The Orchid Garden

AgroSun lights — question

Question:

If I had the space, money, and time to build a greenhouse I would do it.  But I wouldn’t build a small greenhouse.  Everything grows better in greenhouse, but it is a lot more work and money to maintain.  I actually have a friend who is installing HPS lights in his greenhouse, to make up for cloudy winters.  For a small space, lights are probably your best option.   You can grow anything under lights that you can grow outside.  It takes some practice, but the control is worth it.. . . Rob, your reply has really made me stop and think.  I’m in northeastern Ohio, which is about as balmy as Evanston (one of my old alma maters).  The thing is, before I decided to go ahead and get the greenhouse (this coming spring), I had another plan, which involved using a family room addition to our home and halide and HPS lights.  The room is unheated most of the day, as there are electric baseboard heaters we use only if we will be in there (we have another family room).  The exposure and natural light aren’t the greatest, so the inside lights would be the mainstay of the project. My family thought I was crazy, and the greenhouse folks at the OSU agricultural school in Wooster, OH, said I wouldn’t succeed in approximating real sunlight.  I guess since no one else seemed to think it made any sense to do it, I went ahead with plans for the greenhouse. With everything, a 9 x 20 greenhouse will run around 10,000, a big expense, to say the least.  I suspect it would be cheaper to use "plan A"  - if only it would work!   So, clearly one can grow orchids.  What does your friend grow?  Does anyone out there succeed with vegetables? Thanks again, Susan

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – If I had the space, money, and time to build a greenhouse I would do it.  But I wouldn’t build a small greenhouse.  Everything grows better in greenhouse, but it is a lot more work and money to maintain.  I actually have a friend who is installing HPS lights in his greenhouse, to make up for cloudy winters.  For a small space, lights are probably your best option. You can grow anything under lights that you can grow outside.  It takes some practice, but the control is worth it.. . . Rob, your reply has really made me stop and think.  I’m in northeastern Ohio, which is about as balmy as Evanston (one of my old alma maters).  The thing is, before I decided to go ahead and get the greenhouse (this coming spring), I had another plan, which involved using a family room addition to our home and halide and HPS lights.  The room is unheated most of the day, as there are electric baseboard heaters we use only if we will be in there (we have another family room).  The exposure and natural light aren’t the greatest, so the inside lights would be the mainstay of the project. My family thought I was crazy, and the greenhouse folks at the OSU agricultural school in Wooster, OH, said I wouldn’t succeed in approximating real sunlight.  I guess since no one else seemed to think it made any sense to do it, I went ahead with plans for the greenhouse. With everything, a 9 x 20 greenhouse will run around 10,000, a big expense, to say the least.  I suspect it would be cheaper to use "plan A"  - if only it would work!   So, clearly one can grow orchids.  What does your friend grow?  Does anyone out there succeed with vegetables? Thanks again, Susan

     I grow roses from seed in an attached unheated sunroom in North Canton, Ohio.  I use commercial 6 foot heating cables taped to the bottom of standard seed trays.  The heating cable is covered with sand.  The seedling trays are then placed on (in) the heating trays.  The seedling trays are covered with commercial clear plastic domes.  When the roses are too big for these covers, plastic straws are used to hold clear polyethylene "tents" around the seedling trays.  All of the heaters have internal thermostats that turn OFF in the 70 degree area.  They are all connected to a 120 volt thermostat that turns ON at about 45 degrees.  I am on tray 17 now (each tray holds 50 small sprouted seedlings.  Last winter I ended up with about 47 of these 50 each trays.  When the seedlings outgrow the small peat pots they are put (pot included) into a 3.5 inch square pot in the same type of tray set up with the above mentioned tent.  I rotate the trays through the sunny sides of the sunroom.  I am thinking of putting grow lights on the side farthest from the direct sun (two sides get direct sun, one side does not (I have a lot of extra grow lights from when I used to grow in the basement).

