John, what the heck? You holding out on us?

I've been asking for pics of flowers all over the place on threads and you have yet to post any, but I see many in the distance. Great job!

I wish I could afford a couple of nice light set up but I have to rely on my south facing windows. Just my space heaters alone on my cold porch and my greenhouse are breaking my bank. A measly 60 to 70 a month all fall but come winter, my bill skyrockets to over 200 a month on mostly one space heater, let along two and then to add lights would kill me. I wish. Great job and nice plants and thanks for the comparisons..

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5565014/whats-flowering-for-you-december-2018-january-2019#n=87

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5579982/blooming-in-january-2019#n=4

Mike

Seems like a lot of lights for the area you are covering. From what I could make out from your earlier photos, it looked like you had some indirect lighting from the window. I would have though with that and a few 100W bulbs you would be OK.

When I started using my basement to winter plants, I was using 5, 100W CFL bulbs and almost zero natural light.

I have since change over to LED grow lights. I know you don't like the purple grow lights, but when the regular room lighting is on with the grow lights, the purple is less noticeable.

Mike, that was an earlier HID setup from when I lived in NYC. Got dozens of pics of this setup and plants grown under it. James, what I noticed with my PAR meter is that the fall off between the LED spots was pretty sharp, so I squeezed as many reflectors as I could across the span (and the natural light is NNW, which is almost nil in the winter). However, good point about using lower wattage bulbs. These may be overkill. Kind've followed my nose on this first LED setup and this is what I ended up with. :)

Who would have guessed that light bulbs would become so confusing?

LED, CFL, incandesent.

Watts, PAR, Lumens.

Color temperatures .

Back when the other lighting thread was going I thought it would be interesting to put 2 different type bulbs on either side of a plant. I wonder if the plant would bend to one or the other. Say a 100w CFL and 100w equivalent LED placed at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock.

James, I have wondered the same thing. Ha One of us should try that some time since I have both too.

Maybe after I'm sure my plants are growing any direction.

John, like I said, you are holding out on us. Please post any picture to my threads I started about flowering plants? I would love to see what you have buddy.

By the way, besides Citrus, I had NO idea you had so many orchids!

John, I would like to know your watering practices for your orchids.

Do you spray them? Use a faucet? Just water them like house plants, the potted one that is? Do you ever soak any for a period of time? How often?

I noticed you have a ton of aerial roots on many that are very healthy. So please, let me know how you keep them that way))

Mike

Thanks Mike. Just to be clear, the picture I posted of the table and wings with lots of orchids is a previous setup from my Manhattan apt. I'd be happy to post pictures of those, but those plants are long gone. In my new setup here in NJ, I only have about 10 plants to date. My watering practices have never been anything fancy. In Manhattan I could use faucet water - NYC has a reputation for some of the best faucet water in the country. I'm on a well here in NJ so at this point I'm still buying water for my orchids. A RO unit is hopefully in my near future. I stress over watering my paphs and have a tendency to keep them slightly on the dry side just from fear of overwatering them. when I get started on my MSU forumula I plant to fertilize them (paphs) at 125PPM every other watering, and even when I do fertilize, will pre-water before fertilizing. I use the "skewer" method with most of my orchids to help me decide when they need moisture, but I hate pushing a skewer into a relatively small paph pot so I’m try to develop a feeling for pot-weight and timing. It’s hair-raising! My less sensitive plants I’ll fertilize at 125PPM three out of every four waterings with a generous drench for the 4th. Of course I’ll monitor progress on this and have a sharp lookout for brown tips on thinner leaved varieties. Most interestingly for me is the amazing proliferation of healthy arial roots. If what they say is correct (i.e., that to grow a healthy orchid you grow healthy roots) then I guess I’m doing OK. I described my simple warm mist humidifier in your post about humidity. The room is fairly small and I just keep the door closed. There’s even a heating duct directly below the window sill and even this doesn’t seem to bother them. I’m convinced that maintaining humidity above 40% certainly helps. However, I’m equally convinced that the lighting I’m using seems is the main influence. I’ve never had arial root growth like I’ve seen on these plants, and they are receiving very little natural light. It’s almost a little shocking, as if something may not be quite right. You know, like those ridiculous pictures of giant-sized vegetables a person can supposedly grow if they use a particular product. I’ve never had a cattleya establish itself after repotting so quickly. It’s sending roots all through and over the edge of a clay pot. I accidentally nicked off the tip of one of them. I noticed yesterday, that it is regenerating the tip and branching off both sides of the damaged root! I should be having nighmares of waking up one morning and being covered with orchid roots! But anyway, I’ll be happy to post pictures of past plants, as long as it’s understood that they’re several years old. I successfully grew a rather wide selection of plants under 500 watts of HID light. This is quite a challenge to live up to in my reduced setup of a long window-sill. It does seems to be perfect for paphs, so I see myself goign more strongly in this direction. I can do another general setup in my downstairs "family room" but being a single guy, I'm just not sure I want to concentrate on a hobby that keeps me so tied down. I sweat missing more than one or two watering cycles and this seems a little silly, as much as l love them.

