Growing Cattleyas under PAR38

[merkity]

thx - i have gotten the environment right for my Phals, but my catts are not happy - haven't been able to get it right - sounds like this is a good way to go.

[ALToronto]

Originally Posted by Mor

Hey merkity,

I purchased mine also at Orchidweb.com. I live in Tel Aviv and no one in the middle-east sell them (and if they do they do not ship to Israel because.. Well, take a guess ) so I even looked for it in Western Europe but I didn't find the specific bulb - the natural white. So, Orchidweb.com were my only option. But I have to say that although it's extremely expensive - it is start to seems that it was really worth it. Except of my "purple" Catt. all of my Catts seems much more healthier then few months ago. (And as few users comment on this thread my "purple" Catt. Is in great condition too).

Good Luck
Mor

I cannot imagine that Chinese companies would refuse a sale on political grounds. Go to aliexpress.com and do a search for Par 38 LED lights. You could probably get free shipping from a lot of the vendors. If not, they all show the shipping costs.

[Mor]

I ment for online stores in the middle-east such as stores at Amman or Dubai.

AliExpress does sell Led bulbs but I couldn't find there my specific bulb and that's why AliExpress is not an option.

I also made a contact with ALT in Taiwan and asked for information about resellers in my area and I got no answer.

Anyway, if you know a particular seller on AliExpress that sell those bulbs please let me know!

[naoki]

Mor, is Cree available in Israel?
Cree Par38 LED 18 Watt (90 Watt) Bright White 3000k Flood Light - - Amazon.com

I debated whether I should mention the following or not, and please don't take it in a wrong way. It seems to be a good quality product, but I'm simply trying to say that there could be cheaper options (which may or may not be important). You seem to be interested in getting more bulbs, so I thought that this may save some money for you in the future.

Aeon Lighting Tech (ALT) seems to use quality stuff, but they don't seem to pay much attention to the current performance/price ratio. Your bulb is Neutral White (about 4000K) and 2250 lumen for 30W (75 lumen/W) it it's using Cree chip instead of Bridgelux. Cree PAR38 (3000K) linked above is 1500lumen for 18W (83.3 lumen/W). Without getting into details, it is more difficult to get higher lumen/W with warmer light (3000K), but Cree can manage to have better efficiency. Also for a given lumen, you'll get more useful light for plants from the warmer LED. With Cree PAR38, you'll get more light (and better coverage) and cheaper (ALT is about 2.5 times more expensive than 2x Cree).

This kind of light bulb style LED can't be really efficient, but it can be convenient for many people.

For people in the US, Jim's suggestion is a good one. BLM's claim is backed up by an independent research, and it is one of the most efficient light (for a reasonable price) if you don't mind red-blue type. It is not a cheap light, but it is whether you pay now for high efficiency or later (for electricity with the cheaper stuff).

[terryros]

Naoki, my four ALT PAR 38 Astoria 30 Watt, 100 degree beam angle, 4000k bulbs are listed on the box/bulbs as 2480 lumens.

These are not as efficient as their MR16 7 watt, 40 degree beam angle, natural white bulbs at 650 lumens, but this bulb is better for me at a height of at least 30 inches to illuminate lower light plants with higher spikes. The PAR 38 30 degree seem to work the best to cover the same circle of growing area with high light plants.

I have always known the ALT bulbs are relatively expensive, but they have given me reduced power drain for the room, much reduced heat production, and much more headroom over plants than you get with fluorescents. That was all I wanted.

I am sure you can build equally effective bulbs yourself with your skills, but I certainly couldn't.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[ALToronto]

Originally Posted by Mor

I ment for online stores in the middle-east such as stores at Amman or Dubai.

AliExpress does sell Led bulbs but I couldn't find there my specific bulb and that's why AliExpress is not an option.

I also made a contact with ALT in Taiwan and asked for information about resellers in my area and I got no answer.

Anyway, if you know a particular seller on AliExpress that sell those bulbs please let me know!

Aliexpress sells a lot of excellent LED bulbs, and the bulb you're using was most likely made in China. If you couldn't find it, you didn't use the right search words.

Here is a vendor who sells LED products that have an efficiency of 120-140 lumens/watt. I have bought their lights, and they are top quality.

Shenzhen Sunway Optoelectronic Technology Co., Ltd.

Sorry, this one is no longer on aliexpress, but they're still on alibaba.com, and they will sell single items.

