Growing Under Lights

[MorandiWine]

I am going to be conducting a little experiment and I need all of your help if you would be so kind.

If you are growing under lights, could you please let me know what kind of light, how many lights, how far from leaf surface and the duration of the light?

This is going to be a comparison of different lights vs rate of growth.

Thanks

Tyler

 

[keithrs]

I grow seedlings under 2 lamp t12 fixtures.... 6500 k... 12" from the plants.... 16 hour on, 8 off.

 

[Kramer Chids]

I grow under Hydro Farm T5HO 4' Four bulb fixtures. They are 6500k lights running at 20k lumens. I have them about 12" from the plants and run them 14-16 hours a day.

I have all of my seedlings on a Hydro Farm 17w heating mat.

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

I grow under NO flourescents, 40 wt, 3 CW and 1 WW in each fixture, 3 fixtures. Use it for seedlings and smaller paphs.

 

[naoki]

I use several kinds. With T5HO (2' x 4 bulbs, 6500K), top of the plants are about 6" from the bulbs. With T8 (4' x 2 bullbs, 6500K), I put them from 2" from the bulbs. Then I have a 90W 5-band LED UFO for tall plants (multi-floral), about 1.5 feet above the top of plants. But they seem to be growing slowly under LED.

 

[quiltergal]

My grow shelves each have 2 T5HO, ' x 4', 6500k. Time on varies by the season. Now they are on 14 hrs.

 

[Ozpaph]

I grow flasklings and small seedlings during winter under a single130W CFL 6500k about 45cm under the light. I often add a piece of shade cloth between the light and newly deflasked seedlings for the first month or so. 14-16hrs per day. With heat and humidification.

 

[Shiva]

I use all kind of lights. In summer in my main plant room, I have two 400 Watts lamps (HPS + MH) and two CFL (250 Watts - rated = not equivalent to) lamps. The idea is to provide good light with the minimum of heat.
In winter, I replace the CFL lamps by 1000W HPS + MH lamps They turn on on the south side first then off. Then they turn on on the North side. At noon all the lights are on for an hour. Kind of simulating sunrise and sunset with the most light at high noon. Those lamps are enough to heat the whole second floor on my house. I keep pace with the seasons with 16 hours max in summer and 13 in winter.

I use fluorescent lights mainly for paphs who require less light and more warmth in winter. They are T8, 32W, 6500°K, right now 8 tubes on the top shelf and two on the lower for seedlings (just found out one ballast is dead).

I also use a combination of CFL and DEL in my Orchid Window which also get's light from outside. I use this one for supersize paphs and phrags with long flowers like sanderianum and caudatum types. It keeps temps up and humidity between 80 and 95% at this time of year. That % should go down when heating the house starts in fall.

Some plants, like masdevallias and catasetums, among others, are kept in my solarium with natural light.

Sounds complicated but it's a good work out for the brain as to which plants go where.

 

[ehanes7612]

when i did grew under lights I grew my seedlings 5 feet under 400 watt halide lamps (but as i have found out this was too much light for them, excepting roth, supardii and stonei)..they probably would have liked it around 7 feet ...i grew the BS plants under 1000 watt (HPS) at 5 feet and did great with blooming but i also think they received too much light (bleaching and drying out too fast), 7 feet wouldve been better, or less photoperiod

 

[Shiva]

The plant room with HID lights is mostly for phrags and higher light demanding paphs, like roths and its hybrids. The plants are laid out from 4 to 8 feet from the lamps. In winter, Half the lights are on in succession for 6 1/2 hours every day, wich means a maximum distance of about 12 feet. In summer, the 1000W HIDs are replaced with bright CFL but nowhere as bright as HIDs and they are on for 16 hours. Seedlings are grown under fluorescent lights at least one foot away from the tubes. Under this regimen, most of the leaves are a medium green.

 

[ehanes7612]

The plant room with HID lights is mostly for phrags and higher light demanding paphs, like roths and its hybrids. The plants are laid out from 4 to 8 feet from the lamps. In winter, Half the lights are on in succession for 6 1/2 hours every day, wich means a maximum distance of about 12 feet. In summer, the 1000W HIDs are replaced with bright CFL but nowhere as bright as HIDs and they are on for 16 hours. Seedlings are grown under fluorescent lights at least one foot away from the tubes. Under this regimen, most of the leaves are a medium green.

and i think you state the best indicator of optimum light intensity/duration...the color of the leaf..should be a medium green and also add that each succeeding leaf be larger than the previous (until it reaches blooming size, in which case the last leaf may just be a small pre sheath deal)

 

[Shiva]

Yes! A sure sign of imminent flowering is when new growth comes out of the middle while the newer leaf is barely a few inches long. How much do I love to see this?:drool:

 

[Justin]

My lightstands have four shelves, with 250W MH on one, 175W MH + 40W compact fluoro on the other, and two shelves of shoplights with 4x40W T12 each, alternating daylight and cool white bulbs. Plants are 12-18' under the metal halides, and 8-10" below the fluorescents.

The shelves are along a bank of windows and get natural eastern light, so I have the lamps on for 11 hours per day.

 

[MorandiWine]

WOW!

This is great everyone! Thanks so much for all this info!!!!

Tyler