Too much light?

[ndtechie05]

Hello-
I have had both of these orchids for a year and the leaves started turning purple on the one and just dark green on the other...could this be a sign of too much light and I should pull them back a little? The other photo is of my current orchids in their new humidity tray I got today.

[tropterrarium]

In general, dark leaves indicate low light, whereas light leaves with yellowing indicate high light for the particular species. Your plants seem to flower, so that indicates sufficient light for that. If they flower and are otherwise healthy, I would not change anything. Have you taken them out of the pot and looked at the roots? That is the last "test" but I don't expect any trouble there either based on your photos. But maybe wait until after they are done flowering.

[lotis146]

Dark green certainly isn't a sign of too much light, to the best of my understanding I do believe that lighter green leaves are suggestive of too much light. Meanwhile some will say that dark green actually means they might not be getting enough light.

That said the purple color I'm not entirely sure of though I do know that some Phals just naturally have some reddish/purple coloration to their leaves. I have one in particular I can think of that has darker purplish leaves. We'll have to see what the more experienced growers have to say on this matter.

[silken]

The general rule is lighter green indicates it is getting more light and darker green is less light. But Phals seem to go against that rule a bit. Some Phals just naturally have much lighter green leaves than others. I have some with very dark green leaves sitting beside another with light green leaves. The ones with purple can be from good light but many Phals with pink or purple in their blooms will show this purple in the leaves. They are all generally medium or lower light plants compared to Cattleyas, and many Dens and Oncidiums. If they are growing well and blooming, it doesn't really matter how bright or dark the leaves are.

[ndtechie05]

Well those 2 phals did not bloom nor spike this year. The Catt and new purple queen beer are new this year. The other's are older. Now I didn't fertilize until now when I started reading more about it and I am going to start with Dyna-Gro GROW and I have some BLOOM on order.

[silken]

Sometimes a month of cool temps in the fall will stimulate bloom. Not real cold but anything between 55F and maybe 60F, on a cooler windowsill or cooler location that still has decent light.

Orchids only need 1/2 to 1/4 of the recommended dosage of fertilizer and every now and then a flushing with clear water to remove fertilizer salts. If you are going to use bloom booster, start using it in summer or late summer before the temps cool off.

Also new Phals often take a year or more to adjust and get on their real blooming schedule. In the nurseries they are often forced into bloom to be sold at a time that is not their normal bloom time.

[Subrosa]

Plants that are green but tend towards red or purple coloration normally get redder or more purple the more light they receive.

[ndtechie05]

So the recommendation is to put them back in the window and give a good fertilize as these have not been fertilized yet?

[RandomGemini]

Yes, back in the window. Fertilizer for any orchid needs to be consistent in order to achieve blooms. So, fertilize weekly, with fertilizer mixed at 1/4 the strength labelled on the bottle. We say fertilize weakly, weekly.

You should read through the first 12 or so pages of the thread in the beginner discussion forum called, "The Phal Abuse Ends Here" just search the forum for it. LOTS of info about how to grow phals there and answers to just about any question to do with Phals can be found in that thread.

[Lilac]

Originally Posted by silken

Also new Phals often take a year or more to adjust and get on their real blooming schedule. In the nurseries they are often forced into bloom to be sold at a time that is not their normal bloom time.

I've found this also with all of my Phals. They tend to need at least a year to acclimate to ones conditions and bloom.

---------- Post added at 01:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 PM ----------

ndtechie I love the colors on your blooming Phals!