Questions about phalaenopsis and light - Orchid Board

dolmadakia · #1 02-22-2010, 12:57 AM

Hello, I am new to this forum. I was wondering if it is ok to move the orchid throughout the day from place to place in the house in order to get enough light to it? I know you are not supposed to turn the orchid too much, resulting in twisted blooms... but just wondering.....

RosieC · #2 02-22-2010, 03:33 AM

Hi and welcome to orchid board: welcome:

Many of my Phals are just in a east window and only get bright light in the morning. They seem to do fine there without needing the afternoon light.

Phals generally don't like direct bright sunlight so I'm not sure it would be a good idea to move it arround to stay in the light through the day, simply because that could be too much light.

Donald · #3 02-22-2010, 10:37 AM

I agree Rosie

trdyl · #4 02-22-2010, 10:51 AM

Welcome to OB!

I agree with Rosie too. I am including a link for a culture sheet for you. If you have a questions be sure to ask. There are no dumb questions here.

AOS | Phalaenopsis

iceicebaby · #5 02-22-2010, 11:03 AM

Hi dolmadakia,
welcome to THE board on Orchids.
Please let us know where exactly you are from and how is the weather there.I ask this as I am from hot tropical India from the east coat.
I bought two phals a month back and since it was winter then I exposed my phals to the balmy winter sun for some hours in the afternoon for a couple of days,thinking that it is winter after all (temperature around 20 degree C). I ended up giving the plants a bad sun burn. They are left with just enough leaves to survive.
My mentor has an axiom "always err on the lesser side when light and moisture is considered for orchids and you will not kill any plants".
Regards,

Dev

dolmadakia · #6 02-22-2010, 02:35 PM

Thank you all for the advice. The orchid was given to me by a woman with many of them. The leaves have been dark green and flimsy since I got it and there are some holes in some of the leaves where i think some slugs got to them. Can an old leaf return to the light stiff healthy green leaf?

flowerpower · #7 02-22-2010, 05:06 PM

With adequate water I think the new leaves will be perky. The old leaves may stay a bit floppy though.

Without enough light they can be floppy because they grow a bit longer than they should be.

dolmadakia · #8 02-23-2010, 12:03 AM

Thank you all!

King_of_orchid_growing:) · #9 02-23-2010, 01:47 AM

Have you checked out this link?

Phalaenopsis in situ - Flickr: Search

Maybe there are some answers to your questions by viewing these pictures of Phals in the wild.

Think out of the box...