LED grow lights for bulbophyllums and species phalaenopsis

[brammn]

I have several grow lights and went through a period of trying to grow in my old cellar with mixed results (I suspect some of the mixed results was me over watering and being inexperienced at the time though to be honest).

I live in the UK, so in winter there's not a lot of light, I predominantly grow Catt's and Laelias and my greenhouses drop to about 14C (57F) ish in winter.

That's a bit cool for bulbos and species phalaenopsis so I'm toying with moving them into the garage and putting them under my grow lights from November to about March so I can keep them warmer and give them nearer 12-13 hours of light a day

Has anyone else/does anyone else do this, if so how well does it work?

[fooferdoggie]

what about using a heating pad under them? our house gets 57 in the winter at night and when not home the heating pad did well for the phals they all bloomed and most were in s/h. they are pretty cheap and yo ucan get a auto controller cheap.

[brammn]

Its partly the heat, partly the light. I have some large propagators - Vitopods, but I've got no room for them in the greenhouse at all!

Which is why I'm toying with moving one or 2 of them into the garage and putting the grow lights over them for the winter

[estación seca]

Lots of people here grow Phals under lights through cold winters. Use the Search | Advanced Search feature in the top maroon menu to look up posts by member greenpassion .

[fooferdoggie]

yes I use lights for phals its pretty cheap. I found 100 watt leds floods that work well for small area's.

[brammn]

Thanks - I've got 3 LEDs that have been in the loft for a couple of years (should work fine though) they're 180W and 300W I think - I was planning to start with the 180, see how I go and if necessary bump up to the 300

[fooferdoggie]

my phals did fine with 18watt lights in a row and about 24" above them.

[bethmarie]

Originally Posted by fooferdoggie

my phals did fine with 18watt lights in a row and about 24" above them.

How many 18w lights did you use?

[fooferdoggie]

Originally Posted by bethmarie

How many 18w lights did you use?

they are end to end so no real overlapping. here is a recent pic. I added the extra twp bulbs for the oncidiums when I was told they were not getting enough light. but that was only a month ago.