Lighting for my Phals
 

I have a pretty big problem when it comes to growing my 'chids. Ever window in my home is north facing except for one in my room which is north-west facing. So artificial lighting is a must for me. But I am so confused on what would be needed for them to thrive. I don't have much space in here (Rooms only 8x12). The 'chids are on a shelf and I was wondering about the range of lighting for phals, paphs, and, dends:scratchhead: . Because paphs and dends are the next orchids on my list. I am also on a serious budget (I don't have to eat but I gotta have electricity and water for my 'chids :biggrin: ). So what would be good lights for me to get that aren't going to burn a hole in my pockets? And also what kind of light cycle do I need to be keeping them on, because I was going to put the lights on a timer.

Thanks for everyones :twocents:

Hi! I hear ya - money is so hard to come by but the orchids have gotta live :)

Phals can be happy under T8 tube lights - a setup with bulbs shouldn't run you more than 30 dollars, and can be found at most home hardware stores.

Dendros and Phals are two opposites. The Phals need much less light to thrive and blsoom than Dendros. I would recommend seperating them into two different windows. Then I would opt for very high intensity compact florescents for the Dendros and smaller ones for the Phals. I use a couple different sizes from this site 2 to 200 Watt Compact Fluorescent Bulbs : 1000Bulbs.com The Light Bulb Superstore. I use both the 105 watt full spectrum and the 65 watt full spectrum. Here is my setup: http://www.orchidboard.com/community...bs/DSC2508.jpg

I have phals and paphs in my north facing window and it's plenty of light. I wouldn't get a dend, though, unless I had really high light or artificial lights. Two out of three ain't bad! If you are trying to save some bucks. :)

But I really love how the dends look. And I wouldn't mind keeping them apart. I am glad I got some really good suggestions. I'm going to get some T8 lights for my phals and looking into a setup for some dends, and start looking around for some paphs (B-day is next weekend so maybe someone will be nice and get me some stuff >.<). So what should I look for for a setup for dends? And what else does good with dends?:biggrin: But thank you every one for the help. I was so worried I would get home and I would either have nothing or it would all be alien sounding because everywhere I read it's like a different language right now since I just recently decided to take this to a serious level.

Thanks everyone!