Growing Orchids has always been a hobby of mine. I have been doing it for more than 30 years. I started back in my early teens when my godfather (now 98) and have always had some type of indoor growing area. Typically I have always used the broad spectrum florescent tubes but I have been looking at the LED setups. They seem to have a much more effective range. With the florescent tubes you basically wanted to get the bulbs as close as possible to the plant where as some of the LED units are advertising that 12-24 inches away from the lamp is optimal.
So does anyone here have any real world experience with LED lamps for growing plants? And yes even if your experience is with "that" plant growing something is growing something and I would love to here from you.
Here are some of my orchids from over the years.
This plant was one of my favorite. Loved teh salmon color (very rare at the time)
The collection back in 2005 (at my old house)
RevRico
UberDork
1/12/19 10:15 a.m.
Worth every penny, even just as a supplemental light source.
You can physically see the difference in the plants grown under the grow spectrum LEDS even in the same cabinet as metal halides and fluorescents. Hell, even with an LED and MH directly next to each other in a cabinet, you can tell the part of the plant grown under LED.
If you're still using a similar setup to that 2005 photo, get the long tube ones or a few sets of the square ones.they do have fluorescent replacement tubes in the grow flavour, and ProDarwin informed me in a recent thread that they even make them in strips now.
Honestly, I'd be looking for a grow tent to put them in. They're cheap enough, if you have the floor space. Reflective interiors help immensely, and you can insulate them a bit for better year round growth, plus you can get specific with your photo periods with timers, if they grow better under 18 hours (or however many) instead of 24.
I grew a lot of that other thing in California, it blew my mind when I found out what the orchids farmers were making compared to us, until I found out how finicky the plants can be.
Edit: they don't even produce fluorescent levels of heat. This could be a problem for you up north in the winter, but could also be a saving grace come summer.
I don't have that setup any more. That was at my old house. I have had a much smaller collection (only two 4 foot fixtures) in my new house. I have it set up in my basement. About 2 years ago some sort of mold or something come through and over the course of about 6 months killed off every plant. I suspect it came from a plant I got from a store. It was put it in the collection with out first un potting it washing it and treating it with both fungicide and a systemic bug killer.
So my next new project I think is going to be a more vertical setup with 3 shelves each about 18 inches wide and 4 feet long. I want to construct it such that the trays that the plants sit on are full of gravel and have water in them that circulates from the top to the bottom using a fish tank pump so will have small "waterfalls" from tray to tray. I would consider adding some type of low light creeping plant to grow up and round on the shelving to kind of hid things but that is just me thinking out of teh box at the moment. I don't know exactly what the look I am going for just something to be different and more interesting as I would like to get it out of the basement and in to my family room. Maybe even put a small fish tank on the middle shelf or something with orchids growing around it and the sound of a little water splashing. By going vertical I want the actual lighting to be as small in size as possible and using LED's the lights seems like the perfect solution. They are much thinner and the lower heat is a good thing. I was also thinking that if I needed I could enclose the sides with glass or even mirrors (to reflect the light) but also to trap and keep the humidity up forming a microclimate of sorts.
At the moment there is no final plan just a bunch of idea's. I have a bunch of mahogany boards around that I could make the basic structure out of so ti would look good enough to not keep in the basement. Another side use would be to be able to start seedlings in the early spring to get a jump on the summer flower gardens and veggies. I would also not mind some herbs (again not that kind of herb) :-)
Wow I’m not much of a flower guy but that looks great!!
Way smaller scale, but I stuck a Compact Fluorescent Grow Light Bulb in the lamp on our side table in the living room. On that same side table is the 23+ year old philodendron that once lived on my late mother's desk where she worked.
I put the lamp on a Digital Programmable Timer so the lamp comes on for 9 hours a day.
The philodendron is closest to the lamp, since they're on the same table, guesstimating 24" and I have a pair of poinsettias on the floor next to the table. One poinsettia is a little over a year old, and fairly large. The other poinsettia we just got this past Christmas.
All of the plants are loving the lamp. The poinsettias aren't shedding quite so bad, the philodendron is growing better and phototropisming up toward the light.
slefain
PowerDork
1/12/19 8:58 p.m.
