I'm really ashamed to say that I've been so busy the past few weeks with school work that I haven't really had a chance to sit down and catch up with postings. The wheels started turning in my head when a person at the local society put an ad in the monthly newsletter saying she wanted to get rid of a 400 watt HID SunSystem set up, which ended up being free (bonus!) :) After picking it up, I went to Lowes and bought a 5 tier shelving unit. Right now, I have the shelving unit up against the west wall in the basement, and hung the HID lights above it (it just fit, thank goodness). I have a huge variety of orchids, mainly phals, paphs, oncidiums and vandas, along with some miscellaneous genera (aerangis, dimorphorchis, coelogyne, brassavola, lycaste, etc). I've done my best to order them on each shelf according to their light requirements, but so far they all seem pretty happy. The most rewarding thing is that I've seen some new leaves starting to pop up! :)

Ross, I like out-of-the-box set-ups. My 400-watt HPS had everything I needed, I just needed to attach a few screws. But just to throw a monkey wrench into your plans, have you thought about LED lights? They are mo-re expensive to buy, but they have lots of benefits, especially if you count bulb replacement, the cost of electricity and AC costs in summer. There are even some models that allow you to control the amount of Red and Blue light, depending on the growing stage. I just bought a 125 watt panel (list price, $209) that covers the same area as a 400 watt HPS from this store but I don't think they sell the adjustable ones. But from another site it tells you how many panels you need. For your plants, it looks like 2-4 panels since you need medium to high mols/day. The cost of the fixtures may end up being the same but you would be looking at using 250-500 watts per hour instead of 1200-1800. Of cou-rse, you can always buy one HPS/MH lamp and a LED panel and see which works the best! Mike Forum owners: will you PLEASE quit adding links to my messages.

I have looked high and low for books about HID. There is one, but it is probably more helpful if you are in the thinking about it/in the process of buying a light/setting up a grow area. There are also lots of pages of highly technical graphs that most people probably don't need. The book is: Gardening Indoors with H.I.D. Lights (Paperback) by George F. Van Patten (Author), Alyssa F. Bust (Author) How far are your plants from the light? I don't grow the same types as you do under lights, so I can't be much help. Personally, I don't like MiracleGro potting mix. Are you aware that most MiracleGro potting mix already has time-released fertilizer in it, so check the bag and see how many months until you should fertilize. If you can find it, try ProMix or Fafard's soilless potting mix. You'll probably need to look at a large nursery, not your home store. Watch that elephant ear for spider mites.

All my toys officially came in. I got the grow tent, a secret jarden DR120 (48"x48"x78"), a no-name brand vortex type fan @ 424cfm, with the 6" aircooled hood and ducting. Here she is on a couple dry runs. The 600 puts off an insane amount of heat compared to the 400 I had used before. Holy sh$t! As of now I have it vented into the same room its in. After 4 hours though that rooms ambient temp shot up to 98 degrees! No joke ... the inside tent temp was also 98 deg so that tells me that my vortex is more then adequate since its enough to keep the tent at ambient temps. The next step is to vent out the window that is located behind the tent. Either that, or vent into the heat duct that is right above it. After all winter is coming, Im only in a 1200 sq foot apartment and if that freaking light can push a 14'x15' room to 98 degs (from 72) inside of 5 hours... possibly it could heat the entire apartment to 68 deg or so?? Who knows... but Im gonna give it a shot! lol ... only question is if the 424 cfm vortex is powerfull enough to push heat throughout the place. I wonder how powerful typical furnace fans are... anyone know?? Anyway here she is ;) Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us The seedlings are coming along .... about time to give them some week ferts though. Uploaded with ImageShack.us