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Happy New Year from the Orchid Garden. This is going to
be an exciting year here in the garden. I am looking forward to another year telling you about my favorite flowers,orchids! Please join me each month and be ready to enjoy learning about the exotic world of the orchids.
This month I will tell you about light and how it affects the growth and health of orchids. Most plants, including orchids, require light to perform photosynthesis, the process of creating food using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. There are many kinds of orchids and each genus has a different lighting requirement because they live in very different natural habitats. Some orchids are exposed to bright tropical sunlight while others live deep within dark shady forests. You need to learn what types of orchids you have and try to provide them with the same lighting levels they would normally receive in nature so they will flourish. Light is measured in a unit called a footcandle (fc). A footcandle is equivalent amount of light that is produced by a candle at the distance of one foot. To give you an idea of light levels, on a clear sunny summer day at noon, the light provided by the sun would be over 10,000 fc. At the same time of day on an overcast winter day, the light level may be less than 500 fc. To determine the light level in the location you want to grow your orchids, you will need a light meter that will give you readings in footcandle units and is capable of measuring bright light up to at least 5,000 footcandles. You can also determine the light levels at a location by using the built-in light meter of a SLR-type camera using a special table. If you do not have a light meter or any other way of measuring light levels, here is a very rough rule of thumb you can follow: Full Sun: Direct sunlight that's unobstructed for six to eight hours a day. Partial Sun: About four hours of direct sun a day or lightly shaded sunlight all day. Partial Shade: About two hours or less of sunlight a day. Filtered Sun or Broken Shade: No direct sun, but some filtered light. Dense Shade: No direct sun at all. If your orchid is showing any of these following signs, the chances are it is not getting enough light. 1. Dark green leaves with no luster to them, but the root system is healthy. Go To Page: 1 2
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Linda Fortner's Orchid Gardening topic, please visit the Discussions page. |
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