Indoor Tropical Plant Care: A Guide

[skywolf]

so i want to grow a tropical plant indoors

im thinking about buying some plexiglass, a lamp, a fan,soil, and something to keep moisture in the air and growing it in there.

i was wondering if there were any guides to this, or if i should just experiment
(different moisture/light/air flow)

all i really know about the plant is that it is tropical (grows in brazil)
vine-like
can be up to 30 ft long (not sure what to do about this)
doesnt grow in temperatures less than 18 c

 

[Ouabache]

You don't know which plant? Perhaps you can submit a picture, we may be able to narrow it down.

In most countries plants are not allowed to be introduced until they have undergone a rigorous quarantine (to be sure they are not harbouring any invasive insects or diseases and that the plants themselves are not an ecological threat to our environment). I take it, you've found this plant locally.

 

[Evo]

Please don't tell me you're planning on growing an ayahuasca vine.

 

[turbo]

Please don't tell me you're planning on growing an ayahuasca vine.

Kids these days! It's not enough to get high, to make it fun you've got to puke your guts out. :yuck:

 

[skywolf]

nothing dangerous, its called guarana
i found some seeds online, and i thought it would be a fun challenge to try to grow them in chicago

my plan is to try to immitate the rainforest as much as possible and expirament till it works

 

[DocToxyn]

You'll obviously need full spectrum lights that replicate sunlight. You may also need some source of heat, depending on what the ambient temp is, and how fast you want the plant to grow. Do you have any hydroponics-type stores in near you? They usually have some experience growing odd plants indoors. Looking around the web, it looks like it's a fairly standard tropical plant that doesn't require anything too fancy, you may not need to enclosure, perhaps just frequent misting (unless you house is really dry). Good luck.

 

[Evo]

nothing dangerous, its called guarana
i found some seeds online, and i thought it would be a fun challenge to try to grow them in chicago

my plan is to try to immitate the rainforest as much as possible and expirament till it works

guarana is a shrub, not a vine. Be honest. You said this plant was a vine growing up to 30 feet, that would be ayahuasca.

 

[Ouabache]

Ayahuasca would make a unique addition to anyone's atrium, but let's take a closer look at Guaraná (Family: Sapindaceae, Genus: Paullinia, Species: cupana)

It is a shrub but also has vining habit of growth (poison ivy also does this), and can grow up to 30ft. I can see the subtle incentive for growing this one. An extract made from its seed has 5X the caffeine as coffee. That'll wake you up

ref

Guaraná, as it is known in the Brazilian Amazon, is a vining shrub growing to approximately 10 m in height. The glossy green leaves bear large clusters of orange-red fruiting capsules at their ends and each capsule contains a chocolate-brown seed. It is the seed of this plant that has been highly valued by traditional peoples, due to its high caffeine content, which is approximately 4 to 5 times as much caffeine as coffee.

Well tropical plants do like high humidity.. I've seen folks have good luck, growing tropical plants in their bathroom. They do get nice and steamy with humidity even through the winter months. A window with sunlight would be ideal. But if that is a limitation, grow-lights would be a reasonable supplement. This reference describes various grow lights. Look at the photosynthetic activity graph. If you want mostly vegetative growth, choose a light with a bandwidth of 400-500nm. If you are more interested in flowering and budding, choose a light with a bandwidth of 600-700nm. You will often find there are growlights that are strong in both these spectral ranges.

 

[Moonbear]

Well tropical plants do like high humidity.. I've seen folks have good luck, growing tropical plants in their bathroom. They do get nice and steamy with humidity even through the winter months. A window with sunlight would be ideal. But if that is a limitation, grow-lights would be a reasonable supplement.

I was basically going to suggest the same thing. Bathrooms work well for growing orchids too. They love the steam from the shower. The growth of the plant might be a bit slower indoors than in its natural conditions, so it might not be much of a problem, but you should look up whether it's possible to prune the plant, and when the best time for that is, if you need to keep it smaller.

Also keep in mind that the daylength in the tropics is considerably longer than in Chicago in the winter, so you may need to keep those grow lights on longer than regular daylight hours where you are. Look up the daylight conditions for the latitude it normally grows at to try to approximate that.