The first thing is to join your local orchid society. Find The American Orchid Society (AOS) web pages. All locals are affiliated. You will be able to find your local through the AOS. Being involved with local growers is the best source of advice. There are unique components to your local climate. Also a variety of sources will unfold for you through the local club.

Good Luck

Actually, a hot muggy swamp that drops 10 degrees in winter sounds like paradise for lots of orchids.

I live north of you in zone 6 and I put everything except masdies outside in the summer. I also have a plumeria, some fruit trees and a few other non orchid tropicals and they all go out. There is something about being in the wind and rain for a while that the plants respond to. Bugs are a problem but I bet that even inside a few will find their way in, so no matter what you will have to find a way to deal with them.

I think you will find Cattleya and it's hybrids can be pretty tough plants. They adapt well to a variety of different potting mixes, aren't picky about watering and can deal with the heat and bright light.

Phals on the other hand can be hit or miss. It seems that they will ether grow like crazy or just fall over dead if you look at them wrong. If you ask for advice on how to grow them your head will spin. It's kinda like asking how to cure the hiccups, everyone swears by one method or another but they all seem to work or not work just the same.

Hi Alan! I am glad you decided to join the forum. It looks like you have pretty nice set-up going already. I agree with SM that joining a local society and learning how they are growing in your climate is a great source of information. But asking questions and joining-in in conversation on this forum can also provide you with basic growing tips and idea. Plus it is nice to see what others are growing in their climates.

Hey everyone.

Thanks for the big welcome and the encouragement on the local area. To be honest, I spent the last 20 years living in Florida and Southern California where growing conditions were perfect for just about anything I wanted to grow. It was pretty hard to mess it up. Moving here kinda took the wind out of my sail when my first attempts were met with issues, both weather and pest, I never dealt with before. However, I am trainable so once I have my little brood growing well and used to my style of care, I will attempt to move back outside with my hobby. Having said that though, I'm finding indoor growing under lights to be a fun challenge I have not attempted before. There are a lot of different things you have to consider, so it's like learning the same hobby, but dealing with different issues to get to the same ending...a beautiful healthy plant. Much of my hobby time in Florida was spent maintaining a large salt water coral reef system so working lighting issues is about the same only this time I'm trying to get the plants to grow instead of not growing.

Oh, and that temp drop was not a 10 degree drop. It was a drop to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Yikes! Didn't have to worry about that down south.

Once again, thanks for the welcome.

I grew orchids for 20 years in NY. I used lights indoors once the temps dropped to low 50's. I was able to bloom the fall/winter flowering plants that way. I also grew Plumerias.

All my plants went outside in Spring as soon as the night temps stayed above 45F. The Plumies went out too. I grew all my orchids and Plumies on a wood deck. Very high sunlight. I did put a few lower light under some trees or the front of the house which only got East sun.

Many orchids bloom in the fall/winter. In order to get your plants to flower, they need good sunlight and air circulation. Catts do not mind humidity, they actually love it and grew lots of aerial roots to soak up the moisture.

You seem to have a sunny exposure from your picture. You have a great light set up. My suggestion would be to move the Catts outside for the summer. They are growing their newest growths now and those growths will produce the flowers in winter. Without sufficient sunlight, they will grow and look healthy, but won't flower. You will have lost a year of flowers.

It looks like you have some sort of patio outside the window. I would hang the Catts and other high light plants outside. I would also move the Plumerias out there.

When the night temps begin to drop in the fall. Move the plants back inside and put under the lights. You should be able to bloom those Catts for the winter. I really think you will have trouble blooming them under your lights.

JMO, been there, done that.

Jane

Alan,
Are those T12's, T8's or T5's in picture?

I'm in zone 6 and grow under lights for about 8 months out of the year. I also have a 3 tiered light cart (uses 12/T12's) and several other areas with artificial lights. I grow a little of everything, but I like phals best.

I have flowered a few catts under T12 lights (lots when I used a 400W HID), but they were never optimal. I had a couple of catts bloom nicely under one of my LEDs this spring, LEDs are the wave of the future for us indoors growers IMO.

All that said, I started putting most of my collection outside in late spring-early fall about 3 years ago, they sure seem to do better with the 4 months outside. They are also much easier to take care of as I don't have to be so careful when watering and such. I treat for bugs about once a month when they are outside, more often if there is an issue. I'm not afraid to use the 'big guns' when they are outside.

I still keep a few cool growing paphs and masdies under the lights in the heat of summer, but that only takes 1 tier.

