Hi everyone
I want to start growing cool orchids (specially Masdevallia), but my climate
is too mild (even during winter) to grow them in a greenhouse or outside.
Instead of buying a lot of expensive equipment to cool down the greenhouse, i
was thinking of growing them exclusively under lights inside a cave that was
used when i was a kid to raise chickens (hehe). The humidity and air flow in
there seems fine to me, because there is a very wet wall with water constantly
dripping (that can provide additional moisture) and 2 entrances on opposite
sides of the cave, so air is continuously flowing and aerating it.
Now i wanted to know if the temperatures in there were suitable to grow those
orchids, specially now on summer. This week was probably the hottest of the
year (temperatures outside of 33ºC (91ºF) and inside that cave the temperature
was around 20ºC (68ºF). As far as i know, the temperature seems fine, but the
problem is that i dont have any experience at all on how to grow plants under
lights. And the information over the internet is very limited. Can i use normal
fluorescent lamps to grow them? And can the plants be grown healthy and flower
without ever needing to see the sunlight? (I will try to immitate the natural
lenght of the photoperiod of my area not to confuse the plants)
Other question is about the temperature drop. The cave seems to act like a
temperature deposit, so the temperature flutuations will not be that big. Is
this a problem?
Lastly i would like to mention Masdevallia caesia and M. ignea as being my
favourites of that genus. Any particular problems with these, by growing them
the way i said?
Many thanks
Michael Benedito
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