Hot light for propagation chamber help needed please? - Orchid Board

kg5 · #1 08-03-2019, 02:17 AM

After many many months I believe I have finally found a way of building a propagation chamber the size of a fridge that has a need for 100% humidity.

If I can hook up a hot waterproof light attached to a temp controller set at 26c or 80f the chamber temp should be OK. Humidity should automatically be 100% with a misting system.

This propagation chamber will have a misting system and has no need at present for grow light for growing but it would have to be waterproof.

So can anyone please give me a "light direction" that should meet my need?

All The Best kg5

Subrosa · #2 08-03-2019, 03:25 AM

Look into HID fixtures designed for landscape use. A 150W-175W metal halide or high pressure sodium will do the trick. The only potential drawback I see is that these sort of lights are not instant on, requiring a couple minutes to warm up before reaching full brightness. While this isn't a major problem, these lights also require a cooling off period after being turned off hot. This
could easily be half an hour, so if the temperature of the chamber fluctuates too quickly there could be issues keeping temps withing your defined range.

kg5 · #3 08-03-2019, 04:07 AM

Thanks heaps Subrosa!

Maybe I need a climate controller that turns the light on at 22c and turns it off at 28c.

Winter here average is around 10c to 26c or 50f to 80f. Summer is average is around 18c to 30c or 65f to 86f.

Ray · #4 08-03-2019, 09:47 AM

Can you explain the desire of using intermittent light for heating? Wouldn't controlling them independently be a better idea.

An HID lamp would certainly give you the heat, but I'd think its light intensity would fry anything within a meter.

kg5 · #5 08-03-2019, 09:02 PM

Hi Ray

1st up this propagation chamber project is way out of my experience. In all honestly it has taken me over 2 years to get this far.

Kept searching for "propagation room climate control" and many other ways of saying the same thing and got nowhere except $5,000+ chambers that did not suit my needs. So finally went with the hydroponic people and it was a real pain in searching because their growing/climate control stuff basically was designed to eliminate humidity.

So it finally got into my thinking that their lights were a heat source that is waterproof so it would go well with a misting system in a small chamber under a solid roof.

The recipe I am now working with is lowest possible cost of course and it is for heating + misting + waterproof + fridge size propagation chamber + controller + timer.

Edit: Light would need to be blocked in some way from the propagation material but the heat would need to be distributed evenly around the chamber.

Any help Ray is very appreciated!

kg5 · #6 08-04-2019, 04:04 AM

Have just sent out a number of emails to find out more about how waterproof bathroom heating lights are, here's hoping!

Looks like am using polycarbonate sheeting with timber framing. It will give me a propagation chamber 2m x 1m x 1m. Have a 2m high shower glass door with a sealing strip that will fit around the door.

This chamber size should be able to be adjusted, with other light fittings that are more designed for seed and cutting propagation.

Subrosa · #7 08-04-2019, 05:17 AM

Having grown various plants under various forms of HID lighting, I do concur that they do produce an intensity of light which will cook plants, even full sun lovers without proper acclimation. That said, I have seen individuals of a certain full sun loving plant grow to within 8"-10" of 150W-175W HID fixtures when started out as tiny seedlings 3'-4' away from the light. However in order to fully illuminate your 2m enclosure you would need 2 such fixtures to get sufficient spread, which is a lot of heat. A single fixture would work if you stood the whole works on end and had the single fixture 2m above the 1m2 of area it illuminates.

kg5 · #8 08-04-2019, 06:17 AM

There is a lot every hard to germinate spore out there! Climate range needs to be same all year round to get these ferns to germinate especially Plycerium being Stagshorns & Elkhorns. Needs 3 to 9 months of the same precises, stable environment to germinate properly.

Another area that I would dearly love to do is my crosses in both orchids and airplants.

There are some real hard to germinate Australian Natives Plants around. Some need to have the seed pods cracked. Some need to be exposed to very high heat. It is the seeds that are very hard to germinate that attracts me.

Nursery is the one area in horticulture that I have never been employed to do professionally. There is a lot of areas in nursery that I have wanted to do for a very long time now.

Ray · #9 08-04-2019, 09:37 AM

FWIW, I have had two design experiences that might give you some ideas:

My first was a rolling metal clothes rack purchased from a store going out of business. It was 5' x 4' x 4' tall with a bottom, middle and top rack, the top being the "ceiling" that suspended a heavy duty tarp over the whole thing, plus a couple of muffin fans to circulate the air.

Heat came from a thermostatically-controlled 150W incandescent light bulb sitting on the floor (later suspended from the bottom rack). Flasks were in standard nursery trays with dome covers.

When I needed a lighted "nursery" for seedlings, I purchased a 3' x 6' ebb & flow hydroponics tray with 9" sides. On top of that I built a 4' tall enclosure using 1.5" thick foil-faced foam insulation board, held together with duct tape. The interior was painted flat white for better light dispersal. A 2-pane, sliding glass door was placed in one long side.

Light was from two Philips LED white/far red "Production Units" suspended (and adjustable) from the ceiling, as were 4 muffin fans for air movement. Two 13W seedling heat mats were placed on the bottom, and covered by several sheets of polyester webbing - the stuff they make floor scrubber pads from. Misting/watering was done with a Mist King system. Light and heat were both handled by a single on/off timer, but the latter could easily be thermostatically controlled, if needed.

kg5 · #10 08-04-2019, 08:14 PM

Thank you very much Ray! Some great info. Great ideas. Very smart chamber building. Info I can use!

The lights & fans together.... Yes I can see the need. The bulb info will help me no end.

Last night purchased a reptile ceramic light bulb 200w for $7.50. It is black ceramic bulb and only produces heat & no light.
But it is only going to be good for heating.