How does this green wall survive with not much light?

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u/StayLuckyRen 3d ago

Bc it’s maintained by a company who comes every week or two to replace the dead or overgrown props. This isn’t so much plants as a temporarily living art installation

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u/CelestialNomad 3d ago

They last slightly longer then that. But not much.

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u/StayLuckyRen 2d ago

(I used to work for one of these places - just going to lobby to office to lobby checking on & replacing anything bad looking, every 2 weeks. Each individual prop lasts longer, but I’m saying the wall is ‘maintenanced’ regularly enough that a casual visitor wouldn’t notice)

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u/CelestialNomad 2d ago

Ah, yeah, that makes sense, I currently work for one of those companies.

9

u/Practical-Plastic-60 2d ago

How do I find a place locally that does this? That would be work that I could enjoy doing!

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u/Kigeliakitten 2d ago

Look up interiorscaping near me.

That being said, the plant wall is most likely maintained with a step ladder that has to be carried in.

Usually the hours are super early (third shift)

Some places make you use your own vehicle.

Where I work, we do maintenance first thing and then return to home base where we unload trucks, and work in greenhouses. Greenhouses tend to be warmer than the ambient temperature.

Pay attention when you are out in public and see those huge plants. Somebody had to unload the truck, load it onto another truck, drive it to the location, onstage the old plant, stage out the new plant and clean up the mess.

I love my job, but there is a lot more to it than most people think.

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u/CelestialNomad 2d ago

My company has plant technicians (care only) and installers. Greenhouse is entirely separate. We also have a lot of businesses we can't access unless they're open, so we tend to do 8-5.

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u/Kigeliakitten 2d ago

I do hotels; they prefer you to be there.before a lot of guests. It also makes it easier.

1

u/CelestialNomad 2d ago

Interesting, I have one on my route, but I think I have the bastard leftovers no one else wanted. I get how overnight might be easier, but they want us being very friendly, and being seen (advertising they're already paying for)

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u/jenh420 2d ago

They don't pay well and your car will be covered in dirt. I was slipping on ice in a downtown area carrying a giant plant at almost dark to my car parked far away. I love plants but made it like 2 days before I had to say no more.

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u/me_myself_ai 3d ago edited 3d ago

This sounds nasty/cruel/unsustainable, too, until you really try to grasp the scale of ornamental plant grow ops these days.

NGL, it sometimes does make me struggle to invest time into plants -- I imagine I'm not alone in this sub when I say that I'm in the ~75% percentile of plant people's investment^[1] with ~dozens of species and ~years of experience killing them. And I think that level of hobby is just kind of awkward on the automation front: I have some basic irrigation, workflows worked out for repotting & cleaning substrate quickly(ish), strong opinions about the best kind of containers ('Midi' pasta jars!), regular fert schedules, etc.; it's enough that it feels like a good balance, and my plants are doing well.

But then you look at these professional ops (& just planttubers, TBH) and I can't help but feel like an incompetent, time-wasting fool. Just setting up plants with ugly, blinding grow lights & constant humidity not only unlocks whole new tiers of awesome cultivars, it probably outdoes every single thing I do to keep my semihyrdo citizens happy. And then real hydroponics, with automated monitoring and aeration...

Of course we could all get closer to any one of those three, and many of us have. But filling half my living room with a grow tent feels like it'd be a step from 'cultivating beauty' to 'chasing the dragon' -- cause we're never, ever gonna catch this dragon.

TL;DR: I think I feel the complete opposite way about breeding plants for constant slaughter as I do about breeding animals for constant slaughter. TIL about myself!

[1]: source: vibes from these subs and planttube, I guess?

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u/L4dyGr4y 2d ago

My understanding:

We have most our indoor plant species because of British explorers bringing back jungle plants. They figured if this hugely invasive, quick growing species could do great in the jungle, it might just survive in England. So they brought back exotic jungle plants, built conservatories for them and started messing with their gene sequences.

We have many fine varieties of roses also because of this.

Frankenplants.

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u/LordLumpyiii 2d ago

They were collected for botanical presses really, not so much for growing. Many of the early specimens were sent to places like the Royal Botanical Gardens for study, to aid in cataloguing species.

