/ Register

Welcome to OrchidsForum.com. We are a friendly online community for Orchid Growers all over the world. If you haven't joined yet we invite you to register and join our community. Hope to see you on our forums!

Basement Incubator

Discussion in 'Growing Areas' started by Ray, Jul 14, 2014.

  1. Jul 14, 2014 #1
    Ray

    Ray Orchid Iconoclast Supporting Member

    Messages:
    1,808
    Likes Received:
    580
    Location:
    Oak Island NC
    A guy in our local OS did a presentation on basement tank growing chambers. His demonstrator was a wood and plastic box with a glass front - probably equivalent to a 30-gallon fish tank - lit with my LEDs. With no additional heating, he is able to grow lovely little cool-growers - the kind you all show here that I find impossible to grow. That inspired me to try, but then it occurred to me that a warm "incubator" would be better for the plants I currently have, so…

    I started with a hydroponics flood tray - 3' x 6'
    [​IMG]

    I have a false bottom in it (two layers of red EcoWeb, shipped to me by mistake), with an overflow drain in the side.

    Then using 1/2" thick, foil-faced foam sheathing, I created an enclosure 2' tall over it, making the floor-to-ceiling distance about 30". I spray painted the interior side of the foam panels white to disperse light better than the foil would, then assembled the whole thing with duct tape. The front has sliding glass doors to allow access. Without the glass, the whole thing weighs about 20#.

    There are eye-bolts through the roof that support two 48" Philips GreenPower "Production Module" LEDs, I have some muffin fans for air circulation, and there is a Mist-King system, with three double nozzles suspended through the roof as well. Additionally, there is a 2' x 4' heating mat controlled by a thermostat and tied to the same timer as the lights, so I get a bit of overnight cooling.

    It's been operational for about a month, and there are a bunch of phal seedlings in sphagnum, a phrag flask I got from Fox Valley Orchids, now in S/H, and a bunch of mini's I got from Ooie Leng Sun at the SEPOS show. All are doing great.

    [​IMG]

    Maybe the cool-growing chamber will follow - but likely on a smaller scale.
     
    naoki likes this.
  2. Jul 14, 2014 #2
    naoki

    naoki Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    2,470
    Likes Received:
    1,200
    Location:
    Fairbanks, Alaska
    Very nice, Ray. I also thought about doing something similar since I have a couple 8x4' R-tech EPS insulation foam, left over from insulating the house (this is what you mean by "foam sheathing", right?) How did you attach the sliding glass doors to the front? Did you duct tape the rails? Are you using 2x 32W model or 2x "LO" model with 16W?
     
  3. Jul 15, 2014 #3
    Ray

    Ray Orchid Iconoclast Supporting Member

    Messages:
    1,808
    Likes Received:
    580
    Location:
    Oak Island NC
    Hi Naoki.

    Yep, that's the sheathing.

    The doors move in plastic slides. The bottom one is attached to the tray lip with outdoor-use double stick foam tape. I tried that for attaching the upper track to the foil sheathing, but it didn't hold well to the foil, so I ended up using contact cement to really glue it in place. Fortunately, it fell off when I was trying acrylic sliding doors - don't do it, the temperature differential causes them to bow.
    [​IMG]
    The label on the lamps indicates 35W - Philips can't seem to get their literature and products to sync well.
     
    naoki likes this.