My Latest Closet Setup

[FairyInTheFlowers]

For those of you who remember, when I started growing orchids back in like 2010, I first started growing under lights in my closet. Life has had it's ups and some pretty big downs (I lost all my plants besides a flask when I moved to my current place), but I am starting to rebound! I moved December of 2014, and fall of 2015 a wonderful friend sent some plants through the mail for me to restart my collection. I had them in a fishtank on top of my dresser which sat in front of a south facing window. Then I finally deflasked a cross I had made like in 2013, and bought a plastic stand and put a single 2' bulb and a fan for them. Now they're inside my massive, 8' raised closet, but I guess I can share pictures for those.

I have one fan going 24/7, and the other fan plus the lights on a timer for 13h/day. For lights I have three 4' Sunblaster ballasts, with one of each 2700K, 6400K, and 10000K spectrum bulbs.
New closet growing space. Oct 2nd, 2016 by TheBlazingAugust, on Flickr

The tray and egg crate beneath all the plants is divided into four 'sections'. The right two here have some non-orchid plants that I started before I bought some more recently at the first Sask. Orchid Society meeting of the year. In the circular pots I have some Mimosa, two types of hybrid petunias, and a hybrid pansy. The square pots have some wild viola starting in there. There's also a NoID (which I usually don't grow) that my boyfriend bought for me as a gift, and a Phrag, which is a first try for me. I just recently switched to pursue a B.M.A. in Horticulture Science, so I decided I should branch out and grow and learn of other plants.
Assorted annuals and low light plants. Oct 2nd, 2016. by TheBlazingAugust, on Flickr

Here is a section that I raised with some empty solo cups and egg crate for the plants that need a bit more light. I used to be a bit of a snob and only grow Phals, but after realising that it can be near impossible at times to get keikis from them to trade, I decided to open myself up to other types, and a gracious friend from my orchid society gifted me four divisions.
High light plants. Oct 2nd, 2016. by TheBlazingAugust, on Flickr

Here is most of my Phals plus some succulent leaves that I'm trying to get started for some friends and a random herbaceous plant.
More low lights and misc. Oct 2nd, 2016. by TheBlazingAugust, on Flickr

And finally, a compot of my own cross I set back in early 2013. I had received a small flask plus a compot from the guy who did the flasking, but those I lost in the move. Thankfully I had kept the larger flask sealed for a time I knew they would survive. So they ended up being a bit scraggly from the low light and being cramped, but they've really started to rev up over the last few months.
My seedlings. Oct 2nd, 2016. by TheBlazingAugust, on Flickr

So here I am, alive and as passionate for orchids as I've always been. I'm hoping I can pick up some more smaller divisions and such from my orchid society, and if need be I can kick the annuals back out to the plastic stand to open up some room.

[charlesf6]

Nice setup, plants and pics! thanks!

[gngrhill]

thanks for the pics. Very interesting what you have done.

[Bud]

Cody, I am so glad you are back. I remember the first set up you had and I was amazed how they can grow inside a closet in your grow zone. More power to all your endeavors and hopefully you have orchid blooms soon.

[Leafmite]

I like your new set up! It is great to have you posting again. Sorry to hear that you lost so many orchids but, unfortunately, when dealing with plants, that can happen. I always look at the loss of a plant as an opportunity for a new plant. I have recently started growing dwarf fig trees and currently have them under lights. The figs are pretty good. If something would happen to a bunch of orchids, I think I know with what I will be replacing them. Cuttings of figs are pretty easy to start....

[FairyInTheFlowers]

Originally Posted by Bud

I remember the first set up you had and I was amazed how they can grow inside a closet in your grow zone.

Well, I mean, sure, Saskatchewan can get pretty damn cold, but that doesn't mean we let the inside of our houses drop with the weather as well. With all the lights I had, I remember my first closet easily hitting up to 30*C during the day, and because a lot of people lived there, it got no lower than 20*C at night.

Originally Posted by Leafmite

I like your new set up! It is great to have you posting again. Sorry to hear that you lost so many orchids but, unfortunately, when dealing with plants, that can happen. I always look at the loss of a plant as an opportunity for a new plant. I have recently started growing dwarf fig trees and currently have them under lights. The figs are pretty good. If something would happen to a bunch of orchids, I think I know with what I will be replacing them. Cuttings of figs are pretty easy to start....

