Growing orchids in Alaska

[big923cattleya]

You could correct color with a bit more nitrogen perhaps.
How often do you fertilize?
With how much?
With what?

 

[Stuart Cohen]

Because natural sunlight varies considerably through the day, artificial lighting can deliver the same overall number of photons when it is run for the same number of hours at half the light intensity. The natural habitat day length for most Cattleyas is about 11.5 hours in mid-winter to 12.5 hours in mid-summer.

That's really helpful. I think I just hammered them with too much light, as I was going with recommended photoperiods of 13 and 14 hours, and the plants were mostly catts. I can see that I have one catt that has been throwing out smaller growths for a while. I just repotted it and hope that will make a difference. Strangely, it blooms even if it looks unhealthy.

 

[Stuart Cohen]

You could correct color with a bit more nitrogen perhaps.
How often do you fertilize?
With how much?
With what?

I'm using Schultz Expert Orchid food, 19-31-17 on a weakly/weekly basis, but less in winter. At one point I mixed in some pulverized eggshells to increase the calcium. I didn't see any visible effect.

 

[Stuart Cohen]

Superthrive, K-L-N, and most other root growth stimulants contain synthetic auxins, which by themselves, are extremely effective. The problem is that in order to make them water soluble, they must be converted to mineral salts, and those are far less chemically stable. Dave Neal, who founded Dyna-Gro, once told me that a fresh batch, if kept cool and dark, wil be viable for about a year. If it is stored warm, that is decreased to a number of months, and if allowed to get hot or be exposed to sunlight (i.e., stored in a greenhouse, as many folks do), the life is reduced to a matter of weeks.

Considering it's made and warehoused in California, trucked across country to distributors who store it how and for who-knows-how-long, most of the stuff you buy is likely well short of "fresh" when you get it.

You want something that DOES occur in nature? Try Kelpak.

Not wanting to stir the pot here, but I do use Kelpak! It's hard for me to gauge the effect, as I have not control group, but my orchids generally look pretty good, so there is that!

 

[Stuart Cohen]

If you want to dial in the best lighting for your orchids in my experience you need two things:
1) An accurate way to measure the light your plants are receivning
2) A light source that provides the best quality light.

The best measurement for orchid lighting is to measure PPFD (Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density) which is a measurement of the light (photons) that reach the target each second. PPFD is measured over a one meter square area in “micromoles per square meter per second” and expressed as μmol/m2/s. The best instrument to measure this is the Apogee Instruments MQ-500 Full Spectrum Quantum PAR Meter. One can be purchased easily from Amazon. It isn't cheap, but buying one completely turned my growing around. I can't recommend one enough. Footcandles, lux and other light measurements only measure the intensity of the light. A PAR meter measure the quality of the light that the plant needs to support photosynthesis. There are lots of sources on the internet that can get you started on what level of PPFD are recommended for a particular type of orchid

The other item you need is a good source for your light. I used to use fluorescent tubes but found them to be expensive to run (electricity) and not very flexible in adjusting the amount of light you are giving your plant. Also over time a fluorescent tube will start to dim but that is not always easy to see with the naked eye. LED lights as far as I know do not dim over time. They either work or they don't.

A few years ago I shifted to LED lights and I'm never going back. The lights I use are designed for growing plants where the light spectrum they produce is geared to what plants need for photosynthesis. They are also dimmable so you can adjust the intensity of the light. This feature along with adjusting the height of the lamp provides a great deal of flexibility for your light placement.

I use Mars Hydro LED lights for all my growing. If your growing area is rectangular in shape I would recommend the Mars Hydro TSL 2000. If your grow area is more square in shape I would recommend the Mars Hydro TSW 2000. Both lights are listed as 300 watt units, but you will not need to run them at full throttle. Mine are hung anywhere from 20"-30" above my plants and are all running at around 25% full intensity.

I grow everything from Cattleya to Phragmipedium and get excellent results using the Apogee meter and the Mars Hydro lights. Not the cheapest way to go but in the long run I'd rather know quantitatively what my plants are getting for light rather then going with trial and error by looking at the growth exhibited by the plants. I think it also saves me electricity cost in the long run.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for this. I'm using an HLG-60, primarily because it was one of the few lights that fit my small square low space, is dimmable, and doesn't generate heat (which I can't easily vent).
Please don't laugh at me, but I have an app on my iphone that measures PPFD.

Photone - Grow Light Meter​

I will start playing around with it and see if I can come up with some useful numbers.

 

[Ricardo Boricua]

There was an article in the American Orchid Society Bulletin about a man growing tropical orchids 200 miles north of the polar circle I think in Sweden or Norway. It may be of interest. Unfortunately I have not been able to find an Internet link to it. If you have access to a library they may be able to help with this.

