Fluorescent Lighting. HELP ME PLEASE!
 

I and very new (meaning within the past 3 weeks) to orchids. I am in love with them already. I bought a small phalaenopsis from Walmart on valentines day. It is about 6 inches tall. Comes to find out all the roots were rotted very badly so I followed instructions to repot and remove dead roots. That is my baby I am trying to nurse back to health. I have two other larger phalaenopsis orchids as well. I did hours of research on artificial lighting and still need advice. With the 3 orchids I have I looked at the t8 and t5 fluorescent light fixtures. I would like a 2 foot strip with two bulbs (unless a longer fixture or more bulbs is better). I believe from what I read I want a 6500k bulb and 3500k bulb. Or are the lights they have for growing plants okay? I also saw a full spectrum bulb as well. Is this okay for the three orchids I have? Also is the t5 too much light for the phalaenopsis or am I better with the t8 or even the t12? Any help will be appreciated. I stood in Menards for 3 hours doing research today and am so confused. :( I have limited space because I live in an apartment. I saw a Hydrofarm JSV2 2 foot jump start grower and was wondering if those worked. Otherwise I plan on making a small stand out of PVC pipe to hang the light from and it will be adjustable for light height. Thanks for bearing with me through my long post! :biggrin:

Oops.. I just posted on your first post about lights.
For now, I would worry more about getting a bulb with 6000K or more. A second bulb with 3500K may be a great addition, but I'm not sure how essential it is. Maybe someone can give their experience on that.

T5HO lights are fine for phals. I don't keep them as close as my cattleya though. I use both 24w, and 39W fixtures. I get the ones that are linkable, and I try to wait for them to be on sale first. :)
I haven't worried about using more than one bulb per area. I have my plants near windows so there's sun coming through as well.

sorry for repeating some of what I wrote on your other thread.

Hello Kelly!
sorry for your little baby and good luck!
First of all, do you truly have such a poor natural light? Artificial light is often used for more plants and/or very dark growing conditions.

In any case I can tell you that CFL bulbs work excellently well, I've used them for years before I switched to LED (which I am not completely sure of yet :scratchhead:).
For only 3 plants IMHO one 6400K CFL bulb is enough. The power depends on how far from the plants you place it.
The simplest setup may be a simple E27 work lamp with a "bell" reflector in order to send the light to the orchids only.
A 20/25W bulb should be sufficient if you keep it less than 30cm (1 foot) from the plants, this distance should be enough to keep all the three plants under the same light.

I am not a fan of CFLs, as they are less efficient than T5s, and cover less area.

A 40W cfl puts out about 3000 lumens, but even with a reflector, about half is lost to the interior of the spiral. A two-foot, 24W T5HO lamp puts out about 2160 lm, and a good secular aluminum reflector reflects most of it to the plants.

The color temperature business can be misleading, but that's not the whole picture.

Buy a lamp made for plants, as they are designed to provide the correct spectrum. Residential lighting is not. In fluorescent bulbs, the color temperature is a "corrected" or "correlated" one, designed to look a particular way to the human eye, not to truly match the spectrum of the sun.

I have a few articles on the subject that my website; you might start here.


Ray Barkalow
firstrays.com

Go LED. Much better spectrum than even grow fluorescents, and much more energy efficient. Look at the most recent posts on LED lights in the Growing Under Lights section of this forum.

My setup is simple and effective, and the upfront cost is minimal. I use the 4 foot, 2 bulb T8 shop lights, 6500k bulbs. A single fixture and bulbs would be enough for phals, paphs, and a variety of other plants. Depending on where you shop, you could pick it up quickly, and total cost could be $20 - $30 if you go for the least expensive options.

My plants get some supplemental light from a window, so I don't worry too much about mixing spectrum on the bulbs. If your situation doesn't allow for this, then mixing temperatures is good.

What I like about this setup is, if a fixture goes bad, whether by age or from damage, I'm out of pocket $15 - $20 for replacement. If a bulb needs to be replaced, I'm out of pocket $10 if I buy a 2 pack, though admittedly I buy them in bulk for $2 - $3 a bulb.

I also like that, in replacement situations, I can drive or walk to the store down the street. No need for a long road trip to a specialty shop, no need to wait a week for delivery.

Truth be told, there's very little that I grow that the T8s aren't good enough for, and phals are definitely not an issue. In fact, with T8s, the concern will be getting the height correct so that you don't give them too much light and stunt the growth.

I suppose if I had only recently started growing orchids and had a nice chunk of change up front, I'd go with LED fixtures or bulbs as they are now at least approaching what I would consider reasonable upfront cost, and should have lower over all lifetime cost to operate.

My concern though is that the lifespan of many of the less expensive systems may not be what the manufacturers claim (side note: this is definitely true for many compact fluorescent bulbs, they simply don't live as long as claimed, nullifying any cost/savings benefits). Also, with LED, if things do go wrong, such as water getting into the fixture or the fixture getting dropped while moving, etc, etc, you're out quite a bit of money for a replacement.

It's a lot to take in! I have the Hydrofarm 2ft and 4ft and it works well for lower light plants.Also have 2 "carts" from indoorgrowingsupplies.com that have 2 shelves and 2 flourescents on each level. However with the higher light plants it doesn't seem to be enuf light,but they're adjustable like the Hydrofarm and fairly compact for smaller spaces. Hope this helps!

