Grow light confusion

[FranningtonBear]

As a UK based, windowsill grower I am coming to the realisation that some of my collection could really do with some additional light.

I'm completely in the dark (pun intended) as to where to start. A quick google search has confused me even further!

As a starting point, I would be looking to light only 4 plants in my collection so I don't need anything huge, fancy or expensive to get me started. My husband is convinced that I would be better buying a bulb and placing it in an existing lamp than buying an LED strip.

Can anyone shed any light (yes, I am hilarious!), on this for me please?

[minicoerulea]

I keep my orchid collection (mostly mini cattleyas) on a wire baker's rack that stands in front of a sliding patio door and has a generic 24" LED or Sunblaster T5 fluorescent on each shelf. I've used Sunblaster LEDs here too, but the clearance the shelves give above the plants is too short for that bright a light.

My plants summer outside, so I just try to provide enough light to limp them through the winter.

[Mountaineer370]

I grow mine indoors year-round, on a large dining room table that sits in front of a south-facing window, with sheer curtains that can be drawn when the sunlight is bright and shining directly on the plants. I always thought that should be more than adequate lighting, but while my plants seemed healthy enough, they didn't bloom as often or abundantly as I would have liked.

So, after encouragement from several members here, I added supplemental lighting a few years ago, and it has made a phenomenal difference! I think the biggest factor is I'm now getting light coming down from over the plants instead of just coming in sideways through the window. Plus, long periods of cloudy, dreary winter days are no longer an issue.

Since this is my kitchen/dining room, I really didn't want industrial-looking lights hanging from the ceiling. Like you, my collection is small (I currently have twelve orchids), so I ended up buying these:

Verilux Heritage Full Spectrum Deluxe Floor Lamp - Antique Brass Finis – BulbAmerica

In my case, I wanted my entire table illuminated, so I ended up with three of them, spread out around the table (and easily movable if needed). Currently, however, one of them has stopped working, and I can't find anyone to fix it. The lamp itself is discontinued, and Verilux no longer provides replacement ballasts for this model.

I will end up replacing the non-working one with something like this:

Amazon.com

It's not as attractive but much more budget-friendly! It uses the same bulb as my Verilux ones, a 27-watt full-spectrum fluorescent, but LED versions of this type of lamp are more common these days, if that's your preference. And for only four plants presently, one lamp would be enough, but you can always add more as your collection grows.

[Dimples]

I’ve had this bulb in a downward facing floor lamp, positioned over a side table, for the last three years and I’ve grown and flowered phals about 3’ below it. It’s currently growing and blooming two African Violets, a philodendron burkin, an alocacia, and a small pot of syngonium. It’s in the living room on a timer and the color of the seeds & greens bulb is fine.

[fredfarmer]

I use these for orchid in quarantine in a lamp about 8-10 inches above leaf level from Amazon Briignite 4 Pack Grow Light Bulbs, LED White Bulb A19 Bulb, Full Spectrum Plant Bulbs E26 Base, 11W 100W Equivalent, for Indoor Plants, You may need more than one bulb for four orchids.

[Dalachin]

Since we have a front porch, the living room windows in my house don't get a lot of light, so I have 24 inch full spectrum LED lights with reflectors that hang over the plants on the windowsills. They also function as daytime lighting in our living room. They look like "sunblaster" led lights but were whatever my local hydroponics store had on sale. The current living room residents are a random assortment including phals, phrags, oncidiums, and succulents.

I also have a couple Amazon LED clip light style lights clamped to windowsills where low light plants like paphs live, but I'm not a huge fan of these... the build in timers break on them and they quickly become landfill fodder (although I have been known to rewire them to get a bit more life out of them). One can never have enough lights... I'm planning to add some hanging single light fixtures, perhaps with grow light bulbs such as those posted by Dimples.

On my grow shelves I use 48 inch Botanical LED lights... wish the 24 inch ones had reflectors, they would be better in the living room if they did.

[camille1585]

With 4 plants, I agree that you don't need anything fancy and a screw in bulb would be sufficient.

SANSI make some good quality, full spectrum led bulbs and they've been recommended on the forum a couple times. My sister has some for her small orchid collection in the winter, and in the spring they are used for starting tomatoes. SANSI bulbs are readily available on amazon UK. Amazon.co.uk: SANSI
The 15W or 24W variants would proably be enough for low-medium light orchids, especially if you use it as supplemental light.

---------- Post added at 06:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Dimples

I’ve had this bulb in a downward facing floor lamp, positioned over a side table, for the last three years and I’ve grown and flowered phals about 3’ below it. It’s currently growing and blooming two African Violets, a philodendron burkin, an alocacia, and a small pot of syngonium. It’s in the living room on a timer and the color of the seeds & greens bulb is fine.

Link seems to be gone? The word 'bulb' is hightlighted like a link, but there's no website behind it. Strange.

[Dimples]

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll try and fix the link, but it’s the GE seeds & greens 32 watt LED grow bulb. About $30 USD.

I also have a 32 watt SANSI grow bulb in the 600nm range that gets used for red light therapy, and it’s great. I’d buy one of their full spectrum bulbs if I needed another.

[Optimist]

My orchids (of all kinds) grew "fairly" well before lights, but once I got a grow light in addition to the window light, they area so much healthier. Plants "eat light," and window glass actually keeps out some of the natural rays of light. Rooms and windows are also way darker than peoplel understand. This is because human eyes just are lower light. I went through many light bulbs and grow lights. I finally purchased an expensive marijuana indoor grow light. Marijuana is an outdoor full sun weed. I got mine half price during a sale, and have had no mecianical problems with the lights or mechanisms. I believe mine was about 60$ (US Doller), and I got it for 30-something. (I actually bought two at that time.

You do need "full Spectrum" meaning the light from "far" red to blue. In the PAR scale. Plants are green/yellow because they are actually allowing those colors to bounce off of them. (Color in this sense, meaning light).

I did quite a bit of reading about the physics of light, and how plants grow through photosynthasis, before recognising that just a regular bulb would not do. It is similar to getting a reptile who needs UVB light. Those are very expensive bulbs, but it is for the health of the animal that you get them.

[Relemitty]

Lights are the next project on my list.

I am at a good place with temperature by using seedling heat mats and have a humidifier going 24/7 to get my RH up to around 50%.

The orchids are in front of southwest and east facing windows, but I had a few that I expected to bloom this year that didn't.

I will be going through the posts in the Growing Under Lights section here soon.