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12-18-2007, 02:46 AM
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 Update on Orchids Under Lights Sorry to be away so long.  It is obvious I need to catch up. The office move and settling in took forever. I just thought I would drop a note after all the help I got on setting up lights for my orchids since my new office has no windows. I read all the info and was worried when the general advice is that you need at least four foot lights. I do not have room in my office for shelves with lights that long. I though well why not try something that will fit and see what happens. I found some really nice chrome wire shelves that are 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep. I found four shop light fixtures that are 2 feet long and hold two flourescent bulbs. I set up two of the five shelves with two fixtures each and put a "warm" and a "cool" bulb in each one and set them all on a timer. I selected eight of my small to medium lower light orchids for the office and the rest came home. I have been there since October and so far none have started to look light starved, one Phal. has bloomed gloriously, one mini Catt. has a bloom spike, one Encycl. is adding new growth and looks like it "might" be going to spike. I love the lights!!!!  This is my first experience but so far it looks to be working! Thanks for the help. Lashelle     |
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12-18-2007, 03:02 AM
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| welcome back  its nice to hear how your orchids are going but where are the pics of the blooms we would love to see some  |
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12-18-2007, 03:46 AM
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| I'll post some pictures when I get to the office tomorrow or the next day. I forgot to mention the lights make my office "seem" to have a window, I guess because where I have the shelves located they are just outside my peripheral vision and I just get a sense of light. It's great. Lashelle |
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12-18-2007, 08:48 AM
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Congratulations! Sounds like they like your lights. Can we see pics when they open up? |
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12-18-2007, 06:34 PM
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 Ok, if I am doing this right, here are pictures of my light set up and of the Phal. that is in bloom now. Unfortunately I don't have the name for the Phal. because it is one of my older ones and I lost the tag several repottinngs ago. I am not a good photographer, but these are fairly clear. |
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12-18-2007, 09:24 PM
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| Nice photos. I wish I can arrange my orchids as neatly as you have done I hope your move was a smooth one. Good luck with the new location.
__________________ **** **** " The good person increases the value of every other person whom (s)he influences in any way" **** |
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12-18-2007, 10:13 PM
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| looks really nice, your Phal is beautiful i am eagerly awaiting a few mystery Phals to bloom as well!i would be really interested to know your particular light setup, ballast, lamps, etc. have you done any measurements with a light meter? i may have to supplement my conditions here too, just curious  |
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12-19-2007, 01:28 AM
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| Oh goodness no! I am really technically challenged when it comes to most of this stuff. Like I said in my first post above, I was really worried that I only had room for the 2 foot lights. The best help I got was right here on this forum when I realized my new office had no windows. I have had orchids in my office for 20+ years and I just flipped until I started looking into growing under lights. My "setup" is really simple. Four extremely cheap two tube, two foot shop light fixtures from Wal Mart. I have two fixtures for each shelf with one cool white tube and one warm light tube in each fixture. I got all of the information for how to do this from a very informative thread this forum referred me to. Help me out here all you more knowledgeable folks! That thread helped me understand the basics of lights and that I did not need the really expensive light set ups to get this to work. Maybe the thread should be kept somewhere easy to find as a reference. It sure helped this lost beginner! Lashelle |
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12-20-2007, 01:43 PM
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| Oh yes! African Violets love them too! I once had 200 of them under shop lights. Unfortunately I had an episode with mites that destroyed nearly my entire collection.  Now I'm down to only about 7-8. They can certainly be very beautiful as well. Enjoy! |
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