Quote:
Originally Posted by fredfarmer
I have 12 tolumnias in my collection (6 of which are currently in bloom) and agree with all the advice given in this thread related to watering, humidity, a constant breeze, and temperature but would like to bring up one thing related to lighting which I found to make a big difference in my indoor conditions.
My tolumnias needed somewhere in the range of 2500 - 3500 ft. candles for at least 12 hrs/day of light to bloom but the plants sold on the internet appear to have been cultivated at much lower light levels. You can tell if the plants have uniformly dark green leaves - they actually look very healthy - maybe too healthy. If you put them directly into anything over 1000 ft. candles, they clearly didn't like it, often turning dark red with some of the leaves partially drying out. I now start them at about 800 ft. candles (phalaenopsis level) for at least 2 weeks, and then slowly raise the ft. candle level until there is a slight red tinge on the edge of a few leaves (usually about 2000 ft. candles). This usually takes a few months. Spikes usually emerge from new fