I'm bringing in the Catts that have summered outdoors. They grew. Not
all of them will fit under the HID lights/south-facing window anymore.
I've heard there's a new high-intensity flourescent light that is
suitable for Catts and Dendrobiums. Does anyone have any experience
with them? Know a good place to buy them?

I've seen no data one way or another, but based upon the way they work, I
doubt that HI fluorescents have as much output as the HID's. Might be time
to invest in a higher wattage version of the latter.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"OrchidKitty" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm bringing in the Catts that have summered outdoors. They grew. Not
all of them will fit under the HID lights/south-facing window anymore.
I've heard there's a new high-intensity flourescent light that is
suitable for Catts and Dendrobiums. Does anyone have any experience
with them? Know a good place to buy them?

"OrchidKitty" wrote in
ups.com:

high-intensity flourescent light

Hi
I also looked into the 40 watt high-intensity fluorescent lights and
found that it is only the groove in the tube design that increases the
light output. Also the small amount of light gain does not equal the
excessive cost. I use 40 2 bulb fluorescent strip lamps placed side by
side to give me 8 lamps across on shelf 28 inches wide. I've grown &
bloomed catts, Phals, and dens under these lights although I have burnt
a few catt leaf tips when they touched the lights.

Note: I have seen some fluorescent lamps in the Farmtek catalog but they
are also too pricy for me to try. Note; do not try the cheap shop
lights, 1. you cant place them close enough I.e. side by side. 2. They
seem to eat lamps in a short time.

Grow well and bloom magnificently
dusty

Doug,

Have you considered ducts and blowers to draw the heat out of the HID's and
vent it elsewhere? Also, if they're "too bright for some of your plants,
you just have them under too much wattage or they are simply too close. The
trick is to move the lamps higher, then make shelves that place the
higher-light plants closer.

Dusty,

FWIW, I bought one of the FarmTek full spectrum CFL fixtures with the 125W
bulb, and the total delivered cost was under $100, about the cost of 4
decent quality shop lights. I have it illuminating a 5' x 4' bench from a
distance of about 3 feet (it actually covers a larger area), and I am very
pleased with it.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Dusty" wrote in message
. 17.102...
"OrchidKitty" wrote in
ups.com:

high-intensity flourescent light

Hi
I also looked into the 40 watt high-intensity fluorescent lights and
found that it is only the groove in the tube design that increases the
light output. Also the small amount of light gain does not equal the
excessive cost. I use 40 2 bulb fluorescent strip lamps placed side by
side to give me 8 lamps across on shelf 28 inches wide. I've grown &
bloomed catts, Phals, and dens under these lights although I have burnt
a few catt leaf tips when they touched the lights.

Note: I have seen some fluorescent lamps in the Farmtek catalog but they
are also too pricy for me to try. Note; do not try the cheap shop
lights, 1. you cant place them close enough I.e. side by side. 2. They
seem to eat lamps in a short time.

Grow well and bloom magnificently
dusty

I think you're talking about the T5 fluorescent lights. I got a fixture at
a local hydroponics store but haven't gotten it hooked up yet, need to
rearrange part of the orchid room to clear out space for it. At least one
person in our society is using them and is happy with the results. I've
seen a reference to a good mail-order source but I can't find that
newsletter right now.
-danny

"OrchidKitty" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm bringing in the Catts that have summered outdoors. They grew. Not
all of them will fit under the HID lights/south-facing window anymore.
I've heard there's a new high-intensity flourescent light that is
suitable for Catts and Dendrobiums. Does anyone have any experience
with them? Know a good place to buy them?

danny wrote:
I think you're talking about the T5 fluorescent lights. I got a fixture at
a local hydroponics store but haven't gotten it hooked up yet, need to
rearrange part of the orchid room to clear out space for it. At least one
person in our society is using them and is happy with the results. I've
seen a reference to a good mail-order source but I can't find that
newsletter right now.
-danny

"OrchidKitty" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm bringing in the Catts that have summered outdoors. They grew. Not
all of them will fit under the HID lights/south-facing window anymore.
I've heard there's a new high-intensity flourescent light that is
suitable for Catts and Dendrobiums. Does anyone have any experience
with them? Know a good place to buy them?