Response:

I’m extremely curious to know what sort of light setup any of you have.  Last year, I called every local "expert" I could find to ask if one can really duplicate sunlight with a halide/hps combination.  I wanted to grow vegetables & some cut flowers (carnation) in my basement.  (Years ago, I was mildly successful with fluorescents, but some of the results, e.g., long stems and tiny flowers, were more comical than impressive!) Anyway, folks really discouraged me from trying this because of 1)the heat generated by the bulbs, 2)the light wouldn’t really be enough, and 3) my electric bill would skyrocket.  Interestingly, the only people who claimed you could grow anything, even pineapples, were the folks selling the lights (Hydrofarm, Worms Way, etc.) Now, I am on the verge of buying a greenhouse, which is a big venture.  Could I really do just as well with the lights? Thanks for your help, Susan Dobbs

Response:

I’m extremely curious to know what sort of light setup any of you have.  Last year, I called every local "expert" I could find to ask if one can really duplicate sunlight with a halide/hps combination.  I wanted to grow vegetables & some cut flowers (carnation) in my basement.  (Years ago, I was mildly successful with fluorescents, but some of the results, e.g., long stems and tiny flowers, were more comical than impressive!)

        Well, at the place where I buy my lights the owner has a light garden on premises.  To display the lights and to satisfy his own cravings for really hot peppers.  Peppers take _lots_ of light, and they were all blooming, fruiting, and growing away.  It really does work.  I grow orchids under lights.  I have a small setup, I have a friend who has an entire basement under lights where he grows the most amazing plants without any outside light whatsoever.  I have only one light, a 400W Metal Halide HO (high output), which is suspended about 3 feet above my plants.  Illuminates an area about 6′ x 6′.  Lower light requiring stuff goes around the perimeter, high light stuff in the middle.  I have plants under florescents too.   Anyway, folks really discouraged me from trying this because of 1)the heat generated by the bulbs, 2)the light wouldn’t really be enough, and 3) my electric bill would skyrocket.  Interestingly, the only people who claimed you could grow anything, even pineapples, were the folks selling the lights (Hydrofarm, Worms Way, etc.)

        1) Depending on where you live, heat isn’t much of a problem.  Here in the great white north, my plants would freeze without my lights.  In other words, it doesn’t go to waste.  In the summer, heat is vented through the windows, or you can buy fans to mount on the fixtures which can pipe heat away and out of the house.  Much of the heat is generated in the ballast, which (for my lights at least) is located a sufficient distance away from the fixture that you could put it in an unused room (or even in the garage if you want to invest in more wiring).         2) If you aren’t getting enough light, add more lights (for example go from 400W to 1000W, or two 1000W….), or move the lights closer to the plants.  There are also commercially available light movers which allow you to shift the light’s position above the plant for more even coverage (I suppose you could get a plant mover instead, seems easier to move the lights).  I haven’t had to try that yet.         3) My electric bill hasn’t gone up all that much.  I pay about 10c a kilowatt hour, run the lights 12 hours a day (in the winter, more in the summer).  That is about 50c a day.  It’s worth it to me.  If you have a greenhouse you will spend much more than that heating and cooling the place.     I really do just as well with the lights?

        If I had the space, money, and time to build a greenhouse I would do it.  But I wouldn’t build a small greenhouse.  Everything grows better in a greenhouse, but it is a lot more work and money to maintain.  I actually have friend who is installing HPS lights in his greenhouse, to make up for cloudy winters.  For a small space, lights are probably your best option.  You can grow anything under lights that you can grow outside.  It takes some practice, but the control is worth it.  Never any cloudy days under lights, you can leave the lights on as long or as short as you want (for flowering out day sensitive plants), and you don’t have to heat the greenhouse in the winter. Rob  Rob’s rules to live by:                            |  Send me seeds!    (1) There is always room for one more orchid.    |    (2) There is always room for two more orchids.   |    (3) There is no rule 3.                          |  Hey kid, wanna buy a     (3a) When one has insufficient credit to buy    |     Paph?          more orchids, obtain more credit.          |

Response:

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