Thank you very much to all who replied. It helps me out in making a decision. I think I might go with a 2 bulb 2 foot t8. It is cheap and will fit in my growing area for now. I can always upgrade at a later date if I decide to take on new plants. I do get some light exposure but am more concerned about supplementing light for more hours in a day than we have available here in Wisconsin.

---------- Post added at 02:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:14 PM ----------

Ok so I have been doing some research and realized I can get the 2 foot hydrofarm for $45 that has the reflective t5ho 1 bulb light. I would like to go this route for my phals. Let me know what you think? Thought I would ask before I order. Thanks.

On amazon, I've gotten 24w T5HO fixtures + bulbs for $27.. I've gotten ones with reflectors included for 43, but Sun blaster sells 24" reflectors for around $15 I think. At the time, it was cheaper to buy them separately, but the prices change.

If you have enough space, go with a larger one. My shelving spaces allow 36" so I got the 39w for those. My other setups are less than 36" wide; For those, I use a 24w. If you do some searching, you'll find that the 39w ones are around the same price too. I've gotten my 39W lights for 34. *most of the 24W I see now are 30-45 dollars now. I should have bought more of them when they were $27 ;) I also have both sun blaster, and a hydrofarm fixture. Both are nice and pretty much the same dimensions.

I don't really mind using them without reflectors though. The ones I've bought reflectors for are the ones that are at the right level to hurt my eyes. I remember seeing a post about the effectiveness of reflectors and how it depends on the distance from the plant. I'm not sure anymore, but the lights still work pretty well without one. :)

If you have just 3 phals do you really need a light set up? Phals like indirect light and do not need or like too much light. You don't have any windows or areas of indirect light in your home?

Alright all thought I would update you on what I finally purchased today. I ended up with buying the hydrofarm 2 foot pulley system light and frame. I also went to my local Menards store and got 2 6500k Cfls that I intend to put in the silver dome shaped work light fixtures. Until my hydrofarm comes I will play around with the two cfls. I also picked up a meter that measures humidity and light. So I think I am ready to go. Thanks to everyone for all the advice!

Make another post so you can add photos! (Need 5 posts)
:)
I would like to see your setup! Hopefully you're getting some more orchids; I think just a couple of phals would be lonely underneath those lights. ;)

The hydrofarm won't be here until next week. Once I get it set up I will post pics.

Ok I am a beginner at this and have a what I feel is kind of a dumb question .... I set up my two Cfls today pointing at my orchids. I used the light meter and it says its still in the dark area. I have 2 40w Cfls on. Do I need a bigger watt? They are the 6500k bulbs. The meter says its around the 500 mark. It is measured in L which I am assuming is lumens... am I correct?

uhm.... I believe most meters measure lux.
Does it include other units of measurements?

ETA: what brand of meter are you using?
I'm asking because I got a meter off amazon and compared it to a phone app... the phone was way off. Have you tried tilting/angling it? Maybe you can check the meter by pointing outside, near a window. My meter has different dials for when measurement gets too high. It includes x10, x100, and x1000, I believe. If I don't switch it when it's needed, it will give me whacky numbers. I'm not a expert when it comes to light meters though.

It measures light, soil moistness and ph. I got it at home depot it is a Hampton bay meter. When I put it in direct sunlight it jumps to the very top reading which is 2000. There is a small guide on the bottom of box for different plants but no orchids. It says its measured in light. Then says the minimum light needed for 16 hours per day.(whatever that means)

Ok I finally ended up with a good bulb agrosun from stein garden and gifts. Works great. I also bought three more orchids today. 2 minis one which was on clearance at lowes for $3 and a good yellow and purple mini (which both needed to be transplanted immediately the moss they planted them in was so packed and soggy it was awful). Then got a 20" pretty purple one from steins. That is the first one I have gotten in good soil with good roots. I definitely have a lot to keep me busy. I also got a growing flat with a 7" dome that I can vent to keep the humidity higher in. So excited. Will post pics when I finally get the hydrofarm.

I've heard those aren't always accurate.. I'm not sure if all the readings are or aren't. I wouldn't completely trust it (use it as a guide though), unless you can compare it with some other measuring devices.

What do you mean 7" dome? Post pics please? :)
Honestly, you probably won't need a dome for humidity. Phals seem to tolerate dry air, as long as they're watered properly. If you'd like to increase the humidity by using a type of enclosure, I would use something bigger more more air space. (I'm not sure what the dome you're using looks like though.) Every time that I've put orchids in an enclosed space without enough air ventilation *and* air circulation, I had problems with mold, and infections. Fans are a must in an enclosed space (in my short orchid experience so far.)
I have two of these mini greenhouses: http://www.menards.com/main/mobile/p...00-c-10122.htm

Oh yeah.. Lowes and those mini phals. I'm very addicted to those! I have 8 of them now. :blushing: we probably have some of the same ones! Yes.. All of them are packed in about 3x the amount of sphag needed... And one of them came covered in algae. (It's hard to tell until you can pull the smaller pot out of the clay pot STUFFED with sphag.)

Honestly, I don't think you need to think about lights yet since you just have Phals for now. I live even further north than you, and my Phals happily bloom with the available natural light. My previous 2 apartments had only north-east or east facing windows, and they'd still bloom then. I even bloomed 2 catts in those windows. I'd even had to be careful about sunburn in the summer! I did have lights, but those were to supplement only my orchids with higher light requirements, mostly in the winter months.
I now live in an apartment with south facing windows, and don't use any lights anymore. Natural light is more than enough, even with so few daylight hours in the winter.