Greetings All.

I have a question.

Me and my wife have a fairly decent big house in regards to spare
space. However Im now running out of available decent space for my
orchids ( they are located in my kitchen atm. and they really really
love it :=) .

But due to kids and cats id like to focus on making a spare room
useable:

In my basement where I also have my homeoffice , our washingroom, and
a coolingroom, I have a fairly decent large room ( 5 by 5 meters )
which i honestly dont use to any extent.

Now..i had the idea i would turn this into a Orchid Room and also take
up my old passion for keeping aquariums. The humidity is fairly high
and there definately is a temperature difference over day / night.
However there is only little daylight through a tiny window. So
"natural" light is a problem.

Would i be able to " convert" this room into a orchid room with any
decency ?

What would i need for supplying light to "growing tables " ?


Kind Regards

Stephan - Denmark

Stephan,

The simple answer to your question is ... whatever works.

Just having the space is the hardest part of a grow area. You have that
already. When I grew plants in the basement I started with cheap shop
lights and timers. I found some great shelving units here from InterMetro
corp. They are easy to configure and I still use them in the greenhouse as
benches. They are available at Lowes and Target here in the U.S. I also
have used plastic coated closet shelving with great success. It's open so
water and air can circulate around the plants.

You have to think about the floor. No matter how careful you are, it will
get wet. When I was in the basement I spent 5 hours watering because I
didn't have any drains each plant had to be watered by hand.

Air movement is simply handled by purchasing a couple of fans and let them
run 24 hours a day. I like the kind that moved back and forth so they
didn't blow on one specific area.

When your collection grows you may want to consider High Intensity Discharge
lights. HID Lights burn brighter so you need fewer lights to cover a larger
area.

There are so many options for you. It's all a matter of how much money you
are willing to spend and how "classy" you want to make your set up.

Good Growing,
Gene





"Stephan Walther Larsen" wrote in message
...
Greetings All.

I have a question.

Me and my wife have a fairly decent big house in regards to spare
space. However Im now running out of available decent space for my
orchids ( they are located in my kitchen atm. and they really really
love it :=) .

But due to kids and cats id like to focus on making a spare room
useable:

In my basement where I also have my homeoffice , our washingroom, and
a coolingroom, I have a fairly decent large room ( 5 by 5 meters )
which i honestly dont use to any extent.

Now..i had the idea i would turn this into a Orchid Room and also take
up my old passion for keeping aquariums. The humidity is fairly high
and there definately is a temperature difference over day / night.
However there is only little daylight through a tiny window. So
"natural" light is a problem.

Would i be able to " convert" this room into a orchid room with any
decency ?

What would i need for supplying light to "growing tables " ?


Kind Regards

Stephan - Denmark

Stephan,

The simple answer to your question is ... whatever works.

Just having the space is the hardest part of a grow area. You have that
already. When I grew plants in the basement I started with cheap shop
lights and timers. I found some great shelving units here from InterMetro
corp. They are easy to configure and I still use them in the greenhouse as
benches. They are available at Lowes and Target here in the U.S. I also
have used plastic coated closet shelving with great success. It's open so
water and air can circulate around the plants.

You have to think about the floor. No matter how careful you are, it will
get wet. When I was in the basement I spent 5 hours watering because I
didn't have any drains each plant had to be watered by hand.

Air movement is simply handled by purchasing a couple of fans and let them
run 24 hours a day. I like the kind that moved back and forth so they
didn't blow on one specific area.

When your collection grows you may want to consider High Intensity Discharge
lights. HID Lights burn brighter so you need fewer lights to cover a larger
area.

There are so many options for you. It's all a matter of how much money you
are willing to spend and how "classy" you want to make your set up.

Good Growing,
Gene





"Stephan Walther Larsen" wrote in message
...
Greetings All.

I have a question.

Me and my wife have a fairly decent big house in regards to spare
space. However Im now running out of available decent space for my
orchids ( they are located in my kitchen atm. and they really really
love it :=) .

But due to kids and cats id like to focus on making a spare room
useable:

In my basement where I also have my homeoffice , our washingroom, and
a coolingroom, I have a fairly decent large room ( 5 by 5 meters )
which i honestly dont use to any extent.

Now..i had the idea i would turn this into a Orchid Room and also take
up my old passion for keeping aquariums. The humidity is fairly high
and there definately is a temperature difference over day / night.
However there is only little daylight through a tiny window. So
"natural" light is a problem.

Would i be able to " convert" this room into a orchid room with any
decency ?

What would i need for supplying light to "growing tables " ?


Kind Regards

Stephan - Denmark

http://www.msu.edu/~halgren/orchids/Growing_room.htm

Sure, it can be done. Mine is smaller than yours would be, but check
out the pictures and you might get inspired.

Rob

Greetings All.

I have a question.

Me and my wife have a fairly decent big house in regards to spare
space. However Im now running out of available decent space for my
orchids ( they are located in my kitchen atm. and they really really
love it :=) .

But due to kids and cats id like to focus on making a spare room
useable:

In my basement where I also have my homeoffice , our washingroom, and
a coolingroom, I have a fairly decent large room ( 5 by 5 meters )
which i honestly dont use to any extent.

Now..i had the idea i would turn this into a Orchid Room and also take
up my old passion for keeping aquariums. The humidity is fairly high
and there definately is a temperature difference over day / night.
However there is only little daylight through a tiny window. So
"natural" light is a problem.

Would i be able to " convert" this room into a orchid room with any
decency ?

What would i need for supplying light to "growing tables " ?


Kind Regards

Stephan - Denmark





--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit
LittlefrogFarm is open - e-mail me for a list )

dusty wrote:

Rob Halgren wrote in
Nice if you can afford all those metal halide lamps.
I have even less room and no web sight to post so I put a picture of mine
in alt.binaries.pictures.orchids under Stephan Walther Larson's name.


I accumulated my lights over a period of 6 or 7 years, so it wasn't
too bad. If all goes well, I'll be moving to a greenhouse by winter.
If not, then I'll have ~3000 very cold orchids... Anyway, I may have
some extra lights if anybody is interested.

Rob

--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit
LittlefrogFarm is open - e-mail me for a list )