Artificial vs. natural

[Petalsofsugar]

I will have to be bringing in my orchids for the winter. I would like your opinions on my dilema. I have a south facing bay window with no over hang. It gets very good, high light when the sun is shining. When it's cloudy the intensity goes down considerably. I brought up a four self unit that will hold four 48" fluorescent lights per shelf. The intensity of the light is no where near the bay window but, it doesn't have cloudy days. In Iowa we get about 3 sunny days for the months of Feb. through April (sorry, a bit of an exaggeration). Would you opt for the window with all those cloudy days and decreasing day lengths or would you go ahead and put them on a shelf with art. light. I have a mix of orchids with several minis on mounts, some very young catts. and various oncids alliances and one paph. and one cymb.

Julie in Iowa

[Diane]

I would put them on the light shelves IN the bay window area. That way they get the benefit of natural light when available, but still have a constant source of light to maintain them.

[AlessandraS]

I agree with Diane, because even though it may not look like a lot of sun is getting through the clouds...there's still a small amount of raiation that will reach the plants, and it's better than nothing.

[Petalsofsugar]

Thanks guys for your replies. I have set up a light rack and decided that my orchids that need really high light I will put inside the bay window. The ones that do well under lights or don't need such high light I will be putting in the light racks. I guess it is a trial and error period this winter.

Julie in Iowa

[Piper]

Julie, that's all any of us do.

We try something and then watch carefully to see if we've pissed the plant off or made it happier. Sometimes we get lucky, sometimes not.

Good luck!

McJulie

[Petalsofsugar]

Well, in my experience it don't take much to make them mad. LOL I use to think I couldn't grow African Violets but I found out I did pretty good. So good that I sold most because they took over. I am more careful with these orchids, don't want to be sleeping in a bed of orchids. LOL

Julie in Iowa