Hi, I just joined the forum and I need help. I bought a small hid light from ebay and after using it for a month I noticed my plants are becoming too dry. I'm afraid of watering too much and I also don't want my plants to die what should I do? Thanks for any advice!
Tom

:hi::welcome:

Hi Tom and welcome to the slipper orchid forum glad you joined us! Lights do get hot so plants can dry out fast. Water your plants a little more than often.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

You may want to add a small humidifier if you don't already have one. I use a cheap one gallon portable unit in my HID/light room and set it for about 50-60% humidity. usually needs a refill daily in mid winter when the furnace is blasting in the rest of the house but only weekly in the summer. If you don't have controls on the unit to set the humidity that fine (i.e just high medium and low levels), you can use a cheap digital combination thermometer/hydrometer to measure both temp and humidity and toy with the contorls till you get it right. Got mine at Walmart for about $10.

I find that as long as the humidity is up that my slippers don't dry out too quickly and I can get away with watering the bigger plants every 7-10 days and the smaller every 4-7 days.

Hope this helps.

ed

how many watts and how high above the plants? what kind of paphs?

Hi Tom welcome!

Hi and welcome to the forum.

You may want to add a small humidifier if you don't already have one. I use a cheap one gallon portable unit in my HID/light room and set it for about 50-60% humidity. usually needs a refill daily in mid winter when the furnace is blasting in the rest of the house but only weekly in the summer. If you don't have controls on the unit to set the humidity that fine (i.e just high medium and low levels), you can use a cheap digital combination thermometer/hydrometer to measure both temp and humidity and toy with the contorls till you get it right. Got mine at Walmart for about $10.

I find that as long as the humidity is up that my slippers don't dry out too quickly and I can get away with watering the bigger plants every 7-10 days and the smaller every 4-7 days.

Hope this helps.

ed

Thanks for all the friendly welcomes and advice! Ed I like your humidifier tip and will look into getting one. It gets really dry when the furnace is running so that may help. Thanks for your help!

Hi Tom and welcome to the slipper orchid forum glad you joined us! Lights do get hot so plants can dry out fast. Water your plants a little more than often.

Thank you Nancy! Yes the light does get quite hot but I was afraid of watering my plants to death. I have a lot to learn from you nice folks.

how many watts and how high above the plants? what kind of paphs?

I believe it's 230 watts which I bought as used and it works great. I have it hung above my plants at 2 ft. Is it too low or too high? I don't have that many plants most are given to me a couple of phals one dendro one oncidium, no paph but I do have one un named phrag.

Hi Tom,

Might help to raise the lamp another 12".

I find that under lights it helps to pack a nice layer of spaghum moss on the top of the media around the base of the plant. Helps the media retain moisture longer.

Also you could try adding a light proportion of spaghum in with the potting mix or try coconut husk chips as a media component, as they always retained water well for me when i used them.

Agree on the humidifier as well.

Hi Tom,

Might help to raise the lamp another 12".

I find that under lights it helps to pack a nice layer of spaghum moss on the top of the media around the base of the plant. Helps the media retain moisture longer.

Also you could try adding a light proportion of spaghum in with the potting mix or try coconut husk chips as a media component, as they always retained water well for me when i used them.

Agree on the humidifier as well.

Thank you Justin I will follow your advice and raise the light by 12" I didn't know if it was too low or too high but now I know! I have to stop by Home Depot tonight and see if they carry spaghum moss. I run the light 14 hours daily on a timer should I make any changes?

Welcome to the site, Tom! :welcome:
I would say that since it is winter, I would bring the light down to 12 hours, and then adjust it back to 14 hours in the spring.

Hi Tom,

Might help to raise the lamp another 12".

I find that under lights it helps to pack a nice layer of spaghum moss on the top of the media around the base of the plant. Helps the media retain moisture longer.

Also you could try adding a light proportion of spaghum in with the potting mix or try coconut husk chips as a media component, as they always retained water well for me when i used them.

Agree on the humidifier as well.

Hi Tom you made it! Welcome to the slipper orchid forum and thanks for joining! Lots of great advice and I would like to add one more important thing and that is air flow. Make sure you provide ample air circulation, very very important.

Thanks for all the help! Much appreciated.

You are most welcome and please keep us updated!

Hey Tom welcome to the forum...:welcome:

I did what some of you have suggested and I'm happy to report my plants are doing well and not getting too dry. Thanks for all your help!

That is great!!

You are welcome Tom! Glad your plants are doing fine now and that is wonderful!:hyper:

I did what some of you have suggested and I'm happy to report my plants are doing well and not getting too dry. Thanks for all your help!

Excellent! :thumbsup:

Glad that we could help, Tom!

:cool:...glad your plants are doing fine!