Nora,
I think that you can use regular tubes for some kinds of plants. Probably most plants would survive under the regular commercial bulbs. What you would need to do is to compensate for those plants that require more light in order to set flower buds. One way is to extend the daylength the plants are exposed to. Instead of 8 hours run at 12-15 hours.
Also how close the bulbs are to the plants will matter. Keep the regulars close to the plants within 2 inches using cool bulbs. If using warm bulbs you may want to add a small clip on fan.
Below is a link to a site that offers a variety of light bulbs/tubes. It has interesting information on light and links to grow lights for plants on the left side. I find their prices somewhat steep but it is a good source of info and maybe you can locate gro bulbs in your area that will be as suitable.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vita Lite information

Nora,

What kinds of orchids do you want to grow? This will really determine what kind of light you need.

I grow under lights, and don't have great supplemental natural light for most of my 120 plants. I grow and bloom stans, ctsms/cycs, paphs under what is primarily fluorescent lights. Although the stans do get exposure to NNE natural light. I have other low-medium/intermediate light plants that bloom well for me. My 1 rebloomed phrag needed the NNE boost of light (a large bay window) to spike.

I have 2 garage utility fluorescent type units, each has 2 40W bulbs (48 in long) over about 3ft x 5 ft space. I have an octopus multi-bulb unit with 5 x 26/32 W CFL (100/125 incandescent) bulbs as my 'high' light area, and I have 1 more area with 1 26W CFL bulb.

So I'll never bloom a catt under these conditions. But I did bloom a Zygo. Oncs also do well for me.

So, really, what are you trying to grow? I think that is the most important factor in determining what kind/amount of light you need.

Carolyn

Thanks for the info.

Carolyn,

I have many types of orchids - from high to low light ones. But for now, I want to grow phal, angraecum, cirrhopetalum, cochleanthes, galeandra, lepanthes, Paphinia, pleurothallis, masdevallia, restrepia, stelis and zootrophion under artificial light.

Are you using regular household fluorescent tubes, each 40W?

Do you mix 'warm' color and 'cool' color?

Nora

Much depends on your budget, plant type and wheather you want to bloom and grow or hold for spring.You can research standard (40 WATT), HO, VHO and T5 FL. Then there is MH, Sodium etc. It all comes down to light per square foot and heat. I suggest you purchase a light meter (20$)and visit your local stores where they have lights powered up and test the distance that gives you 1500 to 2000 FC. A 48" 4 bulb T5 Hi-Bay with mirrored reflector with daylight or warm bulbs is about top of the line for shelves IMHO but will cost about 3 to 400 bucks complete but it will grow hair on a clean dinner plate ;-)) so to speak..
Joe T
By the way, if the SEARCH is working there has been near endless discussion of lighting in this forum that should help you decide what to buy.

for a variety of plants, i would go with CFLs or some T8s supplemented with CFLs, depending on the spatial considerations of your setup.

Nora,

I just checked my 40 W 48 in bulbs- I seem to have a mix of 'Natural' light, 'Daylight deluxe' (both Philips), and Sylvania cool white. Hard to tell from the bulbs exactly what all 4 are. I think I strive for the closest to daylight/natural light that I can get, but I know that I re-search the forums before I buy each time, to get whatever is considered to be the best color of light. My HD is somewhat limited, so I have bought also from Lowes on the rare occasion that I go there - hence the questionable mix.

Well, from what I know, phals, masdies, restrepias, pleuros, zootrophions, lepanthes are all lower light, so fluorescent will work for you. Some Angs are hi light lovers, others tolerate lower light, so look into your specifics. I think cirros will take the lower light, my galeandra baueri blooms wonderfully under fluorescents. I could never get a cochleanthes to bloom (which doesn't mean much) I have a paphinia on it's way to me, so I hope they like fluorescents! And I think stelis is another lower light tolerant plant.

Hmmm, perfection gave great advice- utility type fluorescents won't make you completely happy in the end. They're great, but supplement them with some good CFLs. the light they add to a focused area is amazing!

Carolyn

Thanks for all the info.

I've bloomed minicatts, dends, cochleanthes, etc. in my basement, using 4-ft utility fixtures (plug-in, not wired-in) and regular bulbs from HD/Lowes. I have both 'warm' and 'cool' in each fixture--they're 4-bulb, so i have 2 of each.

The plants are starting to put out sprouts, so they're entering their growing season. Soon I'll increase the 'daytime' by another hour. The whole kit and kaboodle will go outside in a slat house for the summer, where (hopefully) the large catts will start setting buds like they did last year.

HTH

If you would like to see a nice lit greenhouse setup, I finished putting one together yesterday afternoon. You can check out the details on the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lit Greenhouse

Nice little setup! Hmmm. Might be a good setup for my semi-hydro pots.

Mine is working beautifully. I just made another one the other day.

With the lights on, and the thermostat in our house set to about 20 degrees celcius, the temperature inside stays between 28 - 30 degrees celcius.

With each shelf full of plants, the relative humidity hovers in the 85-90 range. With only half of the shelves full, relative humidity stays around 50%.

I make sure to open up the front once a day for about 10 minutes or so to help circulate the air.

I did try a small fan inside, but I don't have the ability to regulate air flow (one day I'll put on a resister or something to slow it down) so I can't keep it humid or warm enough inside.

I have germinated Palm seeds, Bamboo, grow Palm and Bamboo seedlings in there, and am growing a ton of herbs and vegitables in it.

Germination and growth rates are way beyond anything I have ever tried before without the greenhouses. I have vegitables germinating in 3 - 4 days that would normally take up to two weeks. I germinated palm seeds that should have taken several months, in one week. And Bamboo that should have taken a few weeks, germinate in a few days. Wow.

Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of my two greenhouses with artificial light

I set this up for the winter. I bought the rack at Lowes and have been very happy with it. It's solid, strong and
there's a lot of space between the shelves. I don't like the particle board that came with it, but I try not to get it wet.
I put up sheets of foil to help reflect the light.

On most levels, I have six full spectrum FL's. (It was the easiest and quickest way for me.) I
actually would've like to have had more. Virtually all of them are growing in some version of S/H! I have them sort of crammed in for now.
Many get moved back outside for the summer. This was really just to get through winter!!

Hopefully, I'll get around to actually choosing the greenhouse that I want this year. For now, this worked very well this winter! I'm getting blooms
and some of the really sensitive ones are even getting new growth.(C. violacea cultivars, my C. rex's, etc.)

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I think that I have eight FL's for these hanging ones. I really wanted more. Considering that I have to water
them outside and move the lights to get them down, I'm glad that I didn't add them.

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Many of my Pleurothallids are in my temperate palludarium
and even they like it brighter than I would've thought.
I notice a decline as the FL's age and I start to get mold
on my mosses.

Scott