 

[Ray]

You can grow any orchid anywhere, if you control the environment.

I met a guy in Delaware (Dr. Rah?) who was into cold-growing species. Instead of a greenhouse, he bought a 40-foot refrigerated shipping container, outfitted it with lights, water, and benches, and away he went.

 

[hkunberger]

Don’t know if this will be useful or not, but I’ll say just in case. Three things that made me much more successful with my paphs of all types: flush the pot very regularly, not just the once a month recommendation to flush the salts. Since Paph roots don’t grow in the air they need a little extra attention getting air to their roots. (This was Dave Sorokowski’s advice on an AOS webinar I saw several years ago and have heeded ever since; make sure they are getting proper humidity and air flow (humidifiers and fans) and; hate to sound like a commercial BUT my experience using Kelpak (Ray sells it) was transformative. My roots grew like crazy! Big fat healthy roots with beautiful root tips all over the pot.
I think your pale leaves are either the result of too much light or too little nitrogen. But healthy roots will buy you some time to figure that part out.
Good luck!

 

[Morja]

Please don't laugh at me, but I have an app on my iphone that measures PPFD.

Photone - Grow Light Meter​

I will start playing around with it and see if I can come up with some useful numbers.

Hi from Montana! I am a bit new at growing under lights myself, but I use that app and it has been MASSIVELY better than nothing. Also here is a great blog post (by one of our members!) about light level guidelines to follow for typical 12 hour light cycles:
https://herebutnot.com/light-recommendations-ppfd-par-for-orchids-and-houseplants/
To make it extra easy here is a screenshot of the recommendations!

He got these numbers from.High Desert Orchids originally, who did kind of a study on their own plants conditions in the greenhouse and then figured out what the indoor PPFD should be. Sadly for some reason the link to their site wasn't working for me in the post, so I didn't link to the original source of info.
I've been learning a lot from this thread as I have many similar problems with my culture as Stuart being in NW MT! Thanks all!

 

[Stuart Cohen]

Thanks to EVERYONE for all that good advice! I've cut down on the light. Is there any way I can apply extra nitrogen other than switching fertilizers? I've read that I should add calcium by adding ground up eggshells, but I don't know if that's for real. I just repotted it, and roots are still healthy, so I do have some time.
I am about to pick up a Paph. Gloria Naugle. Going deeper into my Paph journey... (Much to my wife's consternation)

 

[Stuart Cohen]

Hi from Montana! I am a bit new at growing under lights myself, but I use that app and it has been MASSIVELY better than nothing. Also here is a great blog post (by one of our members!) about light level guidelines to follow for typical 12 hour light cycles:
https://herebutnot.com/light-recommendations-ppfd-par-for-orchids-and-houseplants/
To make it extra easy here is a screenshot of the recommendations!
View attachment 46552
He got these numbers from.High Desert Orchids originally, who did kind of a study on their own plants conditions in the greenhouse and then figured out what the indoor PPFD should be. Sadly for some reason the link to their site wasn't working for me in the post, so I didn't link to the original source of info.
I've been learning a lot from this thread as I have many similar problems with my culture as Stuart being in NW MT! Thanks all!

This is great. I have that app on my phone and I'll put it to work. Last winter some of my Catts thrived while others seemed to get hammered: there are lighting variances even within the Catt family. All are doing better now that they are in real sunlight.

 

[Stuart Cohen]

HELP! My Rothschilde-Phillipinense is in a death spiral!
I recently repotted my Paph Roth in fresh medium: the same medium it has been thriving in for years. It soon developed ugly brown spots on its new leaf, which also spread to other leaves. Can anyone tell me what's happening here, and what I should do about it? I've been nurturing this plant for years and don't want to lose it!
Potting medium is the same as previously: fine-grade bark chips from repotme.
Thanks in advance for any help that anyone can offer.
Also, how do I increase nitrogen?

 

[NYEric]

Dragon's blood.

 

[Morja]

Try making a separate new thread for your paph question! A lot of people may not see it here. I'm not experienced enough to give answers, but how were the roots when you repotted and when was that?

 

[Stuart Cohen]

The roots looked fine. And thank you for the suggestion of starting a new thread. I'll try that.

 

[Stuart Cohen]

Dragon's blood.

I'm sorry, but I don't know what you mean. Could you explain, please?

 

[Linus_Cello]

I'm sorry, but I don't know what you mean. Could you explain, please?

You should also try 'Dragons blood' ('Sangre de Drago' = Croton lechleri):
https://www.slippertalk.com/threads/dragons-blood.47412/