I blame smweaver - new growing situation for Stans

[Rothrock42]

In another thread smweaver suggested that I might want to give my stanhopeas more light to get them to bloom. I grow in the house and don't have a good outside area so that limited my choices.

I had been growing them on a rolling coat rack in front of the large windows in my bedroom. To get more light I would need to add lights.

So this happened over the past weekend.



New tall wire rack with 4 T5 bulbs on top.

From left to right, Stan. warscewiczii, Stan. hernandezii, Stan. embreei, Stan. or Gongora NOID, and Stan. tigrina 'The Predator'.

Underneath are some Phrags and Lycastes and a Masdevallia.

The embreei bloomed under the previous conditions during late February 2017. Fingers crossed I'll get some more blooms. And then smweaver can have the glory and not the blame.

[estación seca]

Looks great.

[DeaC]

Wonderful set-up and window. Good luck.

[isurus79]

Cool!

[smweaver]

That set-up looks outstanding! And I'm sorry for inadvertently becoming an enabler. I think you'll be pleased with the results you get for providing the plants with more light. What direction is that big window facing? Do you have a fan moving nearby to circulate air? Again, it looks really cool, and I can't wait to see some blooms. Best of luck with your new set-up.

Steve

[Rothrock42]

smweaver - I'm sure you know I was only joking and I do appreciate the nudge.

The window faces mostly west and there is a balcony overhang above so it the full sun doesn't come until fairly late in the day. I'm on the 20 floor so there is a lot of ambient light. I'm in Portland, Oregon which is just north of the 45th parallel. So in the winter with the sun lower in the horizon it actually gets in earlier (assuming we have any sun at all). Overall the apartment is pretty light and bright.

Basically they are now about 1 to 1 1/2 feet higher and will get a bit more light from the overhead bulbs. The embreei which blooms after hanging in the window for a year is the lowest one and probably won't get much of a boost, from the grow light, but I figure it did well without.

Lower left is the fan that blows on the phrag and it is angled up a bit so it gets the stans a bit from the bottom. Out of frame right is the apartment heating/aircon. I can see the leaves tremble a bit when it comes on. Doesn't run 24/7, but I think it will be good. I plan to get something a little better maybe oscillating to replace the phrag fan.

[Leafmite]

I have that same rack but didn't add the bar!
Good luck with your Stans!

[Rothrock42]

Yeah in our store the bar is in the closet section while the rack is in the shelving section. Oddly the two departments don't talk to each other. I also needed some shelving for my closet and noticed the bar.

I could have hung them from the top shelf, but I was worried I would poke the lights or get hung up on the bulbs. So the bar seemed like a good solution.