Yes, that's what I heard about. I checked on the Net, and there is a
retailer who sells four 4-foot tubes for $300. I'd like to get another
HID fixture, but based on past experience, it would involve another
visit from an electrician... Thanks--



danny wrote:
I think you're talking about the T5 fluorescent lights. I got a fixture at
a local hydroponics store but haven't gotten it hooked up yet, need to
rearrange part of the orchid room to clear out space for it. At least one
person in our society is using them and is happy with the results. I've
seen a reference to a good mail-order source but I can't find that
newsletter right now.
-danny

"OrchidKitty" wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm bringing in the Catts that have summered outdoors. They grew. Not
all of them will fit under the HID lights/south-facing window anymore.
I've heard there's a new high-intensity flourescent light that is
suitable for Catts and Dendrobiums. Does anyone have any experience
with them? Know a good place to buy them?

I think we got our fixture for $200? It doesn't look quite as nice as the
$300 one (same shape but aluminum instead of a nice black painted finish),
but it came with bulbs so it was MUCH cheaper. None of my lights need to be
hard-wired, I currently have 3 400W metal halide fixtures and a bunch of
normal fluorescents. One nice thing about the T5 fixtures is they are a lot
shallower than the HID and they disperse the heat and light a little more
evenly, so you can put them under a shelf and have two layers of plants.

"OrchidKitty" wrote in message
ups.com...
Yes, that's what I heard about. I checked on the Net, and there is a
retailer who sells four 4-foot tubes for $300. I'd like to get another
HID fixture, but based on past experience, it would involve another
visit from an electrician... Thanks--

Specialty Lights has a T5 fluorescent grow light with 8 bulbs, 4 feet
long. The fixture puts out 432 watts of light, which seems pretty good.
It costs $409, which is pretty much what I paid for my MH 400 watt
fixture. All things being equal, I think I'd rather have the T5s
because they generate less heat and are not as ugly as the big hood on
a HID fixture.

The bulbs are expensive, about $15 each to replace, BUT they say they
last for 20,000 hours. Hum. I wonder if this means that this is the
burn-out point, and the effective light drops like a rock after about a
year? I replace my other fluorescent bulbs ever year. Anybody have a
guess?




danny wrote:
I think we got our fixture for $200? It doesn't look quite as nice as the
$300 one (same shape but aluminum instead of a nice black painted finish),
but it came with bulbs so it was MUCH cheaper. None of my lights need to be
hard-wired, I currently have 3 400W metal halide fixtures and a bunch of
normal fluorescents. One nice thing about the T5 fixtures is they are a lot
shallower than the HID and they disperse the heat and light a little more
evenly, so you can put them under a shelf and have two layers of plants.

With a $20 light meter you can watch the output and only change as
needed.
Joe T
Baytown

OrchidKitty wrote:
Specialty Lights has a T5 fluorescent grow light with 8 bulbs, 4 feet
long. The fixture puts out 432 watts of light, which seems pretty good.
It costs $409, which is pretty much what I paid for my MH 400 watt
fixture. All things being equal, I think I'd rather have the T5s
because they generate less heat and are not as ugly as the big hood on
a HID fixture.

The bulbs are expensive, about $15 each to replace, BUT they say they
last for 20,000 hours. Hum. I wonder if this means that this is the
burn-out point, and the effective light drops like a rock after about a
year? I replace my other fluorescent bulbs ever year. Anybody have a
guess?




danny wrote:
I think we got our fixture for $200? It doesn't look quite as nice as the
$300 one (same shape but aluminum instead of a nice black painted finish),
but it came with bulbs so it was MUCH cheaper. None of my lights need to be
hard-wired, I currently have 3 400W metal halide fixtures and a bunch of
normal fluorescents. One nice thing about the T5 fixtures is they are a lot
shallower than the HID and they disperse the heat and light a little more
evenly, so you can put them under a shelf and have two layers of plants.

I've got a light meter and paid more than that for it. But I'm
wondering about the bulb life before I plunk down the $$$ for the unit.
These things are so new that no one in my orchid society has them.

jtill wrote:
With a $20 light meter you can watch the output and only change as
needed.
Joe T
Baytown

OrchidKitty wrote:
Specialty Lights has a T5 fluorescent grow light with 8 bulbs, 4 feet
long. The fixture puts out 432 watts of light, which seems pretty good.
It costs $409, which is pretty much what I paid for my MH 400 watt
fixture. All things being equal, I think I'd rather have the T5s
because they generate less heat and are not as ugly as the big hood on
a HID fixture.

