Speed Up Dragon Fruit growth using LED lights at night

[haitech]

Hi, i am new here so please forgive me for not knowing all the rules.

I am trying to "speed up" the process for the dragon fruit to bear fruits, so I setup a set of LEDs (red and blue) to shine at the Dragon Fruit tree at night (about 12 hours every night). the LEDs is about 42W total and about 3 feet away from the tree. I think that if the tree can do photosynthesis during the day through sunlight, it can do so when having LED light at night too. This way, the tree will gather more food to convert to energy. Please let me know if this method would work or not work at all, or do I need extra helps. I started this process about 2 weeks ago. I live in San Jose CA so the weather is not very cold at night (not below 32 degrees F)


Best Regards

Long

[cosmotoad]

I don't know enough about this to offer any real advice, but as I understand most cacti and succulents use this CAM photosynthesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crassulac ... metabolism) so a dark period has some importance to proper growth. Epiphytic cacti such as dragon fruit/hylocereus may respond differently but I'm not sure. As far as I know a 24hr period of light may be more harmful than beneficial, but I have really limited knowledge on this subject (some smart people will probably come along to help you soon)

[esp_imaging]

Cosmotoad is right, cacti do part of the chemical processes of photosynthesis at night.
So maybe giving an extra 4 hours or so may give more growth, but 24 hours won't necessarily help.

Also, night temperatures will be a lot lower, so probably less conducive to growth.

In any case, if you already have a tree, 42W of LED's 3 feet / 1 metre away are a tiny fraction of what would be needed to make a difference.
The human eye is enormously adaptable to changes in brightness, but what seems like "bright" artificial lighting is nothing like as bright as daylight. They may seem bright at night, but won't be contributing appreciable light energy to the plant's need. You probably won't notice any change to the lighting on the plant with them switched on during the day.

To get a feel for various lighting intensities (e.g. office lighting is maybe 1% as bright as direct sunlight), check out this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux

LEDs are useful for lighting a small area e.g. a bench with seedlings, or even a nursery greenhouse full of plants raised for sale in an country with long, dark winter nights. For a large mature plant in a sunny area, you would be better off siting the plant so it gets as much natural light as possible. Or just relaxing and letting nature take its course.

[ElieEstephane]

You'd need quite a big sodium or HID lamp to push growth but it's impossible to keep an outdour plant warm during winter to keep it growing except if you build a greenhouse around it.
Give it a year and you'd wish it grows slower. My plants grow unfertilized and a little underwatered and manage to put out several branches of more than 2-3 meters each every season. And they don't really stop growing in winter, they just grow slower (around 50cm through december to february). So if you want it to grow faster, mulch it with compost, fertilize it and water more often and make sure to spray thr aerial roots too

[haitech]

I don't know enough about this to offer any real advice, but as I understand most cacti and succulents use this CAM photosynthesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crassulac ... metabolism) so a dark period has some importance to proper growth. Epiphytic cacti such as dragon fruit/hylocereus may respond differently but I'm not sure. As far as I know a 24hr period of light may be more harmful than beneficial, but I have really limited knowledge on this subject (some smart people will probably come along to help you soon)

Thank you for your respond.

[haitech]

Thank you for your respond.

[haitech]

Cosmotoad is right, cacti do part of the chemical processes of photosynthesis at night.
So maybe giving an extra 4 hours or so may give more growth, but 24 hours won't necessarily help.

Also, night temperatures will be a lot lower, so probably less conducive to growth.

In any case, if you already have a tree, 42W of LED's 3 feet / 1 metre away are a tiny fraction of what would be needed to make a difference.
The human eye is enormously adaptable to changes in brightness, but what seems like "bright" artificial lighting is nothing like as bright as daylight. They may seem bright at night, but won't be contributing appreciable light energy to the plant's need. You probably won't notice any change to the lighting on the plant with them switched on during the day.

To get a feel for various lighting intensities (e.g. office lighting is maybe 1% as bright as direct sunlight), check out this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux

LEDs are useful for lighting a small area e.g. a bench with seedlings, or even a nursery greenhouse full of plants raised for sale in an country with long, dark winter nights. For a large mature plant in a sunny area, you would be better off siting the plant so it gets as much natural light as possible. Or just relaxing and letting nature take its course.

[haitech]

Esp_imaging: thank you so much for your advice. What type of fertilizers are good for plant like dragon fruit?

[haitech]

You'd need quite a big sodium or HID lamp to push growth but it's impossible to keep an outdour plant warm during winter to keep it growing except if you build a greenhouse around it.
Give it a year and you'd wish it grows slower. My plants grow unfertilized and a little underwatered and manage to put out several branches of more than 2-3 meters each every season. And they don't really stop growing in winter, they just grow slower (around 50cm through december to february). So if you want it to grow faster, mulch it with compost, fertilize it and water more often and make sure to spray thr aerial roots too

ElieEstephane - thank you for your advice.

[Dawnstar75]

verycool