Refresh my memory concerning lights please

[caleb316]

Hello all, I have maybe 40 - 50 orchirds all outside in sunny Florida. They have started to breed I guess and now will have to be under lights in the cold winter weeks. I had previousely grown orchids under light many years ago and have multiple HID lights from 430 Sodium to 400 and 250 metal halide. At this point I am not interested in LED systems. My question is are there better bulbs now than the stanard sodium and metal halide. Are there HID lights that have been blended in a way that a single bulb can produce a better overall spectrum? Thanks for any input.

[Magnus A]

For MH use "full spectrum bulbs" and a color temperature at around 6500K and you get a nice light for your orchids.

[caleb316]

How does the MH full spectrum compare to the Son Agro that comes in MH as well?

[Magnus A]

No idea!

I try to find a neutral light with as good spectrum as possibly, as close to visibly sunlight I can. And then I go for as high light levels I can without burning my orchids or heat them to much!

I want the light to be as pleasant as possibly without any color cast!

[johnblagg]

I have great success with my home made fluorescents using off the shelf GE multi volt pro electronic ballasts ... PN # GE296HO-MV-N-DIY and Lothonia Lighting 65 watt triple tube flat compact fluorescent T4 bulbs made to use in outdoor flood lights. Since the ballast will power bulbs from 48 watts to 96 watts they give you the option of just buying higher wattage bulbs if you ever need to increase light output and the ballast is high output also ...
They put out 4,300 lumens at 6500k and each ballast will run two of them giving you 130 watts in a small footprint flat cfl bulb 4 inches wide x 8 inches long and just 1 inch thick so they take up almost no space .

Ballast runs $37 bulbs are $13 each so for about $70 you have a great set of lights. I use regular lamp cord wire in 2 pairs from the ballast to each bulb and it is flexible and easy to work with so you can place the ballast several feet from the bulbs and it gives you great flexibility when your hanging attaching/mounting the lights .

CRI for these is 80 so things look right under them too