Light Set-ups - What I would do differently

[PhalPal]

I'm a true believer in the fact that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes. Although I love my lights and the choice I made, I think it will be helpful to others trying to decipher through the mountain of options available for indoor lighting. I'll start!

About six months ago I purchased a four foot/four bulb bank of T5 lights. The growth I have seen in my plants versus a very sunny window has been amazing. In addition I have fans, one humidifier and all plants are set on humidity trays.

Problem #1: The main problem I have had is just part of the learning curve, but I really had to adjust my watering to accommodate how fast these lights dry out media. Even spraghum moss in a small pot would be crispy in a day. I ended up repotting almost everything into a little bit larger plastic pots and using a coir mixture that works well for all my orchids. This was something I wanted to do anyway so it really wasn't a big deal and I LOVE the plastic pots!

Problem #2: I went to lights because I wanted to expand to something other then Phals. I wanted to try a few mini-catts and if my Phals we no longer blooming in the window I couldn't expect Catts to thrive, so enter the T5's. These lights are very intense and will easily burn a Phal (or anything!) if too close, so it is difficult to mix high and low light orchids under lights this strong. I tried moving them to the outer ring of the light range, shading them, moving the Catts and Oncs up......it just got to be a mess and made it difficult to water without getting lots of water in the crowns.

My solution: I bought some quality (relatively) shop lights with a good reflector and will now separate my high and low light orchids. This way I can have everything at an even level on the humidity trays, making the positioning of the lights and watering much easier. My plants will have more elbow room and make it easier to see a problem should one occur.

I made my light stand from PVC pipes and it was a great choice because I am STILL changing it constantly! Now having two light sources will make it easier to design two different stands that will work best for the different light intensities.

I hope this helps someone make a decision about lighting; I know how overwhelmed I was!

[mayres]

Excellent - good post! I also use BOTH kinds of fluorescents. Shoplights for my phals and paphs and my T5 for all medium to higher light needing plants. I was also quite surprised how far away the plants needed to be from my T5 to keep from turning them red. I was so used to having the phals and paphs as close as a fraction of an inch from the bulbs with no negative effect - and now plants over a foot away from T5's appeared to be suffering. I was also not prepared for the fact that the T5 would end up being a supplemental heating source for my area - it essentially shut down my auto-thermostat heater in the same area during lighting time - which in my case was not necessarily a bad thing.
Another excellent point made - be prepared to modify your area(s) after purchasing high output lighting fixtures, be they T5 or HID - you may need to be either closer or further than you think.

[clarita]

Great Thread and a topic dear to my heart .
Media changes are key
Things I may suggest beyond plastic (smart move)
How fast is the air speed? It sounds like air could use a decrease

Please keep your eye on the temps on rack growing especially with hoods. Hoods tend to be heat trappers. I had that set up at one time and the heat got pretty high during the warmer weather. I switched to an open light system and got off racks (I know it may not be possible) I blow the air at the bulbs not on the plants.

t-5's do ok in as supplimental lighting tandem with natural light source.

What is your RH currently?

[Uechi]

I know it sounds weird but you can tilt the T5's in the relector/s at an angle. Put the plants that need the most light nearest the low end of the lights and the others farther away or higher up on the angle of the light. Not particulary pretty but it works darn good.

[PhalPal]

Clarita I am a little worried about the heat trapping with the shop lights. Thanks for the suggestion to aim a fan at the lights. I have two smallish fans plus the air blowing from the humidifier. They are sitting on three different corners of the table coming from different directions. The smallest tower fan stays on 24/7 and has a minimal breeze, as does the humidifier that can't be counted on as a true fan due to inconsistancy. I have a 12" fan from WalMart that is great and has three speeds. I only use 'high' just after watering.

There is no way I need more light than I have with the T5's! 6-8,000 fc is very easy to achieve with no natural light. I had Mike's problem with burning some leaves on Onc's and the bulbs were 18" from the leaf tip receiving 3,000 fc.

I live in a VERY dry part of the country and 50% humidity is max of what I can create without wrapping the whole set-up in shower curtains. This is with humidity trays and a 'cool mist' humidifier sized for a medium room. We are kind of weird in the regard that we get drier as we get warmer. Comfortable for us; it makes 95 feel like 80. I was all worried about this lack of humidity and eventually gave up when my ochids decided they didn't care either and just went ahead and grew and bloomed anyway!! I do, however, need to pass on some orchids I would like to grow but cannot provide for without fighting mother nature. The FredClarke does not care one little bit!!

[clarita]

Humidity is not much to be worried about really. It just makes one water more when its not present. I've had high humidity and I've had dry. It may affect colour a little bit but honestly I feel humidity is a Victorian growing concept that we all use a a crutch. I've gotten away from those myths being an indoor grower and nothing horrible has happened other than me watering more often. I mean we put our orchids outdoors for summer and don't stress about humidity Light is way more critical IMO, fresh air too. Not a breeze but just good old fresh air. Hard to come by in certain parts of the country at certain times of the year.

50% is good. You don't want more than that in a house. It becomes a hazard for you and the orchids, believe me I've been there. Mold sickness is not pleasant.

The only other suggestion I can offer is to cut the run time to keep the heat down. I just saw a thread about fc's per day here. Good info. I grow things in higher fc's and cut the run time so I am not adding to the heat factor. I think its important to note that culture sheets indicate the minimum fc's under which a plant can flower. Increasing (and of course acclimating) is not going to hurt provided its within reason.

Those are some of the ways I have found to manipulate my areas at certain times of the year. Hope it helps!

[PhalPal]

Thanks Clarita; somehow I missed this post. I don't move my indoor orchids outside during summer. We will fluctuate between 75 to 100 (rare) through summer and after those really hot days our nights are always, always thirty degrees (or more) cooler than the day time high temp. During summer a humid day is 30%. My orchids just don't seem to appreciate all the ups and downs so they just stay inside. My Cymbidiums, however, love it! This will be my first fall coming up, so to initiate spikes on my Phals I will just crack the window in my orchid room and they will get a great chill down.

[clarita]

Amen! A Stable indoor situation is better than outdoors.

You're lucky to be able to do cyms. I've tried cyms up this way. You think they would like it. Nope!. That is one I wish I could grow. I settled on Cymbidiella. More reaosnable culture for this zone

[PhalPal]

Clarita I learned early on in my orchid growing hobby not to fight Mother Nature. As hard as we may try, it just can't be duplicated. I'm trying hard not to become TOO big a slave to my orchids!

[sandra]

I'm still thinking of getting indoor lights this coming autumn. Connie, thanks for posting what you've run up against. From your experience and noting the challenges, you've answered questions I didn't know I would have.

One thing I've noticed about water retention in the plastic pots. The pots with the horizontal slits, dry the medium (especially sphag.) out much faster than the pots with the holes on the bottoms. My Toluminias are now in the horitzontal slitted pots, in sphag and lately, I've been watering every other day. Last year at this time, in the other pots, it was averaging every 3-4 days.

[janet_a]

current AOS bulletin has a big article on growing under lights....