Hi Paul Mc and isurus79 thanks for your replies!
Good point about the temperature - I'm guessing it will be hotter at the top, cooler down the bottom and somewhere in the middle in well the middle lol.
Yeah it might take some experimentation/trial and error, I'm willing to experiment with many of the plants I already have - except maybe my Masdevallia caesia but it only has 3 leaves anyway and is currently in the 3ft tank (with other orchids) under 4 x 30Watt fluros. where it grew the last leaf (after dropping one) and new roots and seems to like it at the moment (the vandas and phals have gone purple - too much light - but the glass above the caesia is pretty crusty).
I certainly won't be experimenting with a $100.00 Masdevallia erinacea and in fact I think I will see how everything else goes before buying anything off my wishlist if the conditions are just not going to be right for it.
I was hoping Vanda coerulea or hybrids with it in them would tolerate cooler temps?
I wrote down that wild V. coerulea might flower at 6" whilst clones from Thailand might flower at 8-10" not sure where I found that info maybe here on the OB.
IOSPE PHOTOS says that spikes of coerulea are 60cm long
But of course I have hybrids with tessellata etc. and the Ascocenda Princess so maybe spikes could be longer than that?
I converted the top half space which would be 115cm or 3.77 ft. If I said they need at least 60cm above the top of the plant for the spikes/blooms that only leaves 55cm which is 1.8 feet - I don't know than that I have enough room
...
Unless I put them lower down (or in baskets and keep moving them down though suspect the roots will attach themselves on the back wall.
Or I have 43 cm space between top of case and ceiling - MH Case/hood takes up say 20cm of that and I could increase the height of the case (though my light stand will need to be taller).
Or I could train spikes not to be vertical? Just like this:
Vanda coerulea spike | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Some other plants I forgot to mention that I have;
2 stems of Ludisia discolor, Cochleantha aromatica magnifica, Neofinitia falcata currently in hydroton semi-hydro.
chain of hearts,
I have some carniverous seeds too that I forgot to plant that I could just throw in and see what happens, as well as ficus pumilla seeds & bunch different fig/ficus tree seeds (prob. too big lol).
Besides java moss aquatic/emersed/swamp plants:
Microsorium pteropus Windelov & narrow leaf, Anubias coffefolia, Bolbitis heudelottii, Eleocharis parvulus, Lilaeopsis novaezlandiae, duckweed
, 2 dif. Cryptocorynes, Hydrocotyle tripartita, Hemianthus Callitrichoides, and utricularia (yellow flowers), plus crassula helmsii (?), Rotala rotundifolia.
I will be taking progress photos along the way as I complete various stages of this in a separate post/thread
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