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Effects of different colored lights/ distibution of Eastern Red Ceder



At 03:48 PM 7/1/98 -0400, you wrote:
>growth rate and got the plants to pearl... but  no change in color(not
>surprising). The CO2 really made the collected chain swords really take
>off!!(a wide leaf variety of tenellus that I have never prevously seen).
>Last month I brought some Luwegia indoors and got it to regain most of its
>original red brilliance in my 70g with the growlux/triton combination, but
>NOT in the 125g. I am guessing that the peaty water of its native pond
>absorbed much of the blue light and gave it a "natural" light heavily
>weighted towards the reds. It would be great to have research to examine
>the results of pigment production and growth rate as a function of color
>AND intensity. They both need to be considered.  The spectral studies need
>to consider bulbs with both blue, red and far red in different
>combinations. Their effects on plants and on algae (G, BG, red, etc) are
>needed. This may have already been done in Germany or elsewhere in Europe.
>Please provide references, if known, so we can get them translated. 

There is a book, I think it's called something like "Lighting for
plant growth", and it's definitly published by Kent State (University)
Press. It's from, I think the early 60's and they did a lot of 
wotk with different colored lights and their effects on plant
growth. The original "gro-lux" bulbs came out of this work although
it's interesting to note the phosphour that makes red is so very expensive
the production versions of the tube put out less than their original
formula.

It seems to me the easiest and cheapest way to make red is to
get a high pressure sodium lamp. FOr $70 CDN up here I got
a 35 "security light" which I caniballized. Plants look awful
under it by itself, but with the blue from fluorescents it
evens out nicely. It puts out something like 6000 lumens,
or about twice what a decent 40W fluorescent does.

>No, a lot of it is "red cedar" aka "eastern red cedar" aka Juniperus
>virginiana.  It's native to much of the eastern US.  It's found in
>Ontario too, although the northerly limit here is not far from the 
>shore of Lake Ontario. 

Yeah, according to "Native Trees of Canada" by R.C. Hosie, it is indeed
found up here and much further north.


--
Richard J. Sexton
richard at aquaria_net
Bannockburn, Ontario, Canada                       +1 (613) 473 1719