Winter lighting.

[shushu45]

I was wondering in that lights do you all use with your orchids. I was going to buy this...

EXPOWER 14W 225 LED Blue + Red Grow Light

They are on sale and was thinking of growing tomatoes and my ghost peppers with it as well.

Has anyone have had experience with the blue and red glow lights?? Are they any good??

If not what is good for my orchids??

[jeremyinsf]

After advice on this board and lots of my own research, I got the "hydrofarm FLP44" fixtures. They are mounted on Metro Rack shelves (from Costco) so I can adjust the height and move stuff around. I have two of the lights now and will have a third soon. I'm very, very happy with them. The growth I have seen is amazing! But, I had to adjust my expectations with my electricity bill. I will end up spending an extra $30 a month or so, just for lighting and fans for orchids. But that's for a very full shelf of plants, all three lights, etc.

At my hydroponics store I could pick what bulbs it came with. So, I mixed them with blue and red bulbs. 2 of each, alternating in the fixture.

I'm not sure what your orchids are and how many, what light requirements, what you want to achieve. The lights you list here are very small and don't have a lot of light output. I thought I wanted supplemental light for just a few plants. Until I saw how the plants reacted...and I got more. Now I will grow full time under the lights, lots of plants.

:-)

Good luck and -have fun-!

[shushu45]

Thank you. ^_^

[Bill U.]

As Jeremy said, we don't know your plants and their light requirements, but one of my "quick fix" supplemental lighting solutions this past winter for my dorm room (small, cramped space with nowhere near enough natural light for everything) was to go and get one of those cheap work-spot lights from Home Depot and put a nice bright bulb in there. I used it for my full-sun roses, phrag besseae (backed off a bit), and some phals (backed away even more). Every single one of my plants put on new growth during the winter under it. It may be an easy solution for you, depending upon the size and intensity of the growing area.

Commercial Electric 75-Watt Incandescent Clamp Light-CE-200PDQ at The Home Depot
with these bulbs:
23 Watt Daylight CFL Bulbs 3 Pack at Menards

Of course you can always play around with the types of bulbs you use in addition to the fixtures (there is a 150-watt clamp light available as well that can put out some major light, especially if you use CFLs). Hope this helps!

[shushu45]

I have a few Phal.s. Two Catts. A Den. A Enc. A Onc. A vanilla. And a B. little star.

[Bill U.]

From the sound of the orchids that you have and the desire to also grow tomatoes and ghost peppers along with your orchids, I would suggest I higher light setup than the lights listed in your first post. This sounds like a fair amount of plants and depending upon the growing space, I would recommend CFLs or fluorescent tube lights. There are a multitude of bulbs and setups that you can use.

For lots of light and covering a larger span of growing area, you may want to look into the 4 foot fluorescent tube fixtures- there are quite a few that are T5 HO (high output). HO isn't necessarily needed, but basically you want to try and get the most light you can- it's all dependent upon how much you want to spend. Regardless, I recommend that you purchase a setup that has lights in the 5500-65000K light temperature range (full-spectrum daylight bulbs, these have roughly the same ratios of red and blue as natural sunlight). I always use 6500K bulbs in my grow setup.

A good way to measure your light intensity in footcandles is to download a free light meter application for smartphones. I use "beeCam Lightmeter" that is free on google marketplace for Android phones. The readings are in lux (different unit of light intensity measurement), but if you divide the "lux" by 10, you have a rough estimate of your footcandles. This kind of setup can also be supplemented by the spotlights for the more light-intensive plants such as the tomatoes, peppers, and Catt's.

[naoki]

Shushu, I use slightly updated version of 14W R+B LED. Mine is 28W from Sunshine Systems. Phals (and paphs) grow (and flower) really well. You won't be able to grow decent tomatoes with 14W. I'm also guessing that it is too weak for Cattleyas. It covers slightly less than 2x2' area from 1' above the plants. The growth I see is subjectively similar to 2-bulb 34W T8 shoplight. So you can save electricity a bit. However, I'm not recommending the one I have because a half of LEDs are dead after 6-8 months, and the company seems to have gone out of business. The customer service stopped responding since this March. If you see Amazon review, you'll see the same complaints against this company. With regard to 14W unit, check Amazon review of 14W 225 LED, many people aren't happy about it.

I recently ordered 2' linear R+B LED tubes. Each of them is 8W, and I'm hoping to cover 2x2' area with 3-4 of them. Here is an example, T8 8W 600LM 60cm 138 LED Plant Grow Light Tube Lamp Hydroponic Growing Red Blue | eBay
It may not last long, but they are at least cheap, and it is passively cooled (no noise).

If you don't mind the noise of LED fans, there are more options depending on your budget. The medical "herb" growers are much more advanced in LED lighting, so you can get lots of info from their forum (except some of the messages in the forum may be posted under the influence, so difficult to understand). The light which is appropriate for the "herb" is strong enough for most orchids including Cattleyas. Here are some of the recommended ones.

BlackStar (240W or 180W models are relatively cheap): these are one of the lowest cost, decent LEDs.
Blackstar LED Grow Lights

Apollo is fairly cheap (similar price to BlackStar).
Apollo | Cidly

If you have enough money, lots of people like this:
LED GROW LIGHTS | Cree LED Grow Lights | American Made LED Grow Lights

Note that the actual energy consumption of these LED units are usually lower than stated.

Finally, some of them are successful with house-hold LEDs combining warm white + daylight (9-9.5W per bulb, so you need quite a few of them).
Cree 9.5-Watt (60W) A19 Warm White (2700K) Dimmable LED Light Bulb (1-Pack)-BA19-08027OMF-12DE26-1U110 at The Home Depot
Cree 9-Watt (60W) A19 Daylight (5000K) Dimmable LED Light Bulb (1-Pack)-BA19-08050OMF-12DE26-1U110 at The Home Depot

First Rays has something inbetween the dedicated grow light and household LEDs.

Obviously T5HO is a safe choice, and I just recently started to use T5HO for Cattleya, but they seem to be OK. So far, one of them flowered:Laelia alvaroana It's growing about 1-3" below T5HO tubes.

[shushu45]

Thank you all for the tips. ^_^

[jeremyinsf]

Originally Posted by shushu45

Thank you all for the tips. ^_^

You indirectly inspired me to get my 3rd light today. Just picked it up. So... thank YOU!

[Bill U.]

Originally Posted by jeremyinsf

You indirectly inspired me to get my 3rd light today. Just picked it up. So... thank YOU!

Jeremy, with more lights means more plants! Haha