Howard the Light Guru?

[OfLeafandLimb]

Just curious, did Howard even make his way over here from the Gardenweb orchid forum? I remember he lost his whole collection in a flood one year, and many people sent him orchids in support. He was a great resource for lighting information, and I was kind of wondering if he finally migrated, and how he and his collection are faring. Does anyone know who I'm talking about?

[Brooke]

I do and no he never made it here, or on any other forum. He eventually went to Oregon to teach and last post I saw was something about putting his collection outside. He asked for advice since he could never do that in NYC.

Did you ever see his light set up?

Brooke

[OfLeafandLimb]

No, I don't think I did. It must have been pretty tremendous, given that he had only a basement to work with. I'm glad he went somewhere warmer than the east coast! It must have been liberating for him to put everything outside! It's too bad he hasn't poked his head in here, but it makes me happy to hear he's doing well. Thanks for letting me know!

[Brooke]

No his light set up wasn't tremendous. He had a couple of fluoro fixtures and a couple of hanging lights with regular light bulbs in it. He had the plants several feet away from the lights. The fc's from the light source would have been very low. He did love to talk about growing under lights in NYC.

Brooke

[OfLeafandLimb]

Seriously? I'm kind of shocked. When I overwinter plants in the basement, I use regular fluorescent lights, and they still bloom, even in the winter. I guess I figured he would have had his plants at least closer to the lights, and that he would have had lots of them. Odd.

[Brooke]

I had the picture of his set-up for a few years but lost it when I had a computer crash. At that time I was growing under lights and used my light meter to figure out what needed to go where and how close. I don't know how he got anything to bloom.

Brooke