callistemon kept indoors

[mrhatmostly]

Apart from the gentleman from Germany asking for help in a previous topic - there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on attempts at indoor growing. Have many people attempted this? I just thought it would be a nice alternative to have in the house!

What I took from the other post - don't over-water and make sure it has sunlight. I don't tend to heat the house even though it is Hobart and use a sprayer to keep the leaves moist.

Jon
Bonsai noob, Hobart

[Elmar]

G'Day Jon,

trees live outside, generally.

There are some that are more tolerant and can be kept inside for a while, but I don't think that applies to Ozzy Natives. Our natives have adapted to the various Australian environments, but because of ACs and Gas Heaters, the inside of our homes are a different thing entirely ... while we, at times use green houses to shield our trees from the worst of the cold, they still should be kept outside.

Tasie can be quite a bit colder than other areas of Oz (like where I live) and should you want to grow trees that struggle in your environment (not sure why you would want that - you live in a place that the most popular trees love) then you would have to create an environment where they would do better, which may include having them inside your home.

Like I said, my environment is challenging and I am looking for ways to cultivate trees that I like even though they may not like my place! Thats part of the fun of learning about Bonsai.

[kcpoole]

Check out this thread by the ficus guy re his indoor setup for figs. viewtopic.php?f=133&t=9569&start=0
having anything else indoors would be even harder.

To achieve the required light levels a tree required indoors is actually quite difficult and expensive. It is nowhere near enough just to stick it under a flouro tube for a couple of hours a day.

A couple of sites might help out
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight this says that typical surface illumination on an overcast day is 1-2,000 Lux

the definition of Lux is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux 1lux - 1 lumen over 1mmsq,
A flux of 1000 lumens, concentrated into an area of one square metre, lights up that square metre with an illuminance of 1000 lux

From here https://www.greenbusinesslight.com/page/ ... -and-watts
we see a 32 W flouro tube if we concentrated its light to 1Msq ( eg place it in a 1m square reflective box) will give approximate lighting of overcast daylight.

The fact the light will spill out in all directions if placed above the tree will reduce its luminous efficiency markedly.
To place it in a box sorta kinda defeats the purpose of having it inside as I assume you would do that to display it.

ps. this is an interesting exercise and quite enlightening as many years ago I worked at macquarie Uni, and one of the contruction projects was to build Light rooms to grow plant indoors. I do not have any pictures unfortunately, but they were rooms 6 x 3M, with mirrored walls, and the ceiling was Glass and suspended above were packed with as many light fittings that would fit.

amazing to be inside with them on and sunglasses were a must and still they were less than daylight!.

Ken

[HarryBek]

I have recently moved into an apartment due to work and don't have a balcony big enough to have my bonsais outdoors. I have been in the apartment for approximately 10 months. My plants sit on a shelf in front of a west facing window which is always open to allow fresh air and that room never has heating or cooling applied. Thus far all plants seem to be doing fine. The plants include a liquid amber forest setting, a magnolia( recently posted a photo to the deciduous thread under "First Autumn Colour", European Beech, Chinese wisteria, japanese wisteria & cotoneaster. I believe the trick is to avoid heating and cooling where the plants are located, plenty of fresh air and a light mist daily. Watering will vary based on the species you have, the soil condition and the climate.

I also rotate one plant to a ledge I have on the balcony every week or so which may make it less stressful on the plants.

This is my personal experience and by no means gospel.

Cheers,

H

[mrhatmostly]

Obviously they are traditionally an outdoors plant - it's just that I've seen a few places (websites) list them as indoor bonsai. This is obviously no guarantee but I guess I'll try to keep it misted and I have a very naturally lit house, so will report back with findings!
Thanks!