Oh, I am busy with the water-mister several times a day. I hate seeing a dry-looking orchid ! I don't mist the actual plants (except for the mounted phal - just because it doesn't hurt the plant and it's easier to just drench the whole plant than just getting the roots), just the surface of the medium, and those roots!

Attached a Blc Susan Holguin and an Ascocenda purchased from RF Orchids. Both flowered under HID light (no natural light). The cattleya was just placed on the windowsill for display.

Guys,

James, I'm the one who has an aversion to the purple light, I keep my purple LED light set-up hidden in a back un-used 1/2 bath. I do agree that trying to compare lighting can be confusing, and that I may not be looking at things the right way. But, I can say I feel as though I'm doing pretty well as far as growing and blooming a wide variety of orchids under lights for @7 months out of the year. My collection has dropped to about 70 plants, but most of those plants are ones that have proven themselves with me over that last 10 years and are becoming fairly mature and reliable.

As far as some of the other things mentioned in the thread:

1. I do have 1 100 watt CFL mixed in with 6 200-250 watt equivalent LED floods. If anything, the spikes/growth heads towards the LEDs, but it isn't really significant.

2. I just counted and I have 24 orchids of various types being covered more or less by the 6 LED/1 CFL set-up, many of which are blooming or spiking.

3. I've found (and mentioned in other threads) that you should get floods with wide angles beams, it causes the light to spread and overlap which allows for good light spread evenly. Some of the narrow beam spot floods may only cover a 8"-12" area from 24" above. Makes for good penetrating light, but not much coverage. I've found that a 30 degree or more beam works best for me.

4. Personally, I think $30 bucks higher isn't bad, especially if the temps dropped outside.

I've been growing under lights for @20 years and I've used about everything, FLOURO/HID/HPS/CFL/LED, I've tried them all as far as indoor growing. My oldest and best tool is my 3 tiered light cart with 4/40W T12 flouros per tier, I can bloom about anything I can fit under that cart. As far as the other lighting, the LEDs have been the best bang for the buck for me. For example, I currently cover slightly less area (was @5'x5' with HID now @4'x5' with LEDs) with my 6 23-27W LED floods as I did with my 400W HID. Less than half the electricity is being used by the LED set-up and I think I get about the same quality of light, especially as I move the floods individually up or down as needed. Also much less heat generated by the LEDs, although it's -2F here in western Ohio right now and a little extra heat would be most welcome :)

Good discussion and stay warm everyone,

Bob

Loving your continuing disclosure of your success rate, Bob. You definitely aren’t the only one who hates the purple light. I think I’d rather not grow orchids at all if I have to look at them under that weird light. So happy you guided me to the 26 watt full spectrum LEDs. I’m past the point of trying to figure them out. Exhausting and unproductive. The proof is in the pudding or words to that effect, as you’ve stressed several times. I’m running eight of them and am definitely getting some heat benefit from all those. It’s welcome but I have to be more vigilant about keeping temps in the mid-70s, otherwise I’ve noticed my humidifier struggles to keep up. It could also use a cleaning. I hate taking it off-line long enough to do that. I guess I could get another one.... We’re headed to -4 tonight. I’ve already lost the cold water in my kitchen sink. Good luck with the polar vortex. Are you north of Cincinnati? My Google map shows a place called Lima going down to -8 tonight. Stay snug.

John,

I'm @60 miles north of Cinci and just slightly north of Dayton. I live in Vandalia, the "Crossroads of America", very close to the interstate 75/70 interchange. The Crossroads used to be the intersection of highway 40 (The National Trail) and highway 25, which is right in the heart of Vandalia.

-3F actual, -25F wind chill as I write this e-mail and temps are supposed to drop to -7F by daybreak. The furnace is getting a real workout the last couple of days.

Bob

Yep. It was -7 when I got up. Now up to a balmy -6. By 9:00 It will be time for the Bermuda shorts.

10 above in Vandalia right now, but I haven't broken out the shorts quite yet. Furnace is finally caught up and not running 50 minutes out of every hour. We are supposed to be in the upper 50's by Sunday or Monday!!! That's the kind of crazy up and down weather that gets people sick with colds and such...

