A Neo Lighting and Growing Environment Thread

[Jayfar]

Starting this thread from a sidetrip in another thread:

Originally Posted by LinhT

Honestly, I don't know for sure, what the key is to get more blooms. I can just give you a detailed description of my growing conditions?

Through trying different things and varying different factors each year, I found this is what works best for me. This may end up being a long boring essay so I apologize ahead of time.

During the Winter rest period, they stay in my basement. Temps are up to high 60's F during the day and down to
as low as low 50's F during the night. I put them under some Kessel H150 LEDs last year, about 18 inches below the lights. I used a mixture of purple and magenta. They get dunked in RO water when the moss mound is so dry that it lifts out of the pot easily. About once a month I add a few drops of HB-101 to the water. Humidity n the room is around 50 to 60%. There is some natural light coming through a south window in the room. In their natural habitat, the light they receive is actually brighter in Winter than Summer but the hours of light are less. So the LED's go on at sunrise and off at sunset. I turn the fan on for the days that they get watered. As the daylight hours get longer and temps increase, they start to put out new roots. This is when I usually remound them and start fertilizing moderately with HB-101 about once a week and Biogold once a month. I never mix the HB-101 with Biogold and always make sure to use RO water with the ferts. As they start to bloom, the root tips close up a bit and I ease off on the fertilizer. Once the blooms fade, they start to have active root tips again and I begin the fert regimen again. They grow outside in a shade house open on both ends so there is always circulation. I use 70% aluminet shade cloth on the top part of the shade house. 30% on the eastern facing side and 70% on the western facing side. It seems the more light they get during the growing season and resting period, coupled with the coldest temps they can endure safely during the winter, the more buds and spikes they may have. I keep them outside until it's too cold for them to be out there safely (except for last year when I screwed up, of course). All in all, I'd say growing them outdoors had made a great difference due to the increased circulation, light and temps.
Thanks, Ginger! When I used to have mine on the windowsill, I had them close to the window and the windows were drafty. It got around 50's F at night right by the window. As long as your garage does not dip below 50 degrees F, I'd say they will be just fine. You can choose to wrap them up and put them in the garage but I find that if they get a good amount of light during the Winter rest, I get more blooms and spikes in the Summer. They should still bloom, even if the temps are not cold enough in the Winter. It just seems mine tend to have more flowers when it they get a cold, bright Winter rest.

Hope all this info is helpful!

Originally Posted by DelawareJim

Interesting about the LEDs Tracy. This past spring, I replaced all my aquarium lights with LEDs and I'm working on specs to replace all my grow lights. I'm providing more light and my electric bill has gone down!

I'm working with the owner of Build my LED on selecting the right fixture lengths and lens spread for best coverage right now. It's great, I tell him what the planned use is, footprint of the shelves, distance from plants to lights and he emails a recommendation with the spread pattern and spectral analysis. Based on his recommendation and my own research his 25% green enhanced light is the way to go. NASA has done some fascinating research on this for plants in long-term space exploration.
Green-Enhanced Growth Spectrum - Build My LED, LLC

Cheers.
Jim

Originally Posted by Jayfar

My lighting is kind of a mishmash right now. My table where the Neos live (and are pushing the other Vandas out) has a 200W 6500K CFL fixture hanging about 2' above it which is on about 14 hours most days. This is supplemented by one of the 13W LEDs from First Rays about 10" above the tops of the Neos, but only for about 8 hours daily. That light is in an Ikea Tertial fixture without the shade installed and for the other half of the day I have it swiveled around to provide supplemental lighting to an adjacent table of Phals. I also use another of the LED bulbs and Tertial fixture to light another table of Phals that previously only had spillover lighting from a large terrarium and, several feet away, off to one side, a southern window.

https://www.firstrays.com/cgi/cart/c...ghting&pid=700

TERTIAL Work lamp - IKEA

I do want to look into the LEDs that Jim just posted about. The customization options are a big plus. I did notice, though, that the linked study on green-enhanced spectrum compares results with cool-white fluorescents, as opposed to the 6500K CFLs that I use.

Originally Posted by LinhT

This is quite interesting. I vaguely remember seeing your thread on this a little while back. I think someone was questioning the research on this and mentioned something about the benefits of adding LED's in the far red region.

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.