Well, losing plants was quite devastating, as they were kinda like my little paradise, an escape from the shitty whirlwind that was developing in my life at the time, so I had some fond memories attached to them. The series of events that led to the final decimation of everything was a bit troubling (maybe an understatement), but here I am on the other side! Objectively though, the plant loss was a hard blow because I can easily say I spent over $1,000 on plants all together, and I now know I won't have that kind of spare money for quite a long time. So it's sad that I won't be able to get that size of a collection for quite a while. However, I am dating a second year pharmacy student with excellent grades. . .

As a side note, the dwarf figs sound like an interesting project. Although I'm already pressed for room as it is.

[Subrosa]

Originally Posted by TheBlazingAugust

Well, I mean, sure, Saskatchewan can get pretty damn cold, but that doesn't mean we let the inside of our houses drop with the weather as well. With all the lights I had, I remember my first closet easily hitting up to 30*C during the day, and because a lot of people lived there, it got no lower than 20*C at night.


Well, losing plants was quite devastating, as they were kinda like my little paradise, an escape from the shitty whirlwind that was developing in my life at the time, so I had some fond memories attached to them. The series of events that led to the final decimation of everything was a bit troubling (maybe an understatement), but here I am on the other side! Objectively though, the plant loss was a hard blow because I can easily say I spent over $1,000 on plants all together, and I now know I won't have that kind of spare money for quite a long time. So it's sad that I won't be able to get that size of a collection for quite a while. However, I am dating a second year pharmacy student with excellent grades. . .

As a side note, the dwarf figs sound like an interesting project. Although I'm already pressed for room as it is.

Your previous set up was a perfect example of our being able to replicate indoors any environmental conditions
we wish, if we're willing and able to pay the electric! I'll be watching your future posts with interest because I have to keep most of my plants indoors under lights at least part of the year, and if there are any tricks I've missed I suspect someone in zone 2 will discover them! Good luck with rebuilding your collection, I wish I could help but laws being what they are.......

[silken]

Looking good Cody!

[This Side of Paradise]

love the setup. one question why do you keep the light so high? you could probably use one less bulb if you dropped them a foot

[FairyInTheFlowers]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

Your previous set up was a perfect example of our being able to replicate indoors any environmental conditions we wish, if we're willing and able to pay the electric! I'll be watching your future posts with interest because I have to keep most of my plants indoors under lights at least part of the year, and if there are any tricks I've missed I suspect someone in zone 2 will discover them! Good luck with rebuilding your collection, I wish I could help but laws being what they are.......

To comment on the power aspect. My praise for Sunblasters, or T5's in general, is how little power the bulbs use. At 40W each, these three 4' bulbs, at their rate of light output, use 120W, compared to a single incandescent bulb which uses 100W by itself. So it's a lot of bang for your buck. So really the only area you'd need to worry about spending a little extra for power is your fans, and even those can be quite efficient nowadays. The downfall to closet growing is that you can't quite have quite as much control over the temperatures as you would like. They do give off some heat, so depending on how big the enclosure is and how airtight it is, you will be able to manage to get it several degrees higher than ambient house temperatures during the day. However, it will never get colder than ambient house temperatures. So if you're wanting to grow plants that need cooler nights than we humans are comfortable living with, you're going to have to place your setup in some cold and unused corner of your basement. The reason my first setup was so great for the Phals, Catts, and Bulbos I grew is because my bedroom had east and south facing windows, on the second floor of a house with no shade from trees and without AC. So it got warm during the day, which was ok because I was either at school, work, or in the basement where the tv was.

And yeah, while CITIES is great for its intended purposes, it does hurt the trade of artificially propagated plants. Although I have a friend near Montreal that is going to pick up some plants for me from the show in a few weeks and then send them my way. Hopefully the weather stays cooperative.

Originally Posted by This Side of Paradise

love the setup. one question why do you keep the light so high? you could probably use one less bulb if you dropped them a foot

I've had two different light setups in the past. I've had a two bulb, 6400K setup for my lower light Phals, and then this, three bulbs, one of each 2400K, 6700K, and 10000K. While I was able to grow and bloom plants successfully under the two bulbs of 6400K alone, which is supposed to be broad spectrum light, I decided to test out the addition of the fine spectrum 2400K and 10000K. Rather than wasting energy putting out photons in "dead" areas for plants just to get the basic needs, they were supposedly able to put out light in other photosynthetically active parts of the spectrum for plants. When I first switched from my 6400K to broad spectrum, it was right after a move, so it's hard to say for sure what caused it, but I do remember seeing a slight boon in spike and root production.

In this particular instance, because I did have so much vertical height to play with, I decided to use my 'broad spectrum ballasts' at a greater distance away. I figured it would be easier to worry about lifting plants that needed more light rather than shading low light plants.