Hello everyone

I thought i would share the new LED test that i have been trying myself as LED lights are still pretty new technology at the moment. With the huge yearly increases in electricity prices here in the UK i thought i would tryout some new types of 102 LED cool white light bulbs "Just 6W ea" with all my plants. I'm fairly new to keeping orchids. But have grown carnivorous plants for many years. I have setup a seedling bench for my carnivorous sundews. Which need an enormous amount of very strong light each day so they can produce there dew on there leaves. My young sundews are grown in an old garage so there is no sunlight getting inside. So the idea was if the LED lights work with my sundews then they should work easily with my orchids as well so far the results are proving extremely good. Here is a photo's of my sundew test LED bench setup.

http://www.triffidtraps.x5g.com/00/Dsc02459.jpg

An LED Light Bulb.
http://www.triffidtraps.x5g.com/00/Dsc02464.jpg

Testing the led lighting with my young orchids. And i'm getting also very good results. My young phaps & Phrags are growing very strongly with lot's of new growth. See below photo's of my young Phaps & Phrags grown under LED lights. They only have the LED lighting each day no other lighting.

http://www.triffidtraps.x5g.com/00/Dsc02476.jpg

http://www.triffidtraps.x5g.com/00/Dsc02478.jpg

http://www.triffidtraps.x5g.com/00/Dsc02480.jpg

So my conclusion so far is that the new LED lighting seem for me to be working very well with my all plants. And at only 6W per bulb are extremely more efficient to run than the normal grow lights. Good news for the future of grow lighting i guess ?

John

Looks great AND promising from your experience! New technology but new innovations brings better future products.

very very nice:heart::Party::heart:

I'm very glad that there is another successful case of growing Paph under a lower light intensity of artificial lighting system. I think because you introduce not only 1 LED light bulb, the total light intensity of your growing area maybe up to 10 - 20 Watt due to the synergistic lighting of all the bulbs. I'm not sure of the growth rates if only 1 6W is in use.

Added to my case, I'm very glad that we can both make a conclusion that in terms of growth, Paph don't really need much light. Light intensity of 6 - 20 Watt is pretty sufficient for their growth. The remaining question is whether they would flower under this condition.

PS: Just a suggestion, I saw your Paph are quite packed, with small and larger ones mixed together. It's my perspective that the larger ones may block the light that the small one could receive. I suggest maybe you could organize them according to their sizes, such as the left side are all smaller ones and the larger ones on the right?

nice setup and good success!!!

I'm very glad that there is another successful case of growing Paph under a lower light intensity of artificial lighting system. I think because you introduce not only 1 LED light bulb, the total light intensity of your growing area maybe up to 10 - 20 Watt due to the synergistic lighting of all the bulbs. I'm not sure of the growth rates if only 1 6W is in use.

Added to my case, I'm very glad that we can both make a conclusion that in terms of growth, Paph don't really need much light. Light intensity of 6 - 20 Watt is pretty sufficient for their growth. The remaining question is whether they would flower under this condition.

PS: Just a suggestion, I saw your Paph are quite packed, with small and larger ones mixed together. It's my perspective that the larger ones may block the light that the small one could receive. I suggest maybe you could organize them according to their sizes, such as the left side are all smaller ones and the larger ones on the right?

Hello Mocchaccino

Yep my plants are mixed at the moment as i have had to move some of my larger plants in with my seedlings due to some work setting up a new grow room for my larger orchids. This was only meant for the smaller plants & the larger ones will be moved early next month hopefully before the winter comes into there new home. I will arrange them like you suggested thank you.

I was skeptical whether the LED lights would give out enough light especially for my carnivorous plants. I only have 3 - 6w LED bulbs in this small orchid house. Where as my Carnivorous Sundews Need the lights 12" apart any further apart & they stop making dew on there leaves which means there then not getting enough light. But my orchids need much less light to grow & so far the LED lights have worked well for these. I agree that it might not be enough light to get them to flower. I was thinking of adding two small Red LED bulbs in between the 3 cool white ones which are full spectrum bulbs. As increasing the extra Red spectrum is supposed to help plants produce flowers. And by adding in two red LED bulbs this would boost the red spectrum & may help when it comes to flowering ? Will have to see how things go.

Very impressive!

You have a beautiful plant collection and a very nice setup!

Looks promising and thanks for sharing your valuable information and experience!

Interesting!

I also have good result with led, but I use mix of red and blue for adults, because red is strongly helps bud forming. Blue is very useful for kids, strongly activate vegetative growing. Otherwise I replace my leds with light tubes for adults,fma "floura", because my led lamps died within few weeks because of humidity. Light from flura tubes consist of cca. 30% blue, 30% red and cca 20% insufficient yellow, but tube has long-long life, too, energy saving, as led and cheaper, cheaper and cheaper.....

I also have good result with led, but I use mix of red and blue for adults, because red is strongly helps bud forming. Blue is very useful for kids, strongly activate vegetative growing. Otherwise I replace my leds with light tubes for adults,fma "floura", because my led lamps died within few weeks because of humidity. Light from flura tubes consist of cca. 30% blue, 30% red and cca 20% insufficient yellow, but tube has long-long life, too, energy saving, as led and cheaper, cheaper and cheaper.....

I forgot....led white is consist of Blue+ Red+ Yellow, in cool white there is more blue, so if you use white led u r at light tube "fluora"

Yes my LEDs are white cool light full spectrum. So far i have not lost led lights any to humidity. They only cost £4.95 ea which is pretty cheap really. I think i will need more light to get my plants to bloom so will try adding in some red spectrum led lights in the mix to see if that helps. But so far they are extremely energy efficient than anything else i have used before. The future is looking good as these get developed more & more :Party:

I'm also looking to use led lights for growing my paphs and cephalotus. Where did you bought your lamps?