MORE buds!

[VickiC]

Hi,
My Bc. Little Marmaid 'Janet' bloomed today! My 2nd plant to bloom! Well, actually one of the two buds opened. (pic. attached)

I know you won't laugh at me.....you promised.....I have a question, please: Should I wait for the 2nd bud to open before I take it from my orchid room where it lives to a different room inside the house to enjoy while it's blooming? I don't want my only other bloom to blast from the move and the light change, of course. Advice, please?

Thanks in advance,
Vicki

Originally Posted by VickiC

Hi everyone,
Just sharing my joy: I was looking at the wandering roots on my Bc. Little Marmaid 'Janet' this morn., and looked up to see buds! This will be the second orchid that is (very hopefully!) going to bloom for me.

Since I still haven't learned the correct way to update an old post, I just copied and pasted it at the bottom of this one....just for the heck of it.

Now, I have a question, please. My Bc. Little Marmaid 'Janet' stays in my orchid room and generally nobody but me goes there (I only sat it on the kitchen table for the pic.). Should I continue to leave it in the room where it stays.....or would it get upset (and may not bloom), if I move it to the kitchen table where it would get approx. 1000 fc from an overhead plant light .....less than the amount it's getting in my orchid room. ??? I will place it wherever you advise. (oops....I forgot to post photos)
Thanks for reading.....and I would appreciate any advice you can give me.
Vicki

My old thread:
Hi everyone,
First of all, those of you who are "professional" orchid growers.....and even those of you who are "semi-professional" please try not to laugh at me because I can't help it. I have to share my excitement with you, though.....one of my orchids (my Zygoneria Adelaide Meadows in S/H) has buds on it for the first time.....first time buds for me on ANY of my orchids! I just noticed it this morn. at breakfast. It's a Lowe's "bag-baby", by the way. I know my lil buds are small and certainly not even blooms yet.....but more encouragement than I've had so far in my less than a year of growing. Ok, give me the negatives.....what are the chances they make it to bloom stage? No worries.....you won't burst my bubble. Thoughts, please.

Well, that's my news for today. Thanks for reading.
Vicki

[ChasWG]

Vicki, Wow! Nice lights. But I think I see why the heat build up. As quiltergal said above, the key is venting the heat upward. It appears that those fixtures have metal cap cover the whole deal. Those 4 bulbs packed that tightly together will get hot. I had a simular setup on a saltwater fishtank I used to have. The problem I had was that the florecent lights were actually raising the water temp too much. You want to talk about touchy things, saltwater creatures (corals) freak out when anything gets out of range. Anyhow, the lamp fixture I had looked very simular to your's and it too had an issue with heat build up. Of course the next incarnation of the same lamp included a small fan built into one end and vents on the other end and on top. So I retro fitted a small computer fan into the end of the lamp and cut some vents in the top and on the other end of the lamp. It worked very well, but I hated the added sound the fan made. But I'm sure there are other computer fans with different fan blade pitches that won't be too noisey.
A little ventalation for the lamps would also be benificial to the bulbs and ballast as well.
I bet your ex-electronics playing around with hubby can help you out with this!

[VickiC]

Hi Chas,
Thanks for you help!

I like your ideas.....I'm sure they would help my problem but I'm not sure I understand how the fans could be built into the end of each fixture because the two fixtures are positioned side by side and one end of each is flush against a wall. Actually, do you think a computer fan for each 4' fixture would be strong enough? As for venting, I'm gonna have to put thought into whether I really want to make any "cutting changes" to them. I guess I was hoping for a simple solution.....maybe repositioning things in the room, rather than make changes to the lights themselves, but I've swapped fans, humidifiers, etc. around all in different ways and haven't had any luck yet. Looking ahead, I'm afraid that I may be stuck with "hot lights"

Speaking of ex-electronics, my husband isn't exactly that, but his old shop is an ex-electronics shop, so currently it is MY orchid room. He is retired from a communications/electronics military career and now has a Harley shop with a dyno, so he has very little time to help me...so, this problem is in my hands only, unfortunately.

Thanks again for your help.....maybe I'll get rich and afford a greenhouse. That was definitely solve this problem. Anyway, all financial contributions will be appreciated.

Thanks again for your help!
Vicki

Originally Posted by ChasWG

Vicki, Wow! Nice lights. But I think I see why the heat build up. As quiltergal said above, the key is venting the heat upward. It appears that those fixtures have metal cap cover the whole deal. Those 4 bulbs packed that tightly together will get hot. I had a simular setup on a saltwater fishtank I used to have. The problem I had was that the florecent lights were actually raising the water temp too much. You want to talk about touchy things, saltwater creatures (corals) freak out when anything gets out of range. Anyhow, the lamp fixture I had looked very simular to your's and it too had an issue with heat build up. Of course the next incarnation of the same lamp included a small fan built into one end and vents on the other end and on top. So I retro fitted a small computer fan into the end of the lamp and cut some vents in the top and on the other end of the lamp. It worked very well, but I hated the added sound the fan made. But I'm sure there are other computer fans with different fan blade pitches that won't be too noisey.
A little ventalation for the lamps would also be benificial to the bulbs and ballast as well.
I bet your ex-electronics playing around with hubby can help you out with this!

[phearamedusa]

Hi Vicki,

If the unit is open like in the above picture, I think just having a fan at one end blowing air over the length of the bulbs will remove some of the heat. If the reflector is removable, then take it off and see if it improves the heat issue for you.

Melanie

[quiltergal]

Very pretty! Love the spotty lip. Leave it in the orchid room until bud number 2 is open. Then you can move it around.

What have you got up on the walls? Is that some kind of aluminum reflective material? If so that could be part of your heat problem also. Not only will it reflect light back onto your plants but heat as well. You might want to re-think that design idea. Or at least take it down for awhile and see if the temps go down. They make these cool little camp ovens out of reflectors. They get hot enough to warm a meal....

[ChasWG]

Vicki, It's going to take some messing around with. Some tinkering. Maybe try taking it appart and see how it was made, this often helps me see where I can make an improvement. Maybe the answer is as simple as a large room fan to move the air around the whole room more. When air is stagnent and the heat source is allowed to sit in one spot with no air movement, heat will build up. If the whole room has a little air flow, the heat will be dispersed. And I think the plants might like it too.