Lighting question

[handyman_pa54]

Hello All, I have mostly Phalaenopsis and some Cataleyas. I think I saw somewhere here that someone grows under artificial light. Most of my windows are due north. To get more light I have them under daylight fluorescents. I'm wondering do I need to mix in some warm whites or just more light period? I have a humidifier going nearby and that is 56%. I only have one in flower right now out of 9 Phal plants.

[Ron-NY]

when I grew under florescent lights, I mixed warm white and cool bulbs. T5 florescent technology seems to the way to go these days but the initial expense is more

[rich63]

I'm currently using T-5 florscent bulbs.Blue spectrum bulbs promote vegetative growth and red spectrum bulbs promote budding/flowering.So in a perfect world,a 50/50 mix for bulbs would be best.T-5 set ups are like anything else,you can go low budget or skies the limit $$ . T-5's might cost more on the front end, but are lower wattage and more intense light.More bang for the buck.There are a few people on here that have invested in LED grow lights.I do not know anything about them.The Hydro-store that I go to will not carry them ? Something about a NASA study growing lettuce ? I hope this helps.Good Luck,Rich

[cindiras]

Good thing you are a handyman, huh? I am using the old T12 flourescent bulbs, 2 bulbs per shop light fixture. I get the wide spectrum bulbs that are sometimes called sunsticks. THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS A DAYLIGHT BULB. I prefer the wide spectrum bulbs since I feel that they give both blue and red ends of the spectrum. I have high light cattleyas directly under the fixture, oncidiums, milts, phals and baby cattleyas to the outside edges of the fixtures. This may not be quite strong enough light to rebloom cattleyas, as I have only had two rebloom on my basement shelves, and one oncidium rebloom there.