Author Topic: Office plants  (Read 1547 times)

Office plants
« on: 12 October, 2020, 05:02:22 pm »
We've no natural light in my office.
We've a couple of plants in pots which seem to be doing rather well.
How does that work then?
The whole photosynthesis thing, I mean.
Do they not need UV light?

Re: Office plants
« Reply #1 on: 12 October, 2020, 05:31:35 pm »
You are sure they are living plants and not artificial

Re: Office plants
« Reply #2 on: 12 October, 2020, 05:36:37 pm »
Not artificial.
Plant Man comes in once a week to water them.
Of course, he could be watering artificial plants......

Re: Office plants
« Reply #3 on: 12 October, 2020, 05:38:36 pm »
They don't need UV. Red and blue is sufficient.
What sort of plants are they? A lot of house plants are from fairly 'jungle like' conditions so don't need vast amounts of light.
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

Re: Office plants
« Reply #4 on: 12 October, 2020, 05:46:33 pm »
I think Yucca and Sansevira.
I'll check them tomorrow for plant-authenticity.
The only light cast on them is from flourescent lamps.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Office plants
« Reply #5 on: 12 October, 2020, 07:28:18 pm »

They may do ok from the lighting you have. They may also just be dying very very slowly...

You can get white grow lamps that are very useful for such lights. Ikea used to sell them but stopped, cos they were a good product...

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Office plants
« Reply #6 on: 12 October, 2020, 07:29:29 pm »
Decent fluorescents are certainly fine for plant growth, if they're bright enough.  *gestures at the nearest aquarium*

Mind you, I haven't herded fish since before the blue LED revolution, and it seems likely that the fish tankists are all using LED sources that look like something out of the eBay 'NOT CANNABIS' catalogue these days.

ian

Re: Office plants
« Reply #7 on: 12 October, 2020, 08:47:40 pm »
Depends on the plant really, some need bright lights, some don't. Yuccas mostly thrive on poor everything, the average office being no less desolate than the desert. They don't like the cold or temperature fluctuations though.

Plants generally don't like UV any more than people, it generates the same sort of oxidative stresses.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Office plants
« Reply #8 on: 12 October, 2020, 10:00:33 pm »
Strikes me that the average office is warm and high in CO2.  Especially on a Friday afternoon.

Re: Office plants
« Reply #9 on: 13 October, 2020, 07:33:23 am »
How will working from home affect the world of office plants?

Don't they need human voices?







Move Faster and Bake Things

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Office plants
« Reply #10 on: 13 October, 2020, 07:34:32 am »

They may do ok from the lighting you have. They may also just be dying very very slowly...

You can get white grow lamps that are very useful for such lights. Ikea used to sell them but stopped, cos they were a good product...
...for cannabis farning gangs.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Office plants
« Reply #11 on: 13 October, 2020, 12:00:16 pm »
...for cannabis farning gangs.

I'm pretty certain they aren't that much use for pot growing. They just aren't sufficiently efficient in terms of the right light and heat for the plants. What's nice about them is that to a typical human, they look white, even tho they have peaks in the red and blue that the plants need. This means that if you have one setup for your house plants, it doesn't look to the outside world like you're in the red light district...

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

ian

Re: Office plants
« Reply #12 on: 13 October, 2020, 12:42:38 pm »
The light frequency response for plants vary, it depends on the additional pigments in the light-harvesting complex for each of the two photosystems (which themselves work with different wavelengths). This also varies with plant tissue and position. These pigments are colours you see in autumn leaves. They determine how light energy is captured and then transfer that energy step-by-step to an electron which is used to create a voltage gradient. So, they are – in fact – electric*. The gradient drives phosphorylation reactions which provide the cellular 'fuel' to fix atmospheric carbon dioxide into longer chain, soluble carbon compounds such as sugars. Fixing carbon doesn't require light, just energy. There are microbes that fix carbon non-photosynthetically.

Growing your cannabis under very bright lights results in poor quality – what tends to happen is that produce lots of leaves and photosynthetic material, but you really want them to generate cannabinoids, which they won't be doing if they're throwing all their energy into growth.

*so are we, the mitochondria that power our cells do the same thing, energizing electrons – this case by breaking down sugars to produce energy rather than using photons – to create an electrical gradient across a membrane). All life depends on reduction-oxidation to drive electrical gradients.

Re: Office plants
« Reply #13 on: 13 October, 2020, 05:28:17 pm »
How will working from home affect the world of office plants?

Don't they need human voices?
Mine were in a very sorry state when I collected them from the office the other week. Although they get plenty of light in there, they had obviously not been watered regularly enough. However, one of the joys of succulents is that they are very drought tolerant and they are all making a good recovery at home. I can't believe they had no water for six months, but they certainly had not had enough.
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

Re: Office plants
« Reply #14 on: 13 October, 2020, 06:47:59 pm »
At home I've a money plant (well, four of them actually, in the same pot) which I've abused and neglected systematically since 1994. It has moved house twice and continues to thrive as my all-year-round christmas tree.

It's currently in a west-facing window so veers towards the robust.

ian

Re: Office plants
« Reply #15 on: 13 October, 2020, 07:45:19 pm »
We bought our plants home. Admittedly, we have about 100 already, so it didn't make much of an impact.

Re: Office plants
« Reply #16 on: 13 October, 2020, 08:44:02 pm »
We bought our plants home. Admittedly, we have about 100 already, so it didn't make much of an impact.
I was on the bike on the day of lockdown, so no option.  Last time I rode.  :-\
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

ian

Re: Office plants
« Reply #17 on: 13 October, 2020, 09:09:53 pm »
We bought our plants home. Admittedly, we have about 100 already, so it didn't make much of an impact.
I was on the bike on the day of lockdown, so no option.  Last time I rode.  :-\

I have a feeling that being the savour of the office plants was just my wife's excuse to expense a taxi ride home.

Re: Office plants
« Reply #18 on: 14 October, 2020, 03:35:33 pm »
How will working from home affect the world of office plants?


My boss went in to the office a while back and took a photo of my little spider plant as I'd asked her to check on it. It's most definitely an ex-spider plant now. :'( I watered it really well back in March, but back then I thought it was only going to be left for a couple of weeks... :facepalm: