Hello everybody,
I wanted to attach a few pictures of my new home-made "orchidarium". I am very proud of how it looks as it really blows my former home-made lighting table out of the water.
This is the now-defunct light table
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ight_table.jpg
My collection has grown since the first humble table was built from about five plants to nearly 40 phals and paphs.
However, I am still a total beginner and rank amateur! And so I have some questions.
1.
Do I really need to supplement my new fluorescent lights with incandescent lighting? I have read in an orchid book that fluorescents only produce in the "blue" spectrum and that plants need "red" light in order to bloom. Does this still apply with today's fluorescents? I am using 32 watt Philips T8 "Daylight Deluxe" lamps. Color temperature is 6,500K, color rendering index of 85. The light given off looks very pleasant to my eye, at least.
2.
Do I now have TOO much light? My old table had a maximum of only 70 FC (about 740 lux) using a "grow light" fluorescent bulb and two small halogen desk lamps. It loooked like a lot of light to me at the time until I bought a light meter. Believe it or not, I actually brought some phals to spike and eventual bloom (albeit meager sprays) under this light. No paphs ever rebloomed, except one spike (still spiking now) that was placed directly under one of the desk lamps.
Each shelf of my new fixture has four 48" inch tubes above it. In the center, it gives of about 560 FC (6,020 lux) at about 16" from the lights and about 950 FC (10,200 lux) in the middle shelf 10" from the lights. According to various orchid books that I have, a minimum of 900-1,000 FC is required even for low-light orchids.
Having read this, I blissfully put as many plants as would fit under the four lights thinking that now I will see some real dramatic growth and blooming. Now comes the problem. Some leaves started pretty quickly to turn purplish-red. I asked a grower at Hausermann's about that and she said that that means they are getting too MUCH light.
If I am only getting the minimum published light requirements even on my brightest shelf, why then are the plants reacting like it is too much light?
I have since, removed half of the bulbs, and the plants are starting to respond favorably. They still look happy and some of the reddish hue is draining from the leaves.
I am still very confused, so if anyone can please offer some guidance, it would be appreciated
THANK YOU!
John
New Lighting Set-up pictures and more questions
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