Paphs under lights

[RNCollins]

Hi! This is my first winter growing under lights. I have HO T5's. I know that when my Phals turn purple they are getting close to their limit of maximum light. How do I tell when my Paphs are getting too much light?

 

[Justin]

with too much light they will have spot burns or turn yellowish. what kind of Paphs do you have and what is the wattage and distance from the lights?

 

[RNCollins]

Each shelf has 3 48" 54 watt HO T5 bulbs. I keeps the Paphs a little over 1 foot below the lights. They are all mottled- leaf types:

Paph. Avalon Pearl
Paph. Hung Sheng Curtisii
Paph. Hilo Green #3 x Hsinying Yosemite 'Full Moon'
Paph. Pedro's Moon
Paph. Lynleigh Koopowitz

 

[troy]

Show pictures

 

[Silvan]

My parvis and brachys seems to adore growing under T5HO at about 18 inches under my fixture composed of 4tubes and 2 feet under 6 tubes.
Multis prefers more intense (I grow them under LED) and my more complexes seems to enjoy everything ...lol

 

[fibre]

probably too much light if you use very good reflectors too. What are the measurements of the shelves?

 

[NYEric]

Eggshells and others grow under lights. It is reasonable as long as you don't get too close or too hot/dry. Too much light shows as yellowish leaves, more than that and you get leaf tip or surface burns.

 

[Justin]

agree for mottled leaf Paphs the plants should be a few inches further away (For multiflorals it would be perfect). if you can't raise the lights, consider running only two of the bulbs or put the timer on for a shorter photoperiod.

 

[RNCollins]

I started using the light cart Nov 1st.

I keep my Phals and Paph on one shelf and my Phrags and higher light orchids on the other shelf. I am able to raise and lower the lights. I already had to raise the lights because some of my Phals started to turn purple.

The Paphs looks fine...all my Paphs right now are mottled leaf types. I just wanted to know what signs to look out for if the light is too strong. My Paph Lynleigh Koopowitz has really dark leaves. Thanks everyone for your tips.

I have 2 shelves of 3 48" bulbs of 54 watt HO T5 bulbs.

Attached is a picture of my light cart from the factory:



image by cponsolle, on Flickr

 

[Justin]

that's a very nice looking lightstand. you should be fine with that setup. if the light is too bright the plants will tell you.

 

[orchidsimplicit]

If you can will you tell me which company you bought your stand from?

 

[RNCollins]

I got my light stand from Gardeners Supply. My light stand has two shelves with 3 bulbs of HO T5's. They also have a 3 shelf plant stand but each shelf only has 2 bulbs. They are manufactured in Vermont I think, but they are not cheap. So far I've been real pleased with it. I was able to put the stand together almost entirely by myself. The lights are on a chain pulley system, so if the plants are getting too much light you just raise them.

http://www.gardeners.com/buy/high-i...ier/8586718.html?start=16&cgid=GrowLights_Cat

http://www.gardeners.com/buy/indoor-gardening/grow-lights/

If you sign up for emails they have sales and especially around this time of year special offers like free shipping.

 

[naoki]

Pretty fancy looking stand, Carol!

In addition to the intensity, I recently learned that plants can experience a bit of stress by moving from natural to constant lighting. The photosynthetic system which is accustomed to gradual increase in the light in the morning need to be adjusted a little bit to the sudden wake up of artificial light. It's not a big deal because most plants seem to acclimate to the new lighting environment after a couple weeks. But I sometime see that some (not all) plants take longer to get them going after purchase, and I think this might be a part of the reason (in addition to other environmental acclimation).

 

[PaphMadMan]

Pretty fancy looking stand, Carol!

In addition to the intensity, I recently learned that plants can experience a bit of stress by moving from natural to constant lighting. The photosynthetic system which is accustomed to gradual increase in the light in the morning need to be adjusted a little bit to the sudden wake up of artificial light. It's not a big deal because most plants seem to acclimate to the new lighting environment after a couple weeks. But I sometime see that some (not all) plants take longer to get them going after purchase, and I think this might be a part of the reason (in addition to other environmental acclimation).

Just a thought - If you have a "new plant corner" and those lights are timed to come on a little while after other lights nearby they effectively get a somewhat gradual increase.

 

[naoki]

That could help, Kirk. But it may need to acclimate twice (first GH to 2-step lighting scheme, second 2-step to 1-stepn-off). I don't know much about this phenomena, but I was reading about Dr. Geiger's research, which I thought interesting:
http://www.controlledenvironments.org/Light1994Conf/1_1_Geiger/Geiger text.htm