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Office Plants

MegaSpokaneMan

MegaSpokaneMan

Hey all,

I have been growing a Yellow 7 Pot and a Naga Morich at my desk at work for around 8 months... they are getting pretty sizeable for only being under 3 T8s. The yellow 7 is about 3 feet tall with a four foot canopy, the Naga about 2.5 feet with a 2.5 foot canopy. The pots are three gallons for reference. Does anyone have any suggestion on to as to how I can get them to flower ? They are getting light for the T8s from 8 to 5 M-F and then only indirect window lighting on S & Sun. I am trying to come up with a way to increase this that is office / work friendly. Any input ?

- Sean O.

nyblvo.jpg
 
From what I can see in the photo, you only have the overhead lights and the window light on them. While you have stated the lights are T8's, that only really tells us the size of the bulb, not the volts, wattage, or most importantly, the lumens. Most office flouros are okay for growth, but insufficient for production. Office-friendly options may include installing your own T8's (assuming you can get higher lumens and they'll allow you to swap them out) or getting a floor or desk lap to supplement.
 
I have done a couple of office grows now, due to me changing offices so many times in the last year, I think there are ways to pull it off. Last year I had a prik kee nu and a datil in the office. The setup was a northeast facing window and the ambient lighting in the office and the prik kee nu produced like crazy, but the datil only produced a few dozen very small pods. I would say the nodal spacing was about the same as what I see in your pictures.

Here is a pic of my current setup.

Untitled by GhostPepperStore.com, on Flickr

Bulb is a 150W equivalent CFL, 42W (I think) 2800K, ~3000 lumens. The big plant is a prik kee nu and my office-mate is growing a prairie fire ornamental next to it. I have a timer set to 18/6 light cycle.

Untitled by GhostPepperStore.com, on Flickr

The nodes are staying really tight under this light, but the plant is really small. I cut it back and took all pods off of it about 2 weeks ago but as you can see it is just about to flower again.

This light is probably only going to be able to cause flowering for these two very small plants. If needed, I plan on upgrading to one of these bulbs http://www.1000bulbs...C105-S27OD.html. 7000 lumens should be enough for about 3-4ft^2.

My recommendation would be to cut your plants back to a managable sized canopy and get a couple CFLs. Try to get your lumens/square foot to at least 2000. I would think you would start seeing flowers at that point.

If you do not want to cut them back, then I would recommend a variety with a smaller fruit, so far they seem to do much better for me in low light conditions.
 
Watts and voltage means nothing as far as Lumens goes.
I can get T8's that all are 32watts but put out from 1800 to almost 3000 Lumens in various K ratings.

Watts is volts X amps.
Nothing to do with Lumens.
Just power use,how fast your meter spins.
Watts per Lumen tells you how efficient your light source is.
At work where you don't pay the bill,who cares about watts ,amps. or voltage?

Peppers don't need any specific wave length to fruit like some other plants do.
More Lumens never hurts though,to a certain point.

I'd go with trying a little more calcium (for bud set)and some type of low nitrogen fert.
More Bloom by Alaska works for me.
There are a lot of ferts out there that promote flowering.
Liqinox bloom , 0/10/10 is another fert. for blooming

Your plant doesn't look like it is hurting for light in general.
Not a hedge but healthy looking.
But,as I said more light can't hurt.

Fluoros from 5000k to 6500 k worked for growth and budding.
I know guys who put higher Lumen fluoro bulbs in the light fixtures over their desks ( fixtures in the ceiling)to get their office plants to grow better.
Put timers on their desk lamps on weekends etc.
If you have the 6 or 8 bulb light bays in the ceiling above your desk just put higher lumen bulbs in it or even take off the clear,blistered cover.
Here at work they just put in new bulbs recently.
You would be supprised how much brighter new bulbs of the same lumen are compared to 2 yr old ones.
 
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