Before i spent the money on a prefab t-5 set i woould seriously look into the more powerfull compact flourescents. you can get really intense light and you have more controll over it as well. It would be very simple to bild reflectors for the CFLs and paint the inside of the reflectors a flat white. The T-5's just spread out the light too much for my taste...Cymnidiums under light need lots of light and your best choise is CFL's in the 125w catagory or higher, or a MH system.

Yes, it is true. There is a thread on this: Look here. In the thread, WhiteCat mentioned a website with detailed care-sheet. C. sinense is not the smallest, but there are very small cultivars (according to the website). Besides yours, there are many attractive species and cultivars that are compact and wonderfully fragrant.

I agree with with salvialvr. I have T5s and grew my mini Cyms under them for a couple of years. They were all lovely green leafy plants. When I switched them to CFLs, I got green leafy plants with multiple spikes of gorgeous flowers. (By the way, I actually grow by a southeast window and only supplement with CFLs, so I can get away with a couple of 42W CFLs. I don't use and so don't know much about 125W.)

Hope this helps.

Julie

I have swayed back and forth between T5s and CFLs this last month. Adam - I saw your post a while back about your terrarium CFL setup. I just got a 90 gallon tank and I almost made the plunge for T5s but your post stopped me....can you shoot me an e-mail or something with more details of your setup (ie wiring and how you mounted the ceramic fixtures) and what you can grow under those lights? (sorry for the semi-hijack!)

Julie - I grow in a south-east window as well, and they don't seem to do too fantastic for me. I put them outside last summer and my sinense enjoyed that, but I really feel like more supplemental light in winter is needed. How are your CFLs mounted around your plants, and is this year around or just winter? The snow storm we have right now is really getting me depressed, thinking about the little natural light that is coming through....:(

I can offer 2 cents about the 125W CFL. Either I got gyped or these lamps are just not too great, but I have one and it doesn't put out as much light as one expects. I get less than 500 foot candles at 12" away, which is not too great. Essentially that provides enough space to grow 1 high light plant or 2 intermediate light plants underneath it...at 30 dollars, it's better to just get 2 or 3 42Ws if you're going the CFL route.

One interesting thing I read in another forum though is that the typical recommended FC for plants assumes natural light cycles (ie 2000fc for catts)...and that with artificial light, since they are at a constant strength for 12-16 hours a day (versus the variance seen throughout the day for sunlight) you actually don't need as high a light level as recommended in the books. I don't know how true this is, to be honest, but it's something to think about!

Not to insult your intelligence Calvin, but are you sure you got a true 125W CFL? They are hard to obtain unless you really go out of your way and then the size and fixture needs ensure that you will get FAR more than 500FC @12". A gyp of those proportions would be monstrous and demand that we as a group visit your source and maybe beat someone.

H

Calvin,

You're telling me! I'm running out of room to put the snow from my driveway (the snowbank is already several inches taller than my measly 5' 6") and there's maybe three days of no snow in the next two weeks!

Anyways, my setup is year round. My backyard faces southeast and there are NO obstructions, which would mean major sunburn for everything. And bugs (esp. spiders) freak me out. I'm also lucky enough to have an extra spare bedroom for my orchids. I have shelving all around the room with artificial light (mostly 2-4 T8s, one shelf with T5s). The bigger and higher light plants go right by the window, which is almost 5 feet wide. I have 7 42W CFLs aimed around that area - there are two at each end of the shelf (in clamp lamp fixtures bought for about $16 each at Rona, they point the light down a bit) and the other three are interspersed more or less over the width and are in IKEA floor lamps with flexible arms (these point straight down, maybe six inches from the tops).

Hope this helps.

Julie

P.S. If it doesn't help, PM me and I'll take a picture tonight and send it to you.

Calvin - I don't know if you read this thread from last month but my husband checked the fc output on some 42watt CFL, with and without a reflector. I can see how you would be getting the 500 fc's if you didn't have one on your lights. The amount of light lost sideways is astonishing and a waste of electricity.