The bulbs are expensive, about $15 each to replace, BUT they say they
last for 20,000 hours. Hum. I wonder if this means that this is the
burn-out point, and the effective light drops like a rock after about a
year? I replace my other fluorescent bulbs ever year. Anybody have a
guess?




danny wrote:
I think we got our fixture for $200? It doesn't look quite as nice as the
$300 one (same shape but aluminum instead of a nice black painted finish),
but it came with bulbs so it was MUCH cheaper. None of my lights need to be
hard-wired, I currently have 3 400W metal halide fixtures and a bunch of
normal fluorescents. One nice thing about the T5 fixtures is they are a lot
shallower than the HID and they disperse the heat and light a little more
evenly, so you can put them under a shelf and have two layers of plants.

The Guy at the hydoponics shop was telling me about the flouros, he
said that the bulbs are better than HID because they are full spectrum
and are disigned to put out more light in the range that plants use,
and are cooler than HID, but you need more of them so... If your going
for a system he said that mixed MH and Sodium which gives a full
spectrum can be more cost effective in the long run.

One of the other tricks that he was telling me about was putting diode
lights, like the plastic rope lights, in the plants, you can put them
very close and wrap a plants that need more light in them because they
produce little heat. Plus the put light to the underside of the leaf.

That being said I went out to lowes and bought a bunch of shop lights
for $5 each then got the econimy pack of "sunlight" full spectrum bulbs
(cheeper than grow lights) and one of "plant" grow lights, I run one of
each in the lights, they do great for a 60 x 24 shelf. My phals like
them and my catts bloom under them too.

Jack

Jack wrote:
The Guy at the hydoponics shop was telling me about the flouros, he
said that the bulbs are better than HID because they are full spectrum
and are disigned to put out more light in the range that plants use,
and are cooler than HID, but you need more of them so... If your going
for a system he said that mixed MH and Sodium which gives a full
spectrum can be more cost effective in the long run.

One of the other tricks that he was telling me about was putting diode
lights, like the plastic rope lights, in the plants, you can put them
very close and wrap a plants that need more light in them because they
produce little heat. Plus the put light to the underside of the leaf.


LED lights suitable for plants are quite costly. They last pretty much
forever, but they'll set you back a bundle.

J. Del Col

I bloom quite a bit under normal fluorescent shop lights. I wanted the more
intense T5 fixture so I could have a taller space for blooming out the
slippers and other stuff with tall spikes. HID lights can also suck for
blooming stuff like phals, the flower arrangement comes out awful. I guess
putting two HID lights on one of the circular light movers might correct
that problem, I have one on a linear track and it helps a little but they
still come out better under fluorescents.
-danny

"danny" wrote in
:

I bloom quite a bit under normal fluorescent shop lights. I wanted
the more intense T5 fixture so I could have a taller space for
blooming out the slippers and other stuff with tall spikes. HID
lights can also suck for blooming stuff like phals, the flower
arrangement comes out awful. I guess putting two HID lights on one of
the circular light movers might correct that problem, I have one on a
linear track and it helps a little but they still come out better
under fluorescents. -danny




I'm not sure if your are getting all good information from the Guy at
the hydoponics shop. I've looked up the T-5 lamps specifications and I
only see about a 10% gain in light over a standard 40 watt. However
being small as they are you may be able to cram a lot of lamps close
together and get a higher amount of light.You could also do that with T-
8 lamps which are a lot less costly. Here's the specs as I found them
between T-5's & T-12's;

T-5 lamp Width 5/8 in. Length 48 in. 28 Watts Rated Life
36000 Hours
F28W/T5/830 Color Temperature 3000K Lumens 2900 Initial/2726 Mean
F28W/T5/865/ECO Color Temperature 6500K Lumens 2700 Initial/2480 Mean


t-12 lamp standard Fluorescent like in shop light Width 1.59 Length 48
in 40 Watts
40 Watt - T12 - Full Spectrum Fluorescent
F/40T12EX Color Temperature 5765K Mean Lumens 2290 Rated Life 20000
hours @ 12 hours a day
F40/DX/ALTO Color Temperature 6500K Mean Lumens 2025 Rated Life 28800
hours @ 12 hours a day

Grow well and bloom magnificently
dusty