Bob

Bob, don't you just hate the sound of that furnace going on every 5 minutes and still seeing the temperature in the room below the target set? I hate it. The only thing I like about the furnace running is that it's working. I am going through oil which is at 2.69 a gallon! It cost me 524 dollars to fill 160 gallons and it only lasted 2 and a half months! Now this last fill at which I could only afford 150 gallons at a modest 400 and something dollars will surely last less than that. Really frustrating.

I have a question for you all.

I just saw some LED lights, T12 cool white shop lights at a store. Would I be smarter to use those or should I stick with my 100 watt CFL dyalight bulbs? I am so confused about lights. I even bought thse listed below and have no idea which is better or is less expensive too run(

Are any of these better than any other? What would you use? Would you even use any for any amount of time or how long if all your orchids had the oppurtunity to face south facing windows in a very warm room like mines do? and skip lights all together?

I bought all of the lights you see except the long shop lights.

https://www.oceanstatejoblot.com/searchresults?Ntt=shop%20light&Nty=1&No=0&Nrpp=12&Rdm=945&searchType=simple&type=search

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MSMKBG3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N48PJIF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NISDNU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

John, wow, thanks for all that info. I really apprciated it. So you misted the aerial roots often? That I wish I could do. I could stick every orchid I have into my greenhouse, but it's just too small. That is why I grow them in a sunny south facing window. Great work and what beautiful pictures!!!

Mike

Mike,

Of the ones you show, I'd go with the $19.99 4' LED shop light, it looks like a better light than the $14.99 one. I use 3 2' 2 LED shop lights in a couple of spots in my grow room and they perform well. I use mine in 'narrow' areas as I try to keep the plants directly under the lights (hint, hint...). I use one as supplemental light for an east window and the other two are hung over my mounted orchids in a darkish corner.

If the HIGROW wasn't pink, it may be a good light. It has been my experience that those big LED lights have longevity issues. I've had to replace broken/noisy fans on a couple of mine in the past and as I recall 1 or 2 just stopped working. Mine were made in China, so who knows what quality or lack thereof they may have been.

Bob

Hi Bob. Actually it was Mike that asked about the lights. But I'm always happy to hear input about lights too. I find that I'm raising LED floods a little more. I'm breaking the rules - my eye is telling me to do that. My Gomesa according to the AOS likes low to intermediate light, and to me the leaves look like they're a little light-stressed. The new growth looks very good but already rimmed with purple. Maybe I should throw that PAR meter away after all. My Phal. schilleriana is fully bloomed, but oddly the lowest flower on the spike is farther away from the rest of the flower grouping. I don't know if this is weird LED stuff or what. Otherwise, the blooming is very nice.

Hi Mike. Thanks for the nice comments. Yes, I give most of them a few squirts throughout the day, heavier first thing in the morning. But, no matter what I did under the HID lights, I never had this kind of aerial root growth. And paired with that HID fixture I used a hydro-fogger on a humidistat. You should have seen that kitchen after a couple of years. Not pretty. But it wasn’t pretty to start with so really no big loss. Unfortunately when the kitchen was re-done, the orchids had to go. You sound like you have great light. I’m wondering too – do you need supplemental light?

Oh, we cook! I had use of the oven and stove. Not for a gang of people but enough for me.

Bob,

Would you us lights if you had your orchids in a south facing window, especially now that February is here? It pretty bright in that room with a skylight near over the top of them. A lot of light comes in. What would you do and thank you? Here is a flower I took for you today of a plant you gave me years ago. I always remember that. Thank you.

John, thank you! So you are single? So am I? It stinks when you want to watch a good game of football though or a nice movie.lol

Yeah, you both have the nicest looking orchids for being grown inside. James too.

I am so confused and I think it's because I have been sick. Can you re confirm what lights you are using now, if you are extremely happy with them, and pictures of them?

Between all of you, I am trying to kale sense of what I will use and feel more comfortable. I like Bob's ideas about using the L.E.D lights since they are so cheap.

Mike,

I still wouldn't have room for that Ang. :)

As far as the south window, it would probably depend on how many plants I was trying to grow in the area. The more plants the more likely I'd use supplemental artificial light for the ones on the periphery of the better natural light. I do over-winter a fairly large cattleya gaskelliana alba in a south facing bathroom window without any supplemental light. It occasionally blooms during the winter but blooms more reliably when outside during late spring - early fall. It has 'owned' that south window space for the last 3-4 years.

Here's a shot of my main spare bedroom grow area from last year, little has changed as far as the lighting situation. There are mounties lit by 2 2'/2 tube LED shop lights to the left of the 3-tiered light cart. My 4'x5' area lit by 6 LEDs and a 100W CFL light is to the right of the cart, it's used for taller and spiking plants. On the right side of the picture is an east facing window with an LED supplemental light above and a 2'/2 tube LED shop light hanging under the potting bench shelf.

Bob