growing cattleya completely indoors

[Orchidtinkerer]

I am hoping to hear from people who have completely grown cattleya's indoors - completely devoid of sunlight so all has to be provided artificially all year round. Is it doable? I have grown cattleya's under lights for months and I know lots do, my concern are more about the long term effects of not having a sun moon cycle.
What can I expect? Does one need to alter sunlight hours to simulate nature? Will they bloom less under constant conditions? It's things I have been wondering about but not hearing from others. I will be trying all year round indoor cattleya growing, locked away from the sun and I have lights I am happy with, I am planning to provide 14 hours in summer and 9-11 hours in winter.
The most intersting thing would be to achieve flowering as that indicates one has managed to activate the plants trigger without the sun.
I know it is a relatively new field as the high powered lamps in the past were too cost prohibitive, the technology only having become decent enough and affordable in the last 10 years, I have seen a few people try it but have not seen much hands on experience detailing like no flowering or something from lack of sunlight.
There has to be disadvantages as I know trying to replicate the real thing is never as good as the real thing will be. There are of course advantages like no cloudy days and no storms but overall I am expecting to encounter some sort of issues - just not sure what would happen if I provided 14 hours of light all year round for example.
So if anybody has tips based on first hand experience what to aim for and more importantly what to avoid?

[SouthPark]

The growing under lights section has some nice details there.

For example here ...... link

There are actually some orchid nurseries out there that grow only under lights. Check out 'LittleFrog Farm' orchid nursery.

[Steve83]

They can certainly grow and flower entirely under artificial light.

leftside.jpg - Google Drive

To be honest, artificial light is the easy part with growing indoors, humidity is often a larger challenge.

One of my mini-catts, which I bought in spike and flowered in August-Sept, mounted after discovering some root-rot, is setting up to bloom again soon.

C.JungleBeau.jpg - Google Drive

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Also, I recommend using a meter to measure the actual draw of any led lamp before purchase. Not all are driven to their advertised wattage. My tent is illuminated with 100w (measured).

[SouthPark]

One orchid grower from another forum mentioned something about possible importance of having fans for air-circulation and air-movement in the indoors growing area.

[Ispahan48]

Something to consider would be the types of cattleyas you are hoping to grow this way. Certain species and primary hybrids (depending on parentage) are heavily dependent on daylength to trigger bloom whereas quite a few complex hybrids are effectively day-neutral and don’t need daylength variation to trigger bloom.

[Ray]

There is nothing unique about sunlight that “triggers” blooming. As was just stated, some catts are triggered by short day length, while others are not. That’s a duration thing, not related to the light source.

[WaterWitchin]

Light source is irrelevant. I have a good friend here who grew, hybridized, bloomed, etc, tens of thousands of Catts and many other genus in a very large cave. His retail store was in the cave. He grew there from 2001 to 2019 when a tragic fire outside the cave infiltrated the air system and wiped out over 7000 orchids, including many of his personal collection.

Different "rooms" in the cave were set at different temperatures and different light levels, both to grow and bloom anything he chose to experiment with or market for sale.

It's a matter of knowing the specific requirements an orchid requires in order to grow, then bloom. After that, it's conforming the growth area to its specific needs.

[Orchidtinkerer]

thx for the insights everyone.
Wish I had seen the cave or what he learnt in that time.

At the moment I am moving a bunch of orchids so they are all lumped together under 14 hours of light. I can't be bothered to change it at the moment till the move is complete.
I know some of them should be on winter hours. I've got an Lc orange nugget which is mainly a Rl glauca hybrid - should defnetely be resting. Will it mess this plant up for a year? I am willing to leave it and see the results.

[WaterWitchin]

The main thing he learned was a cave is much easier and cheaper than a greenhouse to control the surrounding environment.

He would grow in a basement instead of a greenhouse now if he could. But building a basement that large wouldn't be very cost effective for what he does. Housing 10K orchids at a time would be a darned big basement!

Other than that, 50+ years of orchid growing. I've picked his brain for years, and still don't know 2% of what he knows about orchids, let alone can remember. I think maybe he used to run some department at Missouri Botanical Gardens, but could be confusing him with another friend. Old here, and get my facts mixed up sometimes.

You can google Birds Botanicals, or Kansas City orchid cave, and pick up some into about it; however, it's news and articles mostly directed toward the market trade. His talks for the common market growers are completely different than those for an orchid society.

[Ray]

There used to be a nursery in southern NJ that was a giant, square box built from concrete block that was heavily insulated. Only the roof was glazed. The thing was at least 10,000 square feet, filled with benches.