Happy New year to all you gals and guys in this group ! Ron

Ron,
Happy New Year to you too!
Joanna


"joeenp" wrote in message
...
Happy New year to all you gals and guys in this group ! Ron

Just curious, and perhaps I've missed this in past posts, but if one
grows orchids with artificial lighting, can this light be sustained day
and night (or the majority of a 24 hour period anyway), or do plants
have some sort of circadian rhythm that needs to be maintained, i.e.
needs period of darkness for proper growth?

Cheers and happy new year,
Xi

On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 23:08:21 GMT, Xi Wang
wrote:

Just curious, and perhaps I've missed this in past posts, but if one
grows orchids with artificial lighting, can this light be sustained day
and night (or the majority of a 24 hour period anyway), or do plants
have some sort of circadian rhythm that needs to be maintained, i.e.
needs period of darkness for proper growth?

Cheers and happy new year,
Xi

One of our speakers said she moved from a Gulf coast Texas gh to
under lights in Golden CO. She said she had to leave the lights
on 18-22 hrs to get the same light effect to the plants. This
was short term until she got her gh built here.
On the other hand I had always heard anything much over 12 hours
was a waste.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

I can tell you first hand that when I left the lights on 24hrs a day ( my
living room) , I didn't see any flowers on my paphs last year, but the
previous year normal activity with an old timer.

put the lights on a timer, I now turn all lights off at night and have seen
many spikes started

--
Diane



"Susan Erickson" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 23:08:21 GMT, Xi Wang
wrote:

Just curious, and perhaps I've missed this in past posts, but if one
grows orchids with artificial lighting, can this light be sustained day
and night (or the majority of a 24 hour period anyway), or do plants
have some sort of circadian rhythm that needs to be maintained, i.e.
needs period of darkness for proper growth?

Cheers and happy new year,
Xi

One of our speakers said she moved from a Gulf coast Texas gh to
under lights in Golden CO. She said she had to leave the lights
on 18-22 hrs to get the same light effect to the plants. This
was short term until she got her gh built here.
On the other hand I had always heard anything much over 12 hours
was a waste.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

Happy New Year to you too Xi,
I have never grown anything under lights but my
guess would be to simulate nature as close as possible?

--
Cheers Wendy

Remove PETERPAN for email reply

Xi Wang wrote:
Just curious, and perhaps I've missed this in past posts, but if one
grows orchids with artificial lighting, can this light be sustained
day and night (or the majority of a 24 hour period anyway), or do
plants have some sort of circadian rhythm that needs to be
maintained, i.e. needs period of darkness for proper growth?

Cheers and happy new year,
Xi

Happy New Year to you too Xi,
I have never grown anything under lights but my
guess would be to simulate nature as close as possible?

--
Cheers Wendy

Remove PETERPAN for email reply

Xi Wang wrote:
Just curious, and perhaps I've missed this in past posts, but if one
grows orchids with artificial lighting, can this light be sustained
day and night (or the majority of a 24 hour period anyway), or do
plants have some sort of circadian rhythm that needs to be
maintained, i.e. needs period of darkness for proper growth?

Cheers and happy new year,
Xi

My recollection from old posts is that 16 hrs a day is the max one
should expose the plants to, and most folks did that in the summer
only, backing it off to 14 in the winter.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!
..
"wendy7" wrote in message
news:xKHBd.8563$yW5.4967@fed1read02...
Happy New Year to you too Xi,
I have never grown anything under lights but my
guess would be to simulate nature as close as possible?

--
Cheers Wendy

Remove PETERPAN for email reply

Xi Wang wrote:
Just curious, and perhaps I've missed this in past posts, but if
one
grows orchids with artificial lighting, can this light be sustained
day and night (or the majority of a 24 hour period anyway), or do
plants have some sort of circadian rhythm that needs to be
maintained, i.e. needs period of darkness for proper growth?

Cheers and happy new year,
Xi

Hi list,

Thanks for the many replies. A follow up question has occured me then.
It was mentioned that I should cut back to 14-16 hours because if I
hit them continuously with light, they may not flower. But when they
are just growing in the summer and not flowering anyhow, would more
light promote more growth?? Someone also mentioned that beyond 16
hours, the extra light would just be a waste, why is that exactly?

Cheers,
Xi

Oh and I forgot to ask, should this be 16 hours of continuous light, or
does it not matter? Let's say for example that I get 8 hours of sun
where I live, and I want to boost this to 16, should I give them those 8
extra hours in the middle of the night, or time it so they get the 16
hours together, and then 8 hours of darkness as a chunk? Do plants have
some thing analogous to a circadian rhythm?

Cheers,
Xi

Xi,

I cannot answer either question, but I suspect it lies somewhere in
the fact that there are multiple processes going on in a plant:
photosynthesis (requiring light, obviously) which converts absorbed
water and carbon dioxide into sugars, a respiration process that
converts those sugars into ATP, the true "fuel" by which the plant
lives and grows, and then whatever processes go on to create more
cells to physically grow.

It wouldn't surprise me if there was some sort of "competition for
resources" going on that favors one process over another in different
lighting conditions, or maybe it's a heat dissipation thing...

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!
..
"Xi Wang" wrote in message
news:zVQBd.678603$%k.637216@pd7tw2no...
Hi list,

Thanks for the many replies. A follow up question has occured me
then. It was mentioned that I should cut back to 14-16 hours because
if I hit them continuously with light, they may not flower. But
when they are just growing in the summer and not flowering anyhow,
would more light promote more growth?? Someone also mentioned that
beyond 16 hours, the extra light would just be a waste, why is that
exactly?

Cheers,
Xi

In article , Ray
wrote:

Xi,

I cannot answer either question, but I suspect it lies somewhere in
the fact that there are multiple processes going on in a plant:
photosynthesis (requiring light, obviously) which converts absorbed
water and carbon dioxide into sugars, a respiration process that
converts those sugars into ATP, the true "fuel" by which the plant
lives and grows, and then whatever processes go on to create more
cells to physically grow.

It wouldn't surprise me if there was some sort of "competition for
resources" going on that favors one process over another in different
lighting conditions, or maybe it's a heat dissipation thing...

I don't know the exact answer either, but the AOS book "Growing Orchids
Under Lights" by Charles Marden Fitch advises:
"Set an authomatic time to give 14 to 16 hours of light per 24 hours,
reduced to 12 hours for eight weeks in early winter." (page 8)
"Most species are day-neutral and bloom well with 13 to 14 light-hours
per period. A few must have precise combinations of light or
temperature changes to bloom freely." (page 40)
So, sounds as if have lights on 24/7, you might be discouraging blooms
and are probably wasting money.

You might want to buy or check out from your orchid society's library
the book "Growing Orchids Under Lights" by Charles Marden Fitch. It's a
small and easily read book, and it does have good advice.

And to you and yours, Ron!

Diana

And to you and yours, Ron!

Diana