[DelawareJim]

Originally Posted by ALToronto

Aliexpress sells a lot of excellent LED bulbs, and the bulb you're using was most likely made in China. If you couldn't find it, you didn't use the right search words.

Here is a vendor who sells LED products that have an efficiency of 120-140 lumens/watt. I have bought their lights, and they are top quality.

Shenzhen Sunway Optoelectronic Technology Co., Ltd.

Sorry, this one is no longer on aliexpress, but they're still on alibaba.com, and they will sell single items.

Lumens per watt comparisons don't work for measuring light quality or quantity for plants. Lumens is a measurement of the amount of light perceived by the human eye. You can shift the colour spectrum and make a light appear brighter or dimmer without increasing the actual intensity of the light.

If you want to measure light properly for plants you need to measure photon flux or photon flux density, the amount of usable light energy (photons) striking a plant leaf.

Cheers.
Jim

[ALToronto]

Originally Posted by DelawareJim

Lumens per watt comparisons don't work for measuring light quality or quantity for plants. Lumens is a measurement of the amount of light perceived by the human eye. You can shift the colour spectrum and make a light appear brighter or dimmer without increasing the actual intensity of the light.

If you want to measure light properly for plants you need to measure photon flux or photon flux density, the amount of usable light energy (photons) striking a plant leaf.

Cheers.
Jim

Jim, what you're saying is very true for fluorescent lights, but not so much for LEDs. Given the same colour temperature, different manufacturers' LEDs will have very similar spectral profiles. I suspect there is only one or two phosphor suppliers, so the formulations are pretty much the same.

This is why the entire 'specially engineered' grow light scam is going to end with LEDs. When people catch on that these grow lights are simply combinations of cool and warm white LEDs, and people can create the same effect by combining ordinary LED lightbulbs in the same ratios, the market for these very expensive panels will dry up (except maybe for complete novices).

And I'm not talking about the red/blue grow lights that make sense only for our cannabis growing colleagues - why waste precious kilowatts on wavelengths that plants don't really need? If you're so short of funds that you won't spend an extra $20/year on the electricity that will make your plants a pleasure to look at, maybe you should choose a cheaper hobby.

[DelawareJim]

Al, I'm sorry, but I have to totally disagree with your statements about lighting.

Green plants evolved to utilize the red end and the blue end of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Specifically, Chlorophyll a and Chlorophyll b, absorb wavelenghts between 450-500 nm (nanometres) at the blue end and between 650-700 nm at the red end to power photosynthesis. The wavelengths in between are used to a significantly lesser degree.

Because this is where the bulk of the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) is found, red and blue specialty lights will always be produced; primarily for research and commercial growers, but also for more advanced growers who want better results.

Red/blue specialty grow LED lights select emitters that only produce specific wavelengths; 450 nm or 500 nm, or 700 nm emitters for example. By combining emitters that produce a combination of wavelengths in the optimum ranges, you can build a fixture that provides superior light quality for plants.

That said, your statement about using red/blue specialty lighting because you ware trying to do something on the cheap is incorrect. Actually, the opposite is true. Considering LED lights use the same amount of electricity regardless of their spectral/colour output, and also considering that the red/blue ends of the spectrum are the most photosynthetically efficient, the cheaper option actually is to use the red/blue grow lights since they provide the most usable energy for the plants for the electricity consumed by the fixture.

Full spectrum "white" lights are generally used for 1 of two reasons, the user has issues working under red/blue grow lights, or the lights are being used for a propose other than what they were originally intended.

To the first point, when I was a student of horticulture and plant physiology and later doing research in university, we had 2 systems in our grow chambers; the red/blue lit chambers for research and the white "full spectrum" chambers for the students and those who spent extended time working under the lights and had problems working under the red/blue lights. Working for extended periods under red/blue only lighting give some people headaches after a while and distort color perception for a while after you leave them- everything looks green for an extended period of time until your eyes and brain readjust to full spectrum lighting.

To the second point, the CREE full spectrum lights being discussed are a fixture being used for other than what it was designed for (general household lighting) that also provides a certain amount of benefit to plants. The red/blue specialty LED fixtures that I use are specifically designed to provide the wavelengths plants utilize most for superior growth.

So, in your final example, the potheads your refer to are the only ones who got it right.

Cheers.
Jim

[sandra94583]

My orchids that require bright light have never done better than under the led lights I have. All of them have bloomed this past year. I've been using par16 with refractors.