors Oranges yellows Reds Nice to see I think it’s still Oh it’s got a purple Berry up here Really cool I’m still trying to straighten out this Piece of wood that will go underneath my Accent plant for the show Hopefully it’ll work My avatar Grove here my Eastern White Cedar Forest is looking really nice After the last pruning it’s grown in a Bit Yeah it looks really nice I um I’d love To put this in the Toronto show but I don’t know if I’ll get time to do the All the detail work on the forest floor Um I would get time except as you can See There is rain coming in tonight and it’s Supposed to rain the next couple of days So I could work on this maybe indoors But I don’t know if I’ll get time I uh I’ve got to get my plant room done also So

I should be working on that not on Bonsai but it’s hard because I love Working on the bullseye and The plant room it’s a necessity but I’d Rather be working on trees but I can’t put it off too much longer I want to thank Manuela Reno and reg for The awesome LED lights Winter I think with all that extra Supplementary lighting that’s all for Today I’m Nigel Saunders thanks for Joining me in the Bonsai Zone [Music]