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Hi Trevor. Are you aware of the Orchid Society meetings in London, Burlington, Ottawa and Toronto Ontario.
 
Well, you have met some growers, that’s for sure! Welcome on board! 👏
I too am growing under lights and my collection features Phrags., novelty Phalaenopsis, Bulbophyllums and a few odd ball things.
All my Phrags summer outside. 1/2 hour west of Motown!!!
 
Trevor Su said:
, Hi! My name is Trevor and I have been growing orchids since I was ten! I grow a pretty common selection of phals, cattleyas (my favorites), oncidiums, phrags, and some other misc species on my windowsill and under lights. I hope to meet other growers! Cheers!
Click to expand...
Where in Ontario, it's a big place. For those that don't know , Toronto to Montreal 5 hours, Toronto to Thunder Bay 16 hours. Toronto also has the longest street in the world, Yonge Street 35 miles or 57 km. whichever you prefer.
 
David B said:
Where in Ontario, it's a big place. For those that don't know , Toronto to Montreal 5 hours, Toronto to Thunder Bay 16 hours. Toronto also has the longest street in the world, Yonge Street 35 miles or 57 km. whichever you prefer.
Click to expand...
I am located in the GTA
 
Trevor Su said:
, Hi! My name is Trevor and I have been growing orchids since I was ten! I grow a pretty common selection of phals, cattleyas (my favorites), oncidiums, phrags, and some other misc species on my windowsill and under lights. I hope to meet other growers! Cheers!
Click to expand...
Hi Trevor. I am trying to solve the lighting puzzle. How many hours of light do you give your Catts in winter and summer?
 
I am finally having success with compact Cattleyas under lights after 6 years.
I have a plant cart with 3 T-5 tubes, 6,500k. Plants are 5-6' below tubes. 10 hours a day from December 1 to February 1. Then 11 hours from February 1 until March 15th then 12 hours a day from then until May 1st when most of them go outside for the summer.
I have another light fixture that holds 8 T-5 tubes. Under that fixture I put my large Catts, Strap leafed Paphs, and Phrags. All about 8-9" below tubes. They spend the winter there with the same number of hours of light.
My house is North facing but with white walls I get reflected light as well as direct sun from 10am until roughly 1:00 or 1:30. It stays that way until mid August or so but the sun is already getting lower in the sky so my hours of sun start to drop off a bit. I have another small section where the sunlight stays longer. I put a few mature, large growth cattleyas there. They get about 4 hours of sun.
I am 20 miles or so west of Detroit, so warm summer days are infrequent!!! My temperatures run from 55-85 degrees. We do get to enjoy the passage of cool fronts all summer long. Cattleyas suffer when the temperatures are constantly above 85 degrees. Just my opinion. I spent 9 years in SW Florida. Cattleyas hated it!!!! Too HOT!!!! I might see 3 days above 90 degrees each summer.

Added. I run a total of 26 T-5 tubes. my total electric bill amounts to about a dollar a day for all those tubes. The 8 tube fixture gets turned off from May to October.
 
big923cattleya said:
I am finally having success with compact Cattleyas under lights after 6 years.
I have a plant cart with 3 T-5 tubes, 6,500k. Plants are 5-6' below tubes. 10 hours a day from December 1 to February 1. Then 11 hours from February 1 until March 15th then 12 hours a day from then until May 1st when most of them go outside for the summer.
I have another light fixture that holds 8 T-5 tubes. Under that fixture I put my large Catts, Strap leafed Paphs, and Phrags. All about 8-9" below tubes. They spend the winter there with the same number of hours of light.
My house is North facing but with white walls I get reflected light as well as direct sun from 10am until roughly 1:00 or 1:30. It stays that way until mid August or so but the sun is already getting lower in the sky so my hours of sun start to drop off a bit. I have another small section where the sunlight stays longer. I put a few mature, large growth cattleyas there. They get about 4 hours of sun.
I am 20 miles or so west of Detroit, so warm summer days are infrequent!!! My temperatures run from 55-85 degrees. We do get to enjoy the passage of cool fronts all summer long. Cattleyas suffer when the temperatures are constantly above 85 degrees. Just my opinion. I spent 9 years in SW Florida. Cattleyas hated it!!!! Too HOT!!!! I might see 3 days above 90 degrees each summer.

Added. I run a total of 26 T-5 tubes. my total electric bill amounts to about a dollar a day for all those tubes. The 8 tube fixture gets turned off from May to October.
Click to expand...
Thank you, that's helpful. I am afraid I gave my plants too many hours of too-bright light last winter (my first) November was 14 hours, Dec 13 hours, Jan 12 hours, then increasing an hour a month until I put them back on the windowsill in March. Our days are very long in summer, and I think trying to calibrate to those day-lengths was just too much. Or I needed a lower-intensity light.
I keep buying Cattleyas but they seem very finicky. The blooms are small, or the buds blast, or the leaves suddenly yellow and fall off. I don't think I've quite solved the puzzle yet.
 
Hi Trevor. I am from the Montreal area; nice to meet another Canadian grower. I revamped my orchid growing area in September 2023. I am now growing on a 2 tier light garden using LED lights purchased from BotanicalLED--2 48" Full Spectrum Plus "Optimum" LEDs on the top shelf (lower light requiring plants--8 phals, 2 paphs, 3 oncidium, 1 cymbidium ensifolium) and 2 48" Full Spectrum Plus "Spike Producers" LEDs on the lower shelf (high light requiring plants--14 cattleyas, standards and minis, and 1 neostylis). The lights are on 12 hours a day from November to April (winter), 14 hours a day from May to October (summer). The humidity is at 50%-60% using a cool air room humidifier. An oscillating standing fan runs 24 hours a day to maintain good air circulation. The night temperature is house temperature of around 20°C; daytime temperature is 25°C using a room heater running for 10 hours in winter and 12 hours in summer. The heater is turned on 1 hour after the lights go on in the morning and turned off 1 hour before the lights go off in the evening. It has taken a while to tweak the set up but it is now working well and I am quite pleased with how effective it is turning out to be. I have lots of new growths and new roots starting on the cattleyas, lots of new roots on the phals. 3 phals are in bloom, 1 mini-cattleya in bud. I fertilize regularly at 1/4 strength, flushing the growing medium once a month.

In the past, I used to put the cattleya plants outside during the summer, from end of May to mid September. But, I am stopping that as I do not want to introduce any insects into my growing area. In the past, I had infestations of spider mites, scale, Bois Duval scale and mealy bugs, fortunately, no thrips. The government has really limited the availability of pesticides to deal with these infestations for the home gardener. And, I really do not like using toxic chemicals. So, no summer holidays for the plants, just "staycations"

I don't find the cattleyas finicky in my set up. Hope that helps.
 

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