Adequate Sunlight for Cattleya

[DesignerofBeauty]

Do explain!

[jkofferdahl]

Originally Posted by DesignerofBeauty

Thank you! I suppose I should have purchased my orchids slowly before accumulating this much! Now onto (even more) research...

Many of us start out buying orchids which catch our eyes, not knowing much about their needs. Occasionally I still do! And then we try to adapt our conditions to accommadate the plant, which rarely works out. Once you understand the conditions of your growing areas it's a lot easier to select plants most likely to thrive in them. Light can be especially tricky because what our eyes may consider plentiful can be a lot different to the orchids; a sunny room seems bright but for every inch you move farther from the window itself you lose an amazing amount of foot-candles.

[Dollythehun]

I'm a navy wife. I'll pm you sometime.

[Orchid Whisperer]

You can add to the window light with a CFL, but you could probably do as good or maybe better with one of the newer generation LED bulbs (standard screw base, a 6 pack of 3000k LED bulbs is around $9 US). Since you are just supplementing your sunlight, you have more flexibility in the choice of bulb you use.

[estación seca]

First, Welcome to the Orchid Board! Congratulations on blooming your Phal!

Different kinds of orchids need and tolerate different amounts of light. Phals are closer to the low end, and Cattleya relatives closer to the high end.

If you are blooming Phals in your current light, I would leave them alone... you're going to need the higher-light areas for Cattleyas.

I would agree it might be better to buy LED rather than CFL. LEDs last a lot longer, and CFLs are already old technology.

There are many genera in the Cattleya alliance. Botanists have also been busy changing genus names. We say, colloquially, "Cattleyas" when discussing any of the Cattleya-alliance genera or hybrids.

Otaara is an artificial (human-made hybrid) genus with ancestors from genera Brassavola, Broughtonia, Cattleya and Laelia. Slc. represents Sophrolaeliocattleya: Sophronitis, Laelia and Cattleya. Except Sophronitis and many of the Laelias have now been transferred to Cattleya. It has been decided it is fine to retain the old hybrid names. You can drop the Cattleya in front of Otaara; it is properly Otaara Hwa Yuan Bay 'She Shu' AM/OROC.

Crosses have a genus listed first in capital letters. They have the name of the cross next, also in capital letters. All the individuals that grow from any crossing of those two parents, no matter which parent is the seed parent, bear that name. The first person flowering that cross has the right to name the cross. In this case, many individual plants grown from seed from these particular parents can bear the name Otaara Hwa Yuan Bay or Sophrolaeliocattleya Crystelle Smith.

Breeders may select out particularly nice individuals from a cross. These may be given a clone name, written capitalized between single quotes: 'She Shu' or 'Aileen'. Often the clone name isn't given until the clone wins an award in a competition, as these did: Award of Merit from some organization abbreviated OROC. The American Orchid Society is abbreviated AOS and awards look like this: HCC/AOS; AM/AOS; FCC/AOS from good to great.

If you bought your Slc. Crystelle Smith from Carter and Holmes, be aware their plants are not grown in as much light as plants from other vendors. The fact your Otaara is even darker means it has really been grown shady, from its perspective. Cattleyas bloom best in as much light as possible short of burning the leaves. Their leaves are almost yellow at this stage. This makes me almost certain your Otaara isn't blooming because it isn't getting enough light. When Cattleya alliance plants get a lot of light, they often - but not always - develop red or purple spotting or shading on the leaves.

It is highly unlikely you would burn Cattleya plants under either CFL or LED lights. The light output isn't great enough with consumer fixtures.

[DesignerofBeauty]

Thank you SO much! The information you provided was very interesting and helpful!

Good to know about Carter and Holmes.

The only thing I'm concerned about is the fact that I have all my orchids on one windowsill. I live in a small apartment. The other windows receive very very little sunlight. There's only one window I can place all my orchids. If I put a LED light near my orchids that are doing fine or ok (from what I can tell) - will this cause overexposure?

On amazon I saw a LED grow light that was manufactured in a small strip (almost like a rope light). I'm wondering if I can simply place a strip right near my Cattleyas by running it along the left and right sides of the window. This way I can target the light a bit better? This may be unnecessary, however. If that's the case I'll just buy a regular LED bulb.

[estación seca]

The extra light from an LED won't harm any of your orchids. Since you have such a small area, do what is easiest. You can dream for the future. Dreams can come true.

[malteseproverb]

Do you have the option of putting your plant outside at all? I live in PA and have bloomed cattleyas without supplemental light by just putting them outside in the shade. They turn purple, then they come inside for winter and bloom, despite the low light for the winter.

[DesignerofBeauty]

So you put your orchids outside in the Spring and Summer? I haven't tried that before, I have only had orchids for about a year now. Does the wind/rain bother them?

[Roberta]

After all, they are plants...in their native habitats they get rained upon. The natural air movement that they get outside is, in general, better than anything that we can provide indoors. The light that they get is the full spectrum, including UV, that the sun provides but that window glass tends to filter out and artificial light doesn't have in the first place. So if their basic needs are met (dappled light rather than a blast, temperatures within the correct range for the specific orchid - and they'll adapt if temps are a little higher or lower than ideal as long as it's reasonable) I have found that all things being equal, they do better outside, especially in the spring and summer when they're growing fastest.

Many orchids also benefit from the difference between day and night temperatures (diurnal range) which is more than they are likely to get in the house.