artificial light

[john lapointe]

HELP! fall is coming, starting to think about where to put all the orchids ive added over the summer, started with 150 now up to 275 plants, my obsession over came me.I already use every available window in the house, adjustable shelving to utilize space but alas ive run out of space, most live outdoors during season. i was wondering about strip leds, attached to bottom of the shelve above. this will be a temporary greenhousein basement, hopefully greenhouse will be done by next fall. any input, ideas will greatly be appreciated. what i was think of trying is to attach a .9m led light strip to the bottom cross member, gives me 12" between strips. will this be sufficient light to maintain a healthy plant?

[Arne]

Ask Raybark in this forum. I'm sure he can help you. There are many solutions. I have one 225 W high efficiency bulb, for instance, and it has helped a lot. Now I'm adding a LED fixture. If it is good I'll only use that from now on.
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[Chris in Hamilton]

Sorry John but Your family (like mine) is probably considering an intervention Ray is the person to advise you on lighting. I am in the process of changing every light in the house over to LED. They've probably been around for a while but I've just discovered replacement LED's that you can put directly into the fluorescent fixtures so all 28 of my plant lights will be replaced over the next couple of months. I have to set up another area as well so it it would be great to have a discussion on lighting.

[raybark]

LEDs are certainly a viable choice, but choosing the right ones (correct output and spectrum) will be determined by what is under them at that distance.

I, for example, used blue/deep red Philips Production Units in my "seedling incubator" in my basement when I had a greenhouse for others, but now that I am an indoor grower again, I use white/deep red instead, so the plant's look more natural.

Both are 4' long, so cover the entire length of the shelf, and are 24 watts. I use two per 12" wide shelf, about 12" above my the tops of the phrags. For my smaller plants (mostly phals), I use one, about the same distrance above the plants.

On another shelf, I had 5, 11 watt terrarium-type LEDs running lengthwise in the center, about 12" above the plants.

Those Philips lamps are pricey, but I think that if you go to your local mega-hardware store, you can find some Cree floodlights (use outdoor ones, in case of accidental splashing) that can be very effective.

Always think in terms of true wattage, not equivalent.