Pleurothallis Solium is getting red/brown

[Jacob Reitsma]

Hello everyone,

I think I need some help here. My Pleurothallis Solium I bought four months ago is slowly turning red which makes it look unhealthy to me.
It does flower and it does make new shoots but the overall look is getting worse.
What I found on Google is that it maybe gets to much light. I give the plant 1100 fc for 12 hours a day and that is as low as I can go in my growbox. If I want to give it less light I have to de-mount the plant and pot it, in that way I can give it a place were it would get 600-800 fc.
RH is 85-90% and temperature is 10-23C (55-75 F)

Another thing I noticed is that some plants i have are a little glossy and shiny when I buy them but after a while (under my LEDs) they are loosing there gloss and turn dull or matt.

I added some pics to make it more clear, first pic is after I bought it, second is after a while and the last five are recent.

[Roberta]

The gloss may be "leaf shine" - put on the leaves to make them look pretty when sold (also can kill bugs) but over time it washes off. So the dullness is just the natural leaf texture (if your water is a bit hard, could also be from that) No worries there. The Pleuro probably does want a little less light than its neighbors (one looks like a Dendrobium, which definitely wants light, and the other one if a member of the Cattleya tribe would want light too, but if a Bulbophyllum would be similar in need to the Pleurothallis. Maybe add a bit of shading on one side of the grow box for the low-light plants? If you grow a variety, pretty hard to find one size that fits all. The reddish cast is actually OK if it doesn't go beyond what you have now... just a suntan...

[Jacob Reitsma]

Thank you Roberta! Adding some shade is a good idea indeed, I'll think about how to do and later when the box is more full there will be 'natural' shade which I can use probably.

I have this Pleuro in the same position as a Dendrobium catenatum(doing very well) and a Bulbophyllum neilgherrense(doesn't do anything yet and also seem to have a reddish cast)

Also my Mediocalcar decoratum is getting more red day by day. So when I have fixed some shade I'll join that one there together with the Pleuro and the Bulbo.