My orchid rack :)

[jctusa]

Terri,
Could you put a link to where your original post was about the plant rack? The racks I find, don't have adjustable shelves, unless I go with the large bulky ones from Sam's or Costco. Being from Michigan too, I need to get these plants under some light in the winter.
John

[quiltergal]

John I got mine at Lowe's. Here's a link to the exact one I got. It's a bit of a process to move the shelves up and down. The shelves have circular connectors on all four corners that slide over the 4 uprights. There are little cone shaped sleeves that snap around the uprights and the circular connectors slide over the top of the sleeves and stop when they get to the wide part of the cone shape. You can put the sleeves anywhere you want on the uprights in 1" increments. It's much easier to do with two people but I have done it alone. Hope that makes sense.

5-Tier White Shelf

[jctusa]

Thanks Terri for the link and also thank you Sarah for posting your pictures. I think the Lowes stand is something that will work for me.
John

[quiltergal]

John here's a link to the original thread. There are pics of my set up in there somewhere.

Orchid Care

[desertorchid]

One quick reply: I LIKE the display rack idea -- cheaper than a commercial rack... I think. Just for fun, how much did the A) rack cost you B) One bank of 4tube x 4 Ft x 2 Ft lighting fixture cost you?!? Lastly has anyone made a "Humidity Tent" to raise the humidity within the rack? How did you do it?!? The desert is NOT a good place to grow orchids. I live in an apartment so there is no greenhouse, and even if I did own a house 10 plants don't justify building a greenhouse. This rack idea has promise if is some way to create a ventilated "tent" to raise the overall humidity at the same time keeping overall cost down.

[Wild Orchid]

I'm all ears too.
Also - how do you attach the light tubes to the rack?

Thanks!!

[quiltergal]

If memory serves me correctly I think I paid $70 for a 4ft 4 shelf rack at Lowes. I am using 2 t5HO strip fixtures per rack. There is no "hood". The lights are attached to the bottom of each shelf with long twist ties. I'm using the HydroFarm strips. I can't remember exactly how much I paid for them, but I want to say they were around $40-$50. You can daisy chain two together.

[Wild Orchid]

Thanks!

[desertorchid]

Originally Posted by quiltergal

If memory serves me correctly I think I paid $70 for a 4ft 4 shelf rack at Lowes. I am using 2 t5HO strip fixtures per rack. There is no "hood". The lights are attached to the bottom of each shelf with long twist ties. I'm using the HydroFarm strips. I can't remember exactly how much I paid for them, but I want to say they were around $40-$50. You can daisy chain two together.

OK sounds good. Trivia question are you using 4 foot fixtures?? I just "discovered" that 4 ft fixtures are actually 50- 53 inches in length (DUH you would think with a PhD I would have thought of that ). Are you use a 4 ft fixture and if so how do you mount it in the 4 ft wide rack?!? I am seriously debating going with a 4 tube T8 LED grow light setup. The problem: The @$%# bulbs are EXPENSIVE , but use only 18-22W each --vs-- 54W each for a T5 -- that 88W / hr --vs-- 216W /hr. ... OR roughly 1 - 1.5 KW /day --vs-- 3 - 3.5 KW /day ... or 31 - 46.5 KW / mo --vs-- 93 - 108.5 KW /mo. That's a LOT of electricity!!! So do you go with the "cheaper" T5 setup and pay through the nose each mo when the electric bill comes due? Or do you pay through the nose up front and save each month on the electric bill?!? Has anyone used the T8 LED bulbs?!?

[quiltergal]

Because the T5HOs kick out more lumens per bulb than the T8s I only have to use 2 per shelf instead of 4. They also take up less grow space than the T8s. My electric bill only runs around $70 a month which includes all lights, computers, TV, and other misc stuff. It's higher in summer when the AC is running.