Good luck,

Bob

Hey Jane and Bob.
You guys are really observant. Jane, my outdoors area is a problem when it comes to lighting. WasnâÂÂt sure how long I would be here in Virginia, so I rented and really canâÂÂt change what I started with. The back porch is covered and the back yard is solid massive trees with a full canopy. The entire yard and porch are in dark shade most of the day. There is about a two hour period late in the day when the sun hits the window you see in the picture, but it puts very little light on the back porch/yard.
Bob, the lights in the 3 tiered stand are T-5 bulbs rated at 6500K. The lights to the sides are (donâÂÂt laugh) 100 watt screw in florescent âÂÂDaylightâ bulbs. They are also rated at 6500K color temperature.
So here is my spin on lighting. ItâÂÂs a little bit geeky, but such is my nature. Plants donâÂÂt look up and see the sun. They probably know itâÂÂs there, but what they see are only photons the hit their leaves. So, with that in mind, what do they actually see? They see color temperature and brightness. Some say that grow bulbs are the way to go. Grow bulbs, which I donâÂÂt believe in, are bulbs which optimize light in the blue and red spectrum. ThatâÂÂs not what plants see when the sun is up. They say true âÂÂdaylightâ and absorb the light frequencies they want/need to use. The sun, on a typical day, will present a color temperature of about 5800K. Now that will change from dawn till dusk because of how much atmosphere the photons have to penetrate, but most of the day, about 5800k. ThatâÂÂs why we call bulbs with a 6500K rating, daylight bulbs. Second thing the plants see is intensity. On a super clear day with no haze or clouds, the sun can put out up to 110,000 lumens (Lux) which for semi technical purposes is amount of energy per sq meter. So, if a plant lives in the high Andes Mountains, it might need that 110,000 lumens, but most donâÂÂt. They live (Cattleyas) in trees where they are competing for sunlight with the trees canopy. That and normal cloud cover will bring the âÂÂaverageâ lux intensity down to somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 Lux which is a combination of direct and diffused light. That is about the amount of light I am presenting to my plants. They receive it 13 ý hours a day with no lapse for could cover, storms, etc. The way I see it, my plants see what they presume is âÂÂsunlightâ 13 ý hours a day with a slight cloud cover. So, does it work? Time will tell, but here is what I see so far.
The first pic below is a Blc I got that was ready to go to orchid heaven. A throw away if you will. That pic was taken early May.

This picture in now. Cleaned the little guy up, repotted and he has been living under two 100 watt daylight bulbs with some bleed over light from the stand and the window. The two psudobulds/leaves in the fore/right of the picture have grown from nothing to their current state in about 45 days. IâÂÂm thinking/hoping the flower sheath will start filling out for a fall blooming. My other mature plants are all showing the same flower sheaths.

So what do you think? Am I crazyâ¦over optimistic, or a little of both? ïÂÂ

Sorry, cannot help you with under light stuff. Cattleyas are high light orchids compared to say Phalaenopsis. In summer at latitude 33 something South they get all day sun filtered by about 80% shade cloth. The UV is often 13 which is extreme.
Anyway, your "Cattleyas" look fine and will probably bloom in Autumn though you could have problems with the few that make a sheath and then rest in winter waiting for spring to arrive.

Alan,

I have bloomed some mini-catts under my T12s, had to keep them very close (2"-3") to the light source.

I do believe that mixing the daylight and softer lights (3500K) is better for the plants as the lower K promotes flowering, I think... As far as the red/blue spectrum, I have some 90 watt LED's that are very/brutally pink (red/blue/orange combo), plants really seem to thrive under this light and it is what promoting blooming on 2 fairly large catts over the fall/winter.

I've replaced all of my CFL bulbs with LED floods, lots more lumens but lot's more $ too. I keep telling myself that I'll save the $ difference on the electric bill, eventually. I'd like to replace my 12 T12's with the LED variants, but that's $50 per bulb and I'd have to do some re-wiring. Maybe one tier at a time starting this fall or winter.

Good luck,

Bob

Wow!. A lot of different aspects to your lighting setup. I spent many years with a salt water coral reef system growing Acropora corals. I learned then that for every 1000 people growing corals, there were 2000 ways to setup the lighting system. And most systems, although quite different, did the job. I do like hearing how others have their lights set up. I might find a new way to skin the proverbial cat and improve on my techniques.

Right now I'm trying to stay fairly basic and let leaf color (photosynthesis indicator) be my guide for how much and what type of light to present. Growth patterns seem very good, but I will have to wait and see if what I'm doing will allow the plants to flower on schedule. If I go through a complete cycle and don't get the flowers I expect, I'll look to make changes. The old patience game. Tough one for me to play.

Alan