Grow Room Progress

7 years ago

Some of you asked to see: this is my setup going towards final form. I expect to have three more lights (250w equivalent 26w actual, 3000K LED floods) for a total of five. But no rush, I need more orchids! The light intensity is flexible buy raising or lowering lights and by adding and subtracting pots. The window is fairly useless in winter for natural grow-intensity light. There may be a little beneficial blue from what comes through. In addition to the lighting, there’s a warm mist humidifier for a constant humidity 45-60%. A small fan on the floor on the other side of the room gives gentle indirect air movement and a table-top space-heater (also on the other side of the room) keeps the temperature around 73F with the door closed. Just the buoyant atmosphere that I was going for. For cool/intermediate orchids (of which I have none at present) night temperatures accomplished simply by moving into a cooler room at bedtime (crack the window, close the door and instant 50 degrees in winter. The low in the grow room is around 65F, somewhat lower when weather turns cold again. I sleep under down! What you can’t see are ugly cords and extension cords snaking down the left side of the window, and there will be more on the right side. But what are you going to do?

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Comments (3)

arthurm2015
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Must be nice to have grow room when you live in a place with a real winter.

It is surprising how well many orchids will do if the day temperature lifts from temps that might be in the 40's F. But that is here at latitude 34S and the coldest ever temp outside was about 32F and that is with about 45 years of looking at the temps.

Anyway, the comments in the previous paragraph do not apply to Phalaenopsis. They spend the year in this room because "outside" here is death.

Current room readings Temp 23.9C Humidity 69%.

Only moderate success with Phals, but I keep fiddling because Indoors culture is an unknown art here in the sub tropics.

There is a 600 Litre heated fish tank in this room and Humidity readings never go off the scale.

Minor editing!
John B
Original Author
7 years ago
Thanks for your response. Yes, I used to think that living in the subtropics would be amazing for orchid growers, and maybe it is in certain ways. I remember Jane talking about various challenges that she encountered transferring her collection to Florida. What I remember about Florida orchid-wise is visiting RF Orchids and seeing so many naturalized orchids on trees and thinking, this is paradise. But growing indoors has its perks. I like having my orchids close to me in my personal living space, and creating a special environment for them. Why is "outside death" where you are, and why are Phals diffficult? They seems to require very little that the climate you describe wouldn't offer.
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arthurm2015
7 years ago
Micro-Climate, Zone 10b Sydney, Australia. There is a little problem with Zone 10b in that it only measures the minimum temperatures likely to be encountered during winter. Still it is a better description than Sub-tropical.

Today is lovely. Blue (Arizona) sky, moderate temperatures and a nice sea breeze coming in from the Pacific.

Not so good tomorrow! Max temp 35C plus. No sea breeze and the wind will come from the arid interior of the continent and the humidity will be low.

There are some 90 orchid societies in the state of NSW.

At the last local orchid society show in a shopping centre there were 112 orchids in the display and the Phalaenopsis count was 1.