Plant help needed!

[Clarke221]

As I've mentioned before, I do not have a green thumb at all. Both my chams have hibiscus in their cages, and I am having issues with them. I have grow lights over both, 60 watt, and they are close to a window where they get a little light, but the leaves are yellowing, and any blossoms that come along end up getting about half way to blooming, the petals are white, and they fall off before they ever open up, and the outer covering on the blossoms is still green, not yellow. The soil is not too moist, I just water them when they start to get a little droopy, which is about once a week.

Do I need a better grow light, or do the plants just hate me?

 

[Thompson]

Do you have the 6500k grow light? I would get two of those for the hibiscus. I watered mine twice a week.

 

[Clarke221]

When you say 6500k, do you mean flourescent, or compact flourescent? Both of my enclosures are 18x18x36, so I could probably do one 4ft flourescent light over them, the compact flourescent seems to be a better setup, but that means purchasing two, and they're expensive. Don't mind spending money to keep my chams healthy, but wouldn't like to spend $140 on lighting.

 

[Psi]

I think I got my plant grow light for like 15$ at a home depot.
Then the fixture (my dad had one lying around) is like 20$ new as well.

 

[Thompson]

6500k is the color temperature of the bulb. They are not expensive, only about 6$ per bulb I beleive. It's a fluorescent linear bulb. http://www.lowes.com/pd_196250-371-85154_0_?productId=1229501&Ntt=ge+daylight+&Ntk=i_products&pl=1&currentURL=/pl__0__s?newSearch=true$Ntt=ge daylight

 

[tdotcham]

i wondered the same thing. i purchased a hibiscus from HD and it blossomed a flower, which shrivelled up the next day... now all the leaves seem to be droopy. i wasnt sure if this was due to lack of water but ive been watering it every other day

 

[SSimsswiSS]

As I've mentioned before, I do not have a green thumb at all. Both my chams have hibiscus in their cages, and I am having issues with them. I have grow lights over both, 60 watt, and they are close to a window where they get a little light, but the leaves are yellowing, and any blossoms that come along end up getting about half way to blooming, the petals are white, and they fall off before they ever open up, and the outer covering on the blossoms is still green, not yellow. The soil is not too moist, I just water them when they start to get a little droopy, which is about once a week.

Do I need a better grow light, or do the plants just hate me?

i wondered the same thing. i purchased a hibiscus from HD and it blossomed a flower, which shrivelled up the next day... now all the leaves seem to be droopy. i wasnt sure if this was due to lack of water but ive been watering it every other day

If these plants where previously raised outside, they will go throught a bit of moving shock. Moving them from the store to home, and also a indoor from outdoors thing. If your only watering when you see a droop, that droop can be enough to cause the plants to lose their blossoms. You need to make sure soil does'nt dry out too much in between waterings.