Buy the light in Europe

[Maya Fechtberg]

Hi, I really hope someone will help me.
I have around 20 phals, all of them are placed on 2 window shelfs. There is not enough of light for plants so I want to buy 2 lamps. I cannot find anything for plant growing in Estonia, so I will buy it online.
Please, could anyone give me a clue what kind of light to buy and where from...

[camille1585]

What types of lights do you want? Tubes or compact fluorescents? If you want tubes, the normal tubes used for shop lights (T8s) will work, that you can find in DIY stores. For low light plants like phals, they should work fine. I have been looking for some compact fluorescents, and if Santa is generous with his wallet, I will get an envirolight or ecolight. It's 125 watts, 6400°K, 11000 lumens. To give you an idea, the bulb alone is about 40-50€, the kit with the reflector is 80-90€.

For now I use two compact fluorescent 36W dulux (29€ each) from Rainforest frogs, in NL. I regret not having gotten the 55W set (39€), even though it is just as supplemental light for my plants in the winter. You have to assemble it yourself. I had to ask my uncle to do it for me, I'm no good at that sort of stuff!
Rainforest Frogs

There are plenty of other europeans here that grow under lights, so I'm sure they will have ideas for you too!

[Blueszz]

Camille,
would you be so kind to upload a picture and show me how you use these lamps? I would like to see how you were able to hang them above the plants.
Why did you choose these lamps and for instance not T5 or T8 FL?
I've been investigating lighting too and was about to order some T5's.
You would do me a great favor with showing me your setup.

[camille1585]

Unfortunately I don't have any pics, since I left the lights in France. There was no way to bring them with me in the TGV and Thalys, with the year's full of stuff(and orchids) I was hauling!

To put it together I used a piece of board. The ballast is srewed on the top, and the bulb+ reflector and starter are before. I stuck some hooks in the wood. In Lyon they are suspended from a shelf, and at the country house the orchids stay in the workshop basement since it was huge windows. Then I rigged up something to hang the lights from. Nothing fancy, actually quite ugly, but it works! The bulbs are only 40cm long, so they are bit short. When I got it a year ago I only had 6 orchids, now I have 35!

The reason I didn't use T5 or T8 is because I can't afford T5, and I could have gotten T8 but the lights from rainforest frogs are plant lights. I'm actually thinking of getting some T8s next week for my room in Wageningen (north facing window the orchids and I hate it!), since I saw some at at Gamma today for about 20€. I'll see about getting some better lights later.

[Blueszz]

Thanks Camille,
if you go to Gamma, make sure you get the correct light color. I think you have to look for day light (daglicht) or maybe even 'extra wit' lamps.
I have a south faced window but even that is for some orchids not enough. I have them cramped in front of the window, that is why I'm looking for artificial lights.

[kavanaru]

Guys, for Phalaenopsis, you will have enough light with T8... no need to pay that much for T5

and another good advice: do not buy especial expensie T8 tubes from "terrarium shops or similar"... go to the nearest building supplies store (Obi, Leroy Merlin and so on) and buy normal plain lamps.. for Phals I used (with good results) a combination of 2xdaylight tubes (temp @ 6000K - 6500K) and 1xwarmlight tube (Temp 27ooK to 3000K) The total setup can be no more than 25€!!! you also do not need to buy the expensive lamps I remember I bought some at Leroy Merlin for 4€ and they work very well for the more than one year I used them... I also had an expensive setup from the terrarium shop (especial tubes and so on) and to be hones, the plants under normal T8 grew better (I even got Cattleyas to bloom!) - all my lamps were 36Watts (approx 120 cm long)

why I changed then to T5? well, my collection grew quite fast and I have more light hungry orchids than before... as for T8, I just bought the standard ones you get at the building supplies store... same temps ratio!

[Blueszz]

Ramón, thanks for your input!
how do I determine how many lamps I need?

Nicole

[Maya Fechtberg]

Well, it is so difficult for me to understand what lamp I want/need. Since I am going to place it on the ceiling near the window just on top of my plants, I want a long one, something like 0.5-1 m lenght, not a bulb. It should be fluorescent energy saving one. I have no idea what is T5/T8/T12, but i have read that for the blooming i need more of blue spectrum. Well I guess I want such kind of light.
I have already checked building supplies stores and nothing suitable there...

[kavanaru]

Nicole: you would need as many tubes as you would need to cover your plants for example, with a setup of 3 x 54Watts tubes, I provided enough light to approx 16 plants (it depends on the size of your plants and of the pots!) Important is that the lamps cannot be too high above the plants. I had my lamps at about 30-50 cm (some plants were higer than others)

Maya: T5/T8/T12 is just the technical code for different fuorescent tubes:
T8 in Europe also called T26 (or G13) are the normal tubes you find in most buildings (except Switzerland I would say, where you normally find T5 ) this tubes have a diameter of 26 mm
T5 in Europe also T16 (or G5) have a diameter of 16 mm
T12, I have no clue what they are

T5 is more light (and energy!!!) efficient than T8 (if you can afford them they are the lamps of choice!).

as per light.. blue or red for blooming or growing... unless you are planning to grow weed inhouse, you should not worry too much about that for orchids, and only try to use a combination that gives you a good optic light balance... the ratio I gave before, is a very good ratio for healthy plants: good growth and good blooming... there are several threads regarding light balance here in OB. Check this one http://www.orchidboard.com/community...-t5-lamps.html which provides light measurements below T5 tubes, and also include some discussion on light temp (with some pictures of the same plant to show the optic effect I mentionned before) and this one Light for vegetative growth vs flowering? for a more detailed discussion on light temps..

[Blueszz]

Thanks Ramón for your input, I will check these links out!