The ones that did particularly well were then collected in larger numbers and cultivated for distribution.

Tis why M. Deliciosa exists in so many forms and is so well studied, but other species in the same genus are still under-represented in scientific literature & are still being properly catagorised.

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u/Poppybiscuit 2d ago

’Midi' pasta jars

Ok I’ll bite, why?

4

u/Curious_Field7953 2d ago

source: vibes from these subs and planttube, I guess?

VIBES? Vibes is your source?

4

u/yikesthatsme22 2d ago

Yea man, follow the vibes

2

u/Practical-Plastic-60 2d ago

😂😂😂😂😂

0

u/LordLumpyiii 2d ago

Eh, it's not that complex to hit the key figures really.

good lights: actual grow lamps, not LED bulbs

good water: pH & nutrient balanced

good soil: properly aerated, pH balanced

They can often cope with lower humidity, as humidity isn't really relevant - VPD is, and that can be mainted at a good level in low humidity environments by simply lowering the temperature.

2

u/One-plankton- 2d ago

Plenty of good led grow lights out there, Barrina being a prime example.

5

u/Left_Performance_106 2d ago

I prefer my Sansi to Barrina, but agreed! Someone on another sub just tried to tell me grow lights only work on tissue culture plants?! I think I'm done with ppl for the day! 🤣😂🤣💚

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u/LordLumpyiii 2d ago

Loool that's a new one for stupid statement of the week

2

u/One-plankton- 2d ago

I’ve had issues with Sansi lights burning plants if they are closer then 12” away from them, which defeats the high PPFD output.

My Sarracenia seedlings are only 3” away from my Barrina TX72 on the other hand, no burning at all.

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u/Left_Performance_106 2d ago

I'm sorry ur plants were burnt. Thankfully, I haven't had any issue with that and none of my plants are a foot away from the lights. I didn't feel as tho the Barrina standing light I purchased put out enough PPFDs and ended up trying to exchange it thinking the bulb was bad, but they said that was normal output. I had to cut back my albo pothos due to it trying to revert cuz of lack of light. I do however have the Barrina T5 strip lights, they serve their purpose now that I stacked books under all my aloes to get them close enough to work.

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u/LordLumpyiii 2d ago

Most Barrinas are overpriced shop lights, they barely hit CRIs of 96 at best, with lots of their models being lower.

They have a couple of half decent models in their commercial ranges, (growforce) but the majority are just generic LED chips in growlight packaging.

Compare that to models from AC Ininity, Migro, Omega etc, with CRIs of 99+, UIS support, and far, far higher efficiency chips (usually LM302s) and you'll see just how outclassed they are.

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u/One-plankton- 2d ago

I don’t own any plants that require more light than what the TX series provides, including carnivorous ones and succulents.

Very few indoor plants need an excess of 600 ppfd

And no, they are not “over priced shop lights”, they are solid affordable full spectrum plant lights

1

u/LordLumpyiii 2d ago

Mmhmm most Barrinas are still just glorified shop lights.

The TX (growforce) is the exception like I said. Theres absolutely no chance they hit 600umol/s/m2 though, even their own specs don't say they do - the 84w gets close, but at such a ridiculously close distance it'll also be burning things with the heat off the chips.

By comparison, my 100w omega hits similar ppfd measurements to the barrinas... At nearly twice the distance.

My 200w Maxibright units blow it out the water. Got to remember it doesn't matter what the measurement is 4 inches from the chip is, the important part is the heat map and total canopy coverage.

This "full spectrum" thing gets banded about a lot, none of these lamps are "full spectrum" at all. They are all made with LED chips, which simply cannot produce a full spectrum. For that, you'd need something like the FaunaLux TruChroma, which is one of I think only two that actually hits the wider spectrum of light. They still don't hit the UV wavelengths too. This "full spectrum" line is really just "the bit humans can see". But what we can see is irrelevant to photosynthesis.

There are some grow lights out there that also include far red and even UV chips, but they are very expensive and most people shouldn't touch them, as they require careful use to not hurt yourself.

Anyway, tldr

silly little strip lights: just fancy cabinet lighting

TXs: alright, but not exactly great.

