Orchid greenhouse in a basement - any advice?
 

Hello fellow orchid lovers. I (as many of us) ran out of a room on a windowsill so I'm thinking about setting up a grow area in a basement. It's somewhat colder than the house, around 17 C / 62 F year round. I want to grow out phal seedlings in the area so I need some sort of enclosure to keep temperature and humidity in control. Has anyone tried those mini greenhouse that look like shelves enclosed in green plastic? Any advice?

There are a number of people here using this kind of greenhouse. But did you consider something? Those temperatures are great for Masdevallias and Draculas. You wouldn't need to fuss with heating. Not many people can grow these plants due to too-high temperature.

Many people who like Phals like Masdevallias and Draculas. For example, look what Shannon grew in her cool basement:
Blooming Masde and Dracuvallia
Ignea bud watch

Before moving, but after selling my greenhouse, I did something similar, but probably cheaper.

I started with a "bakers rack" shelving from Home Depot, and purchased a "humidity tent". I used LED strip lights to give myself two illuminated growing layers, about 30" apart.

That was my initial thought too...it's an appealing idea to me 'cause I can't grow them.

Thank you for the advice. I like weird flowers like Encyclia Cochleata but Masdevallia is a bit too creepy. Reminds me of that big-mouthed monster from the Star Wars :biggrin:

And what about Draculas? They look like little monkeys.

I had an even less expensive setup than that, Ray. Heavy duty plastic storage rack (about $39), the heavy duty plastic bag that came on our chest freezer (free with freezer and almost a perfect fit) and a few sets of strip lamps. A seed starting heat cable and the heat from the lamps gave me enough heat and a good differential when the lamps were off. I used an inexpensive programmable lamp timer for the lights, too.

The nice thing about the humidity tent is that it has a zippered "door" that allowed easy access for watering and inspecting the plants.

I didn't bother with heat mats, but the LED light strips added enough heat to keep the plants happy. I had phrags down low, and phals up top. Also on a timer.

When winter came and I didn't have any more windows to fill I inclosed a space in basement with plastic, humidifier, fans for air movement and LED full spectrum lights,great results achieved, everyone growing, new growth earlier bloom time on some, opened a new spectrum of plants, resurrected my Masdevillia

Yep that's the one I have. Then I put a humidifier in it and a fan, it works pretty good.

Most basements supply plenty of humidity. I highly suggest a hygrometer for any grow room. They are quite cheap. My grow room at my home, an efficiency apartment I used to call "The Bomb Shelter" is very basement like. In fact they call this a basement apartment here in New Orleans. I would say that your most important elements you need to be concerned about is quality of grow lights, and air movement. I keep my apartment pretty cool, and the few phals I do have grow just fine in 60 degree temps. Phals are pretty forgiving in my opinion as long as there is enough air movement to prevent crown rot, and low enough light.

I do find with the new COB LED grow lights I have much less issue with pests and disease because they cover a much larger part of the light spectrum beyond PAR. PAR is important, but other parts of the light spectrum really help with some of the issues of using florescent grow bulbs (increased disease and pests), and the prices have come way down. I use VERO29 Gen7 LED grow lights and the performance is phenomenal. The light is visible light is white, while being far more full spectrum than any grow lights in the past. I am getting unparalleled growth and flowering from my plants even compared to those in my orchid society growing in greenhouses. Some plants are doing things I have never seen before. For example, My angraecum germinyanum which is only supposed to get a single flower per inflorescence is getting two flowers per. I cannot find any literature of this happening. Not sure if the plant I have has some crazy genetics, or if it is these lights. I have only had them about 9 months, but have years of experience growing under florescent tubes.