Growing Phals in a growth chamber with temperature, lighting & humidity control

[OzPhal]

Hi Everybody,

I currently grow some phal seedlings via semi-hydroponics in perlite. I have access to a Binder growth cabinet KBWF 720with temperature, lighting and humidity control. I'm wanting to have a shot at growing my phals in there - atleast to give them a good start. Can anyone suggest temperature, lighting and humidity targets? I can program for day/night programs along with temperature/humidity gradients i.e. i can reduce the humidity and temperature for a night time cycle etc... Also, i want to move away from perlite to another media - bark substrate maybe or another alternative... can anyone make any suggestions? I also have some Phal schilleriana mounted along with some P. venosa, P. bellina in perlite and some hybrids

[OzPhal]

No one?

[Blueszz]

I'll give it a try :-) I think one of the problems you might encounter is that even different Phalaenopsis' like different cultural circumstances. I have a growbox, which isn't so sophisticated as yours :-) and I had mostly hybrids in it. I put also Phal. equestris and pulchra in the box (during winter). Mainly the pulchra was totally unhappy and I had to find out that my equestris received too much light (burned leaf) while my hybrids performed extremely well.
Fc. on leaf level 500-600 (fluorescent light)
Lights on for 12-14 hours
Day temperature: 84.5F - 85.5F
Night temperature: 64.5F
Humidity: 50-80%
Two small fans running for constant air movement.

Try to find species/hybrids that like the same environment and avoid what I did, putting a pulchra in the same box with the rest. I keep my pulchra cooler during the winter months.

Your grow box looks great! Let us now if it works for you.

Nicole

[OzPhal]

Originally Posted by Blueszz

Fc. on leaf level 500-600 (fluorescent light)
Lights on for 12-14 hours
Day temperature: 84.5F - 85.5F
Night temperature: 64.5F
Humidity: 50-80%
Two small fans running for constant air movement.

Try to find species/hybrids that like the same environment and avoid what I did, putting a pulchra in the same box with the rest. I keep my pulchra cooler during the winter months.

Your grow box looks great! Let us now if it works for you.

Nicole

Thanks Blueszz, i appreciate your reply... I found that the foot candles of the lights ranges between 660 and 1,319 at 12cm below the light cassette... I've currently got them in a semi-hydroponic setup so i'm going to maintain them in that for the time being but slowly integrate them across to spaghnum moss so their roots aren't permanently immersed in water. I have a few species P. venosa, P. bellina, P. schilleriana. I also have some hybrid seedlings - i'm hoping to get as many of the species as i can...