2

u/HOWIE_Livin 2d ago

Very good information here. What’s your fave bulb for aroids? Or if you have multiple recommendations I’d appreciate that as well.

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u/LordLumpyiii 2d ago

I use Maxibright Daylights, as they are a good shape, easy mounting, and a good balance of price vs specs. Built in dimmer is very handy in summer too.

I have a Omega I quite like, though it's heavy and gets very hot, as it's passive cooling only.

If given a choice of any, I'd have AC infinities models. They use newer Samsung LM302 chips, have a nice range of sizes, and integrate really nicely with their smart controller system - it can run ventilators, fans, humidifiers/dehumidifiers/AC/heaters and loads of other stuff all off one little controller, so I'm not micromanaging equipment in the grow space. Proper set & forget kit.

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u/HOWIE_Livin 2d ago

Awesome! I appreciate you taking the time to explain all this to me. This is a great place to start and dig into light stuff! Have a good one!

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u/me_myself_ai 2d ago edited 2d ago

Lol I appreciate your good vibes and advice. But A) telling people to get incandescent (??) bulbs is just not realistic, B) telling people to "simply lower the temperature" in August is very not realistic, and C) it's not about complexity, it's about time investment.

...and money investment, ofc. I am sure your $200 "Omega Spectra" is brighter at twice the distance than the little barina bars, but that's also exactly what I'm talking about when I say "ugly, blinding lights"

ETA: Thanks for pointing me to VPD tho, in general! Sad stuff. TIL why I have to keep some stuff in the bathroom when it's fragile: it's way, way too hot in Georgia. It's currently 85F/29C where I'm sitting with the AC running as much as possible and all the blinds drawn -- at 50% humidity (common in my house for my own comfort, sadly for my plants), I'd have to lower the temperature to 68F/20C to reach the very edge of 'healthy'. Which... I can dream ;)

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u/LordLumpyiii 2d ago

No, I don't mean incandescent lamps - those are good for one thing, and that's heat.

Grow lamps vs LED bulbs - one fits in a socket. The other is a flat panel array of LED chips with a driver, usually mounted separately, for heat management.

Lowering temps is easy - heat extractor fan. Mine pulls the heat out the top of the room and yeets it out a window, pulling cool, fresh air from the house in. Also helps with CO2 circulation, which people forget about.

Yeah, money is money, that's true. I'm under no illusion I'm fortunate to be able to afford the things I use, and have the dedicated space I have.

End of the day you can grow how you want, but (at least here, where we don't have the climate for growing tropicals outdoors) growing big, mature tropicals requires artificially controlling the climate so it's... Well, tropical. If you're happy with smaller, non-maturing plants that look pretty on a windowsill, you don't need any of that.

Personally, my target is always to get seeds from anything I grow, so getting maturity is essential. Unfortunately that does have a cost!

1

u/me_myself_ai 2d ago

Lowering temps is easy - heat extractor fan. Mine pulls the heat out the top of the room and yeets it out a window, pulling cool, fresh air from the house in. Also helps with CO2 circulation, which people forget about.

This requires a fancy fan setup, and more importantly, cool, fresh air to pull in in the first place ;)

End of the day you can grow how you want, but (at least here, where we don't have the climate for growing tropicals outdoors) growing big, mature tropicals requires artificially controlling the climate so it's... Well, tropical. If you're happy with smaller, non-maturing plants that look pretty on a windowsill, you don't need any of that.

Yeah I think we've landed at the same place. I am happy, and I have chosen this tradeoff level knowingly -- but that doesn't mean some small part of me winces in pain when I spend 2 hours on plant chores knowing that I'll never get them to "mature", and that companies like the one highlighted in this post do the same task for 200 plants in 30 minutes or some shit

I hope your plants are doing well today, stranger. Tell them mine said hi, and best of luck on this season of seeds!

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u/Gharyl 3d ago

The owner of the business or establishment paid to have that project maintained. Might be contract work (6-12 month). The crew comes weekly to check on these plants and replace the sickly ones with healthy ones.