Brooke

Here is a link that might be useful: fc measurements

word of caution. the CFL is not waterproof. so you cann't use them in the greenhouse if you have a mister or fogger system. they will burn out. i have experimented and put scotch strapping tape over the reflector to stop the mist from getting to the bulb and it does work. with the coil you can put the light were you need it. on the 4 ft stick light, only the middle two feet has the maxium light. it falls off on the ends.

H - no worries - not insulted. Yes, it was advertised as a 125W bulb and not a 125W equivalent...It is quite large. Then again it was not a reliable source (yay Ebay), and being poor that I am, I went for it instead of buying a more expensive bulb from a reputable vendor (as you say, they are hard to find). I figure even if I don't get as long of a life out of the bulb, the light output shouldn't be THAT drastically off from a brand name bulb. Guess I messed up - hope you all learn from my mistake. (either that or my light meter is busted, but I doubt it)

Brooke - thanks for the link. I have the bulb mounted horizontally under a bat-wing reflector, which completely surrounds the bulb (any other reflectors I've seen is not big enough, and also advises against use with anything above 100Ws due to heat). Most of the light is reflected down, I think.

Julie - thanks for the description! :) Now that I know that my 125W is a faulty piece of crap, I have renewed hope. I didn't go for the clamp fixtures (seen them at ronas and home depot) because they don't let you go above 100Ws...but I don't really feel like investing in huge CFL bulbs anymore so maybe the clamps is the way to go from now on. Re the snow - I feel terrible because I'm stuck downtown where I go to school, and so my mom is at home shoveling all the snow by herself! Worse is when the snow-trucks drive by and create a massive impenetrable snow barrier right along the drive way.

Thanks for the help, folks. I am thinking more about the 125-watt CFL-type from reading here, but clearly they are a little tricky to get the right kind. Will a 125-watt fit a standard, or at least easily obtainable clamp set-up (I'm no electrician, so would not feel comfortable dabbling!)? I'm still a tad concerned about heat on the foliage, which could tax dry winter air (my humidity is OK, but alot of heat could tip the balance, which is why I have no interest in standard high intensity lamps, not to mention the safety issue of emergency room visits!). My standard shoplight, which I use to grow phals has standard 4-foot tubes that give off about as much heat as I'd like to contend with.

Any light is going to put out heat, there's no getting around that. Consider adding a room humidifier to your grow area.

The true 125 wt cfl bulb can be found with a standard medium base or a heavier duty Mogul type base. either fixture is available at most hd stores just ask, but the bulbs will have to be ordered online. You will need to build some sort of reflector for it to direct the light to the plant. Standard clamp fixtures can handle the bulb but most of it would stick out past the reflector so most of the light would just get wasted. Take a trip to your local HD or lowes and look around at the different socket bases ask them questions about wiring and mounting the bases to a reflector. I think you will find that it is very easy to do this yourself with no previous expirience. They also sell books there with help for home wiring projects.
I would build the reflector out of wood and paint the inside flat white if I was you. mounting the fixture to the side of the reflector so the light bulb is horizontal in the reflector. If you are worried about heat build up in the wooden fixture just cut or drill a few small holes that allow air to circulate better. The heat will move the air up through the holes. Also, make sure you have a couple inches betwen the wood and the bulb.

If it were me, I'd use multiple smaller wattage CFLs (65 or 85's) so you can place them individually as close to the plants as possible. In my experience you get much better growing when using multiple smaller wattage CFLs than just one big one. Using the smaller wattages may allow you to use a large brooder fixture found at Lowes or HD for a reflector. If the bulb is too long for the fixture, just put a strip of aluminum foil around the lower edge. Personally, I don't do this I just put taller plants around the periphery of the lights where they get some of the 'wasted' side light. I also have a few mounties hanging in that 'wasted' light space to maximize things.

I would not worry too much about the heat generated, I can touch my running 85's without any issues.

Approximately 8 months ago I switched from a 400 watt HID to 5/85 watt CFLs and my 'kids are doing much, much better. I feel the reason is that I can get the 5 lights much closer to more plants than I could with a single big light. Also, room temps are not quite as high, maybe 4-5 degrees cooler with the CFLs as compared with the HID.

Bob