Lighting

Lighting is a prevalent question I get, so I wanted to go somewhat into detail on the general light conditions our anthuriums get, from different species to plants at different growth stages.

To start, I would like to put a disclaimer that I am no expert on the technical terms concerning light and I grow in grow-tents - these lighting conditions may not work for people with different setups. However, with some experimenting, I have found what works for my setup and what I can get by with growing and breeding my anthuriums. One thing that is widely accepted - different parts of the light spectrum support different aspects of plant growth. For example, blue light is associated with vegetative growth while red light promotes flowering and fruiting. The plant leaves generally reflect green light. Most of these studies were from crop plants but you get the gist. These results are not proven on anthuriums yet but I do follow some theory of blue light achieving more compact growth while red light influences inflorescence and infructescence production. Overall, I think any light will be fine for growing anthuriums as long as they are advertised as full spectrum. 

What lights do I use: Barrina Pinkish-white T8/T5 lights. These are readily available on Amazon. I love these lights because they are cheap, efficient, and do not produce that much heat. However, my only gripe with them is that they are not dimmable - although I believe there are tutorials with people doing so, I generally advise against fiddling with lighting bars that use fixed drivers. The main reason for the pinkish-white light is due to light intensity. The white light renditions of the Barrina grow lights are much more intense than its counterparts. Previously, I measured about 400FC for a distance of 60cm, which was much higher than I'd like. Whereas the pinkish-white variant measured at about 250FC at the same distance. Since I grow on racks, having multiple lights at a lower intensity allows more room to segregate different "zones" for growing different plants. 

Here is a breakdown of the guidelines I use in terms of light intensity for different species. I find some plants like carlablackiaes, antolakiis and hybrids like the Ace Of Spades tend to prefer higher light intensities: I have them around 250 to 350FC but any less than that, they start to lose colour and have subpar emergents. Some shade-loving plants, such as kunayalense and dressleri, tend to prefer lower lighting: I have them receiving around 100 to 200FC - anything beyond that they start to struggle. Nowadays, growing hybrids with a mix of shade-tolerant and shade-loving species can be confusing, so I usually provide them with 200 to 250FC to grow out before fine-tuning the individual's sweet spot. For seedlings, I grow them between 150 to 250FC. Mother plants typically receive 200FC or less, depending on the leaf sizes and number of leaves, because I have a concept of "more leaves-less light".

However, I believe a slight shift in lighting will only minutely improve a plant's aesthetic. What plays a heavier role in velvetness, colour and form is heavily influenced by genetics and fertilisation, which I will touch on soon.