How much light should I give my White Bird of Paradise?

BirdofParadise · Wed Jan 04, 2012 1:11 pm

I have a White bird of Paradise that is 2 years old (I've had it for 4 months, bought it at Home Depot, it was a vegetive propagation from Florida they said). I also have a HydroFarm 125w 7000lumen fluorescent grow light.
They dude at Home Depot said the reason I won't get it to bloom here (Northwest Arkansas) is because the days are too short. Well, I have this grow light, and an electronic timer, how much extra light should I give it? Should I give it like 5 extra hours light in the evening? How many hours of light should this plant get total?
This thing is growing new leaves like crazy, it freaking went crazy when I repotted it.
So, how much light?
Wanna see it grow a leaf? It takes a month total, this is the final 10 days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnYwjy3AOLI

applestar · Wed Jan 04, 2012 2:05 pm

I don't have a definitive answer for you, but the issue here could be daylight length OR amount of light. In terms of dayghlight length, the closer to the equatorial regions you get, the more even 12/12 hr day/night you have throughout the year, unlike in the further polar latitudes where days are longer in the summer and shorter in the winter.

I used to have a regular bird of paradise, and that flowered when kept in the SE kitchen window with a supplemental light -- this meant it got artificial light the whole time we were awake... Until about 11PM. I have a photo of it in flower while a blizzard dumped snow up to the windowsill one winter.

So I don't think it needed a 12/12 daylight schedule. But this is based entirely on my observation of the one plant.

BirdofParadise · Wed Jan 04, 2012 4:42 pm

It's in a directly south window, it gets sunlight from about an hour after sunrise to a half hour before sunset. So like from 8am to 3pm. So it gets 7 hours of hot direct sun, and then I also have the grow light running from 4am-7:30am, and 3pm-6pm. It's really responding well since I got the light on Dec. 29, growing easily 30% faster.
Did you have the Orange Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia Reginae)?