My mother-in-law is getting into orchids. Bravo for getting them to bloom at all, I had no idea how touchy the little buggers are to make happy.
Following with interest - I've been able to keep the "consumer grade" orchids I got from my wife alive, but haven't been able to get them to flower. Might be time for some more LEDs.
Going off topic a little but I have been growing these things for so long that they really are not that bad. Don't over water but keep humidity up. They grow in the tropics on trees with there roots under the bark of the tree so they like humid and damp but dont like to be soggy wet. The roots need air circulation to some degree. This is why bark medium is the best stuff to plant them in. To get them to bloom you cool them for three to four weeks getting them down to the 50's or so. You have to be carful when you do this to also lower the humidity as you can get crown rot or other nasty things. Other than that they are not that bad
I am thinking that I would like three lights at least 3 feet long (4 feet would be better) with 12-18 inch trays under them.
I was thinking of building something kind of like this for my family room
But put marble chips in the trays
slefain said:
My mother-in-law is getting into orchids. Bravo for getting them to bloom at all, I had no idea how touchy the little buggers are to make happy.
First thing it to ignore them. They are like spoiled brats. The more attention you give them the more they seem to do nothing. I water once a week when the humidity s high 2x a week when humidity is low. IF you put the pots in to ceramic pots that are sealed on teh bottom take them out adn water in the sink. Let drain and then put it back in to the ceramic pot. You only need to water it once a week this way. But don't let allot of water build up in the bottom of the ceramic pot it will cause root rot.
After she died, I learned that my aunt was fairly well known in the orchid breeding community back in the 70s. She discovered/invented (or whatever it's called) several hybrid crosses. She has several varieties named after her and she named some after her children. For years I've been trying to find pictures of the flowers. All I have are photos of her with her display booth at some flower competitions/expos. Any suggestions on where to find either the plants or pictures thereof? Her name was Eva (Kemper) Goff. From what I've found, there is a group of orchids referred to as Evakara and Goffara. The websites I've found that mention her have pictures of the parent plants, but none have pictures of the actual plant.
Humm. You could try the Mass Orchid Society. There may be a national version of it. I will ask my godfather about it he was very involved in the world of orchids starting in the late 50s through 2010.
This may be a better place to start. Probably worth a phone call and and email.
http://www.aos.org/
ShawnG
PowerDork
1/13/19 4:21 p.m.
Wow.. Those look great.
A couple years ago I tried using the square, 45 watt led grow light panels the weed growers use. I put them in my greenhouse to get some extra light for my cactii.
Ended up with too much light and what I assume was UV burns on my plants.
Probably more of an operator error than anything though.
In reply to Apis Mellifera :
The only reason I joined was that I saw this posting. Apparently, I can't send you a PM. Look up the International Orchid Register by RHS. You should be able to find this by Google. Then, perform the grex search. I suggest just type "Goff." I found followings:
Papilionanda Robyn Kylea Goff
Phalaenopsis Patricia Goff
Phalaenopsis Roberta Goff
Rhynchopapilisia Eva Goff
Two were registered by E.K.Goff, and two were by L.H.O'Keeffe. I can't tell anything about the relationship between two, but because of the genera registered, maybe they were somehow related or knew each other?
Rhynchopapilisia Eva Goff is interesting, and the name of the genus was one time Goffara. You can relatively easily make intergenerics (hybrids consisting of species from two or more genera) in orchids, and this was a cross of Luisia × Papilionanthe × Rhynchostylis. In orchid registration, you can name a new nothogenus (hybrid genus), and this was the case (Goff + ara). However, the name was changed, probably because it only contains three genera. While there is no picture of this hybrid, pictures of both can be found at orchidroots.com. I looked up OrchidPlus at American Orchid Society for any award, and none turned up. Hope this helps.
While there is no picture
In middle school, my best friend's dad had the largest, non-commercial green house for orchids in Northern California. Glass panes were painted or frosted glass mostly, more diffuse light, but all natural. I seem to remember high humidity and moderate light and heat are what orchids crave. It was total PITA to replace broken glass panes.
I know some guys that use the LED lights, but they are not growing orchids. I would think LED would be good because of the lack of heat production