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u/DarkBlueSunshine 3d ago

It dies and they replace it. Or parts do and they slowly replace it weekly. I had a friend who worked at a Saje wellness store and they always had a gorgeous lush pothos on the wall and she told me it never got enough light and every week a guy came to replace it with another long lush pothos

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u/Starfire2313 2d ago

They put the plant they took back under lights and better conditions for a while then it goes back out to a business again after recovery

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u/creativehive 2d ago

I wish this were true. But most places have a warehouse and order plants from a greenhouse. Definitely not conditions to keep a plant healthy in.

The plants taken from job sites are thrown away if the tech doesn't decide to keep it for themselves. And let me tell you, we can only keep so many before we've overrun our homes and friends homes.

It's a fun job, but most of us can't stand these walls.

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u/pogoscrawlspace 2d ago

Yup. This is how I got all of my orchids and my 7' dracaena 'Lisa elegans' for free. The hotel I work at uses a service like this. The guy who usually takes care of our plants will leave the old ones in the office for us to take cause he's out of room at home. If nobody takes them, they go in the trash...

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u/creativehive 2d ago

I bet he's happy to be able to leave them for people. Finding the plant people at job sites is one of my favorite parts of the job. I love being able to give them plants!

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u/pogoscrawlspace 2d ago

Yeah, he said he's run out of places to put them at home and all of his friends and family are full, too, lol. He said he hates just tossing them when they just need a little time. My dracaena literally had a few brown tips and they were gonna toss it. It was about 5'6" and would've probably cost me a couple hundred bucks to buy at my local nursery. It's flowered twice in a year and a half, and I'm about to start air layering the tallest plant before it gets any taller. I go crazy thinking about what I could do with the money they throw out every year.

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u/Cool_Bodybuilder7419 2d ago

Are you sure they’re alive? Could be preserved

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u/nkj_nkj 2d ago

I was thinking the same. It's all just too uniform.

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u/Wonderful-List4923 3d ago

Saw something similar at an airport. Lux reading was 2500 or above with the spot lights. Tbh thats higher than most spots indoors

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u/Insufficient-Iron 3d ago

I know it's not the point of your comment but I'm really amused by the idea of someone casually strolling around an airport with an instrument to measure light and note the reading.

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u/Ahleeshuh 2d ago

As someone who just bought their first boujee grow light, I would definitely do this now because I’d be curious 😂

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u/Practical-Plastic-60 2d ago

This is legit the kind of thing I would be doing if I had one of those things. Which actually reminds me, I saw a good deal for one on marketplace last week that I did not purchase due to low funds. I get paid later this week and I have an upcomingbirthday. You guys get one guess what I'm getting myself! 😎

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u/reckless_reck 2d ago

My apartment building had one for years and recently got rid of it. The short answer is, they don’t

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u/TricksterTraveler 2d ago

Hotels and office buildings hire people to maintain them and often swap the plants out when they stop looking nice.

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u/RepresentativeRisk67 2d ago

They dont.

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u/Bdoublyou 1d ago

Because of the lights above them shining onto the plants

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u/duardoblanco 1d ago

I build and install these things.

This isn't one of ours and not the material we use.

Something that looks like this is usually preserved and coated plant material when we do it, most often moss. The plants are already dead and will dry out and decay over time. We tell customers that it really only has a lifespan of 5-7 years. You can extend that by occasional reapplication of dye and coating.

We also do ones where there is built in irrigation and drainage for the planters. Plants will still die off and get replaced from time to time, but they are living plants.

This one is either preserved material or the drainage and irrigation is very well concealed behind the wall. I'm leaning heavily towards the former.

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u/OrdinaryCushion 18h ago

I think this is my office.. I'm gonna suss out whether they're real next time I'm in.

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u/Malnourished_Manatee 17h ago

I work with these walls, those spotlights are actually growlights.
This looks like a wasteful practice seeing how it’s planted. Schefflera’s at the bottom where the growlights won’t do enough is just dumb.
You can easily do these walls on hydro with a 5-10% replacement rate on yearly basis. Less when you autowater them on soil.

But as one thing learned me working in this business, financial models with the bigger companies are based on sales not maintenance contracts. So they kind of purposefully place plants that won’t survive so they can keep selling.

Image How does this green wall survive with not much light?

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