And not WEED BK!
I started apple trees from seed in my fridge and now need to move them into soil. Do I need to buy the labeled growing bulbs or can I use any florescent bulbs? The growing bulbs are 3x the price.
DT
Most any fluorescent lights work fine, just keep the plants, er.. um.. trees in close proximity.. 
I saw the subject line and chuckle wondering what is was going to be about. I saw the poster and a BIG smile came across my face and said “this is going to be good”.
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And not WEED BK!
Popped that bubble. 
Would it make you happier if I add a 
to the end of that sentence?
DT
Oh yeah…the apple tree strain
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Would it make you happier if I add a
DT
Just for another split second.
BTW I think some of your guests at your bed and breakfast could have answer this question…no?
Found this using the Google.
“Sunlight contains the complete spectrum of light including all colors of the rainbow: red through yellow to blue and violet. Plants use the full spectrum for photosynthesis, although red and blue light seem to be most critical. Red light stimulates vegetative growth and flowering, but if a plant gets too much red light, it will become tall and spindly. Blue light regulates plant growth, which makes it ideal for growing foliage plants and short, stocky seedlings.”
DT
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Quote:
Would it make you happier if I add a
DT
Just for another split second.
BTW I think some of your guests at your bed and breakfast could have answer this question…no?
They would never answer the question honestly because they are all of course NOT guilty. 
DT
He got weed!
He got weed!
From my experience starting peppers and tomatoes in the house…
The grow bulbs provide a full spectrum of light and the plants will grow faster and stronger compared to flourescence light. Neither have enough wattage to be a long term plan though. After a couple of months you wind up with skinny spindly plants-the grow bulb just results in plants that are a little less so. The professional basement grow operations (insert weed joke here) use high wattage industrial lights very close to the plants. That’s often how they get caught (fires, increased electrical usage, heat signal picked up by IR scanning).
Anyway, in your application have the light(s) as close to the plants as possible and provide a gentle breeze with a small oscillating fan (to build stem strength). Rotate your plants daily. Don’t fertilize, and water only when needed. It’s going to be tough to keep them going beyond last frost.
Good luck.
I don’t know how many states it’s legal in now, but it’s just a matter of time.
Tracker, just imagine there’s an apple logo on these.
You are aware that the fruit you will eventually get will most likely bear no resemblance to the apple the seed came from. Apple trees are propagated by grafting.
Yup. These are more for wildlife but also some for eating. Im doing pear trees as well.
DT
Did you know that in general pear trees only bloom every other year? Dad had a pear tree.
Medical McIntosh?
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Did you know that in general pear trees only bloom every other year? Dad had a pear tree.
We had four trees when I was growing up too. There are ways to make it easier for them to bloom every year. You want to thin out the pears if they are bunching up in areas and bending the branches down. The problem is after a bumper crop the tree resources have been tapped and don’t have the strength to produce new blooms for next year. After the tree matures (10+ years) this problem pretty much resolves itself and thinning is not needed as much.
Nothing better than a fresh pear off the tree in your back yard. And the deer absolutely love them. We only seen it a couple times but if they sit on the ground and ferment for awhile the deer will actually get a little tipsy. We had one that could barely stand after a little over eating. 
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From my experience starting peppers and tomatoes in the house…
The grow bulbs provide a full spectrum of light and the plants will grow faster and stronger compared to flourescence light. Neither have enough wattage to be a long term plan though. After a couple of months you wind up with skinny spindly plants-the grow bulb just results in plants that are a little less so. The professional basement grow operations (insert weed joke here) use high wattage industrial lights very close to the plants. That’s often how they get caught (fires, increased electrical usage, heat signal picked up by IR scanning).
Anyway, in your application have the light(s) as close to the plants as possible and provide a gentle breeze with a small oscillating fan (to build stem strength). Rotate your plants daily. Don’t fertilize, and water only when needed. It’s going to be tough to keep them going beyond last frost.
Good luck.
For t’maters and peppers, I typically only use a grow light when the seeds are first germinating. After they develop their first true leaves, I move them to a west-facing window where they can get full sunlight.
I don’t know how this would apply to trees, though.
Here are the results after a few days under the lights. Most are breaking through the soil with one shooting up quickly. I bought a full spectrum bulb. It doesn’t say GROW light on it but has the same specs and half the price.
DT
What I thought was cool was I was able to almost watch the change with the tall one. Every few hours I would check on them and I could see a noticeable difference. 
how are you going to keep these plants going until April or May? the last frost I had last year was about May 10th or so.. that’s a heck of a long time from now..
You don’t need those full spectrum bulbs. Use a cool white bulb and a warm white bulb. The cool white bulb has more of the red spectrum where as the warm white has more of the blue spectrum.
keep the light as close to the seedlings as possible this and placement in a cool room promote s root growth and helps prevent spindly stems.
So are you saying in a two bulb fixture have one of each bulbs? I did read online where it mentioned those two specific colors and what they do for plants.
DT
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how are you going to keep these plants going until April or May? the last frost I had last year was about May 10th or so.. that’s a heck of a long time from now..
keep doing what Im doing. Eventually Ill transplant them into bigger containers.
DT
Yep, a 2 bulb fixture with one of each.
Coolest thing is starting plants from seed. Fun also.
This reminds me. I need to dig out the moss rose seeds and start them early this year. I have the intension of doing that every year, but ultimately drop the ball. They don’t start blooming then until July.
Im going to try that one this year , I thought they were apple seeds , officer ! 
Here is an updated pic.
DT
Looking good!
Looks really better than mine right now! Very nice!
(My seeds are still in the envelopes from season before last.)
We were lucky to have a couple of mader plants out last year knowing that our garden wall replacement was going to really disrupt the garden.
Here is where I need to be right now. This was 2 springs ago, right when I transplanted them.
Here is an update on my trees. 1st pic is apple and 2nd pear. The apple were started before the pear.
DT
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