Lighting Assistance

[Vivienne]

Hi all, I'm seeking assistance and suggestions on lighting.

SETUP: I have my orchids in an 'atrium' - 10' x 22' room with 3 equally spaced 3' x 6' sunlights (no windows). The room has track lighting (6 cans) on the 10' high ceiling with 6 halogen floods. The room itself gets wonderful natural light through the skylights, except on cloudy days and if there are snow drifts or ice on them. The orchids are placed within the room based on the current angle of sunlight (if that makes sense).

QUESTIONS: To supplement the natural light, what would be the best option for light bulbs in the track lighting? Flourescent/incandescent flood/spot? Are halogen good/bad for orchids? Should I add additional lights anywhere?

Any assistance would be great! Thanks - Vivienne

[mayres]

Room lighting from ceiling lights is for all practical purposes useless for orchids. In order to be beneficial your plants need to be inches away for fluorescents (and then only low light orchids such as phals and paphs) and no more than a few feet away for HID's of say 400 watts. Incandescents are generally not viewed as feasible to use as supplemental lighting because they are so energy inefficient (but if you did they would also need to be close). If you don't have enough natural light you will need to think about providing a specific "plant area" with specific lights set up just for them. Hope this helps. mike

[Vivienne]

Thanks Mike - that is where my thoughts were going. The natural light seems to be adequate... just worrying about the cloudy days. So far (I've only been in this house for 6 months) the orchids are all enjoying the room. I guess, in their natural habitat, orchids have those cloudy days as well.

Thanks again!

[pikevi]

I think you may need broad spectrum lighting for the plants. Your track lighting could take 'plant lights' ,perhaps up to 75W per can( may be less).

I have 4 X40watts fluorescent broad spectrum lights and a 150W incandescent plant light for an area of, roughly 11' X9'. As mayres said the incandescent light is very inefficient and generates a lot of heat. I also have an additional track lighting 2X60 watts which I rarely switch on.

Plants seem to be doing well.

Attaching a photo to show the plants which appear to be healthy.

(Speakers are installed to play music to the plants for about 2 hours or so off and on )

[God.Jr]

wow i've been wondering about getting some lighting for my guys to but seeming as though it is summer and we have a lot of light it's not a big thing right now
actually i think my one orchid is doing better now that i have reduced her light........ but i must say pikevi's lighting set up is looking really impressive.

the problem i find is we have a lot of these energy saving lights and those don't really get hot enough do they?

[Buttercup]

You crack me up Pikevi, you play music to your orchids. I love it.

[pikevi]

hi,

Thank you God.Jr. So far they are doing well. Hope I will have a continued success.

Yes, Buttercup, I do play music to the orchids .. usually classicals. And my wife thinks that I am crazy!!, lol . One of the PCs is in the adjoining room and it made it a lot easier to connect the speakers through the wall.

[Vivienne]

LOL pikevi - you crack me up too. Oh what we do for our beloved orchids!

[pikevi]

hehehhehe,

May be Cynthia can help us here. I remember reading about some controlled study on the effects of various music on plant growth,health and yield some time ago. I don't remember where though .

Whether the plants like the music or not I like it when I am doing something in that room !