Phals and lighting?

[rradovitch]

am a new orchid owner and have been supplementing natural light with a grow light bulb but I'm not sure about all of the technical specs I have seen on lighting. I simply have a Sylvania Spot-Gro 60 watt light bulb that I have been putting in my track lighting. I do not have any idea how much light it is providing and all the numbers I have been reading are confusing. Is this helping the plant at all or is it useless? It is about 20" from the blooms.

Is there a different bulb I can use in my current track lighting that is better?

Thanks.

[josterha]

Hi,

I also had a phal a while ago that I had for at least three years before I gave it to my dad (who has a greenhouse). I bought it in bloom and then waited until the next year, and nothing - just leaves. Keep in mind that I had it in my north-facing bathroom window, and in my experience most phals are autumn and winter bloomers (at least that's when mine spike - I guess due to the nighttime temps). The next autumn I decided to use a desk lamp with a small watt halogen bulb and shine on it while I was at work. I had the lamp about a foot away from the leaves. The thing went nuts and bloomed on the old spike and shot out a new one which also bloomed profusely. The old spike also developed a keiki (new daughter plant on the spike). As it turns out, the lamp was a litle too close and eventually dried out the new spike. Anyway, I've found that adding light to a dim spot really makes a big difference. Welcome to the OB!

- John

[rradovitch]

Thanks John. I am pretty cluless about lighting...so was the halogen bulb an actual grow light?

Ryan

[josterha]

Not at all. It was just a desk lamp from IKEA. It has a 25w bulb only, but it gives off bright, white light. Whatever it gave off in terms of spectrum, the orchids loved it.

- John