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aerides

HID Lights?

aerides
9 years ago

Are HID lights still being used much for indoor orchid growing? Thanks.

Comments (6)

  • arthurm
    9 years ago

    Welcome back! Sorry, no help with the HID light question but I read your my page details and do not think that light is the issue with some of the Uni-foliates.
    Light is not a problem here in the sun cancer capital of the world and my Bi-foliates flower much better than some of Uni-foliates.
    Never been able to flower Blc. George King 'Serendipity'.

  • jane__ny
    9 years ago

    I wondered where you were! Thought you moved to Florida or somewhere more tropical! Good to see you back and hope you hang around. Always enjoyed your input and experience.

    Hope all is good. I know nothing about HID lights as I never used them. Old trusty CFL's in NY. Now in Florida, orchid growing is almost embarrassing.

    I flowered Blc Georgie under CFL's in my NY living room.

    Hope you find the answer... and so glad you are okay and will hang around.

    Jane

  • westoh Z6
    9 years ago

    I switched to CFLs and LEDs. HIDs were too hot and consumed too much electricity.

    Good luck,

    Bob

  • James _J
    9 years ago

    I'm with Westoh, LEDs because of the heat and electricity.

  • aerides
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks for your comments, ladies and gentlemen. Sorry I was long in replying back. I thought I'd checked the option to email me the replies to my post and I didn't get any notifications. Anyway, yep, I'm here. Retired now, small house on very woodsy lot in northern New Jersey, but I'm sharing my time with an apartment in Manhattan. I can cajole my Manhattan roommate into watering my couple of orchids here while I'm at the house, but there's no-one to bully into doing that there when I'm here. Will have to make a choice and am weighing several different growing options for when I stop being "bicoastal." I have a second story screened in porch out there and a contractor friend suggested putting in large skylights and glassing in the sides to make a 4-season sort of conservatory setup, which would be "divine" right off of my kitchen/diningroom. I anticipate needing supplemental light though. Then I can build an attached deck for summering outdoors and join in here with crazy squirrel stories. Jane, I belong in Florida and am so envious, reading some of your posts. Now I have birding and photography interests in addition to fondness for orchids adding to the reasons to live in your neck of the woods (although Central Park can be awesome birding). Interesting comments re: George King Serendipity, one of my all-time favorites. My roommate here was giving me the hairy eyeball when I started rearranging his furniture and screwing large CFLs into his lamps for my orchids (and yesterday I made a nice heavy duty aluminum foil reflector), but he started me off here when he gave me a gift phalaenopsis when I moved in so he knows he has himself to blame! And now that things are in spike, he's learning to accept the inevitable. (They have some very nice complex paph hybrids in a nursery not too far away from here. Just one, maybe. :>)

  • jane__ny
    9 years ago

    Those gift Phals always wind up being blamed for the addiction!

    I am envious that you have a place in the City and Jersey with a screened in porch. We we lived in Westchester, I did the same thing. We had a large deck and enclosed it. Put in skylights and sliding glass doors on the 3 sides. It was incredible except it wasn't heated. So it became my cold greenhouse. Great for all those cold growers. I loved that room.

    We moved to Sarasota which is on the Gulf Coast and is quite different from the East Coast where most NYers wind up moving too. We had mixed feelings but its working out well although having a small studio in the City for the summer would be something we'd love.

    Lots of Photography Clubs here (hubby is thrilled) and the weather makes it easy to do birding. We get quite an assortment as the migrators come for the winter. Great Orchid clubs. Everyone grows them as they grow like weeds. Can't do the cool growers unless you have a green house with AC. I miss my Masdes.

    I say, do that porch. You will love it and it will become paradise when you visit. Leave the doors open in summer and sit out there enjoying the ease of growing such beautiful plants.

    Good to see life is 'good.'

    Jane

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