Growing Lights - How many?

[butterfly_muse]

Thank you! I had tried to search the forum but I guess my skills at finding things are less than stellar, haha! I appreciate it!

[Cintirella]

I have the APP you mentioned and is free ( for Android ) but I haven't gotten a reply from the person that suggest it for me. I don't know HOW TO USE IT.

[KrissieLynn]

I found a free light meter app for iPhones from white goods. I think it works pretty good- you can choose to measure light in terms of lux/lumens or foot candles, and it uses either the front or back camera lens to determine the amount of light.

[Bill U.]

For the beeCam lightmeter app for Android. All I really do is:
1) open it (obviously)
2) press "start"
3) put my phone camera in the area that I want to measure (although I sometimes do a bit of tilting around to make sure I get a more "rounded" reading- depending on the angle that you are holding your phone, you may not get as accurate of a reading")
4) look at the "lux" levels
5) divide the # of lux by 10 to get an approximate footcandle reading
*I don't really play with the settings, but that is how I measure all of my lights and it has worked out for me so far. Although, I think that it "caps" at approximately 40,000 lux ~4000 footcandles.

[Cintirella]

Thank You Bill for your reply.I'm not familiar with any of these terms but I'm eager to learn. I guess as I go. I have 2 Phals that even tho they get bright sunshine glare, the leaves remain dark green BUT- very bright almost neon green in areas close to the crown where new leaves and air roots are developing. So I know she's receiving enough light. I just have to get used to the idea that she's dark green I guess by DNA? lol Even in Fla. where we came from for the most part she was always dark green.

[Bill U.]

Here a re a few of the terms that I'm thinking are giving you an issue:

1) lux= a unit of measurement for light intensity. This is often used for photographers to determine the strength of light they want for their photo-shoots.
2) Footcandles (fc)= another unit of measurement for light intensity (although somewhat antiquated) that is very often used for describing light levels for orchids. In many orchid culture guides, you will find various footcandle recommendations for different genera. Approximately 1000-2000 fc is usually recommended for phals, although if slowly accustomed to higher light, they sometimes can thrive there. (If that's an idea for you, just be careful that you don't burn the leaves or make the leaves as bright green as a key lime! haha)

Some phals are just naturally dark in their foliage. I currently have one that normally right around 2000fc during mid morning- and then it only gets stronger with the afternoon sun filtering through my shaded window (sometimes up to 3000fc on REALLY sunny days) and it still has fairly dark leaves. New leaves/growth are normally going to be much lighter that just about any other leaves just because that's how they grow.

Another way to determine if your phal is getting a lot of light is that many of them will produce a puple-red pigment on the undersides of their leaves (especially common in phals that have red or purple pigmentation in their flowers). This purpling is not sunburn, however, the phal is telling you that it's getting close to its limit before sunburning. In these cases, especially in a newer growing area- even if it's only a different windowsill in a new house- monitor daily. I personally will write notes over the course of a few weeks to help monitor any changes. Or, if something looks odd to me, I will take a picture and document the change through pictures.

Does that help clarify things a little?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Take care to remember to check out the bulb's Kelvin temperature ratings. A range of 5500K - 7200K is fine.

Natural sunlight is at around 5500K.

[Cintirella]

Yes it sure helped. Thanks. I found a free App for the iPhone and I like it much better too. Thanks again