Neofinetia, Kyokusho 旭昇

[Shoreguy]

Originally Posted by Hakumin

I simply don't have the place to grow outdoors since I live in a third floor apartment in a city, so I learned to make do.

Seems like I learn from you every day, at least when I am checking postings on the Orchid Board. This time not even about neos or orchids.

English is my first and only language and yet when I read your above comment, it seemed wrong. In particular the phrase “make do”. So I looked it up on the internet and indeed you are correct and “make due” is wrong.

[u bada]

Really great, clean, organized set up, wow. Perfect for small space dwelling and photo could be design mag feature ready.

side questions:

-jointly been amassing a small collection of den moniliforme as well, but grow them outdoors as most other dens need more sun, air flow and temp drops... you able to grow yours and flower them well indoors? and same question for the chinese cym? (as it appears to be in front of window)

-Where are you, and everybody, getting the cool simple terra cotta neo pots? searched and searched... maybe just international source?

Been experimenting with numerous LED lights and so far mixed results. Overall still get more growth than flowers. And even with LED's you can overdo the light thing. But i do use them over aquarium type set ups not racks. Still appears fluorescent lights are a lower cost dependable successful solution for growing lots of plants on racks.

[Hakumin]

Originally Posted by u bada

-jointly been amassing a small collection of den moniliforme as well, but grow them outdoors as most other dens need more sun, air flow and temp drops... you able to grow yours and flower them well indoors? and same question for the chinese cym? (as it appears to be in front of window)

I have one moniliforme which I got for the leaves more than the flowers. It grows happily, lots of roots, healthy canes, but I have not gotten it to bloom.

The Cymbidium is an ensifolium and so far no blooms yet, though again it seems to be growing happily with a bunch of new bulbs and steady growth of leaves.

Quite honestly though, as much as I know about Neos, I am next to clueless when it comes to monies and cymbs, and i got these specific ones primarily for their leaves.

Two of the three dendrobiums on the table are actually kingianums though and those I have gotten to flower.

Originally Posted by u bada

-Where are you, and everybody, getting the cool simple terra cotta neo pots? searched and searched... maybe just international source?

Japan. Sorry. I have a friend who lives in Japan. I have her purchase them occasionally and repack and send to me. Others use shipping services, but breakage tends to be high unless the pots are carefully repacked for international shipping.

Originally Posted by u bada

Been experimenting with numerous LED lights and so far mixed results. Overall still get more growth than flowers. And even with LED's you can overdo the light thing. But i do use them over aquarium type set ups not racks. Still appears fluorescent lights are a lower cost dependable successful solution for growing lots of plants on racks

I've found that it's less "even with LEDs you can over do it" it's more "with LEDs it's EASY to over do it." I've found that most LED T5 tube replacements have too high an output and can easily burn plants when placed as close to the plants as I have to.

In the big picture though, LEDs do have quite a few benefits.

LEDs are cooler running than fluos so if you have a hard time controlling heat, LEDs would help a lot.

Also, LEDs are for the most part, cheaper in the long run than fluos. While fluos are cheaper per tube, you do have to replace the tubes more frequently.

For me though one of the big reasons I'm using fluos is that the phosphor mixtures used in LEDs tend to create a tone of light that looks strange to me and skews the color of certain characteristics in my plants. They do make high CRI LEDs, which I am using in the two spotlights you see in the photo, but I have yet to see any for sale in T5 format, or in a format that I'd easily be able to switch out to.

Overall, when the LED replacements catch up to the variety of options that fluo grow lights have, I'll make the switch then I think.

[Pattywack]

Hakumin your Kyokusho is beautiful! The variegation is striking on this plant, really nice.

I agree with u bada, you have a neat and clean set up. Looks very “Better Homes and Garden’ish” and certainly a pleasure to spend time with.

I thought I remembered you posting some time ago about growing under lights, in an old post. Glad to see you are still using T5HO tubes and happy with your results. I’ve not switched to LEDs yet myself.

I love the pots as well, very uniform. Simple and elegant. Thanks for sharing!

[u bada]

I know I'm deviating from the beautiful subject of your thread but a few replies here:

-you need a lot of light to grow kingianums, they bloom outside here in SoCal no problem because you can just sit them in a full light no problem... and you've bloomed them just with those spot lights?

-"monies" are beautiful plants for sure just the foliage, hence I'm getting into them too. a little less perfect than neos which look amazing right off the bat, but yeah probably yours need cool dry winters and higher light, but keep me posted if it blooms indoors in your set up. Would be great to enjoy some indoors. Outside they really can tolerate a lot of light, despite their leaves being way thinner than neo leaves. unfortunately snails like the leaves, another reason I'd love to keep them indoors.

-Chinese cyms are a mystery to me but I'm sure I'll bug you about yours on how it's doing indoors in future.

-Re LED's, totally get what your saying. When I use to live on your neck of the woods, in an apt, I got away with growing a blooming a lot of things under flours and HID lights because I think I was able to get day/night temp difference with how warm they and especially the HID light get. Again, just really excited neo's do well without that temp drop, but with LED's not having that added thing may be putting a hamper on flowering success in my grow tanks. As far as changing LED bulbs, well I've been playing around with them for 3-4 years and reduction intensity is a benefit (they're pretty close to the plants) but can't tell if that's what's been going on. if I have to change lights in another how many years, wouldn't be a problem for me.

-bummer on pots, but had already gathered that. Maybe I'll just have a local ceramicists make something for me and see if that's cheaper from ordering international...

[bjmac]

Hakumin wonderful setup and very clean. How do you get your humidity up with the open shelves and what is the level? Do you have to water often to keep it there? Wish I had more room to have this many neos.

[Hakumin]

Originally Posted by u bada

-you need a lot of light to grow kingianums, they bloom outside here in SoCal no problem because you can just sit them in a full light no problem... and you've bloomed them just with those spot lights?

-"monies" are beautiful plants for sure just the foliage, hence I'm getting into them too. a little less perfect than neos which look amazing right off the bat, but yeah probably yours need cool dry winters and higher light, but keep me posted if it blooms indoors in your set up. Would be great to enjoy some indoors. Outside they really can tolerate a lot of light, despite their leaves being way thinner than neo leaves. unfortunately snails like the leaves, another reason I'd love to keep them indoors.

They do get a bit of direct sun from the window too for a portion of the day, but yes, the two spots are the primary source of light. The lamps are par30 spots with 9 degree beam angle with 1050 lumens each. At the level of the plants, the lux reading is actually higher than what the plants on the stand are getting. Narrow angle LED spots are surprisingly powerful.

Other than that, I do stick the kingianums on the window sill itself during the winter to give them a better chill. That's actually probably why my moniliforme hasn't bloomed. I never gave it a chill the way I did with the kingianums, as you suspected, but I've always been afraid to lose leaves on it because they seem to more prone to losing its leaves with cold and dry spells.

---------- Post added at 09:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:28 PM ----------

Originally Posted by bjmac

Hakumin wonderful setup and very clean. How do you get your humidity up with the open shelves and what is the level? Do you have to water often to keep it there? Wish I had more room to have this many neos.

I don't do anything in particular to increase the humidity. In the summer, the ambient humidity stays between 50% and 65% naturally. In the winter, the humidity drops down to 15% to 40%, but they go "dormant" in the winter the way I grow them so the low humidity doesn't seem to affect them much.

In the summer, I water as soon as the moss is dry on the outside but the slightest bit damp on the inside, about once every 4-5 days. In the winter, I water after the moss is crispy dry for 3 days, inside and out, about once every 6-9 days.

I water everything by dumping them in the shower and running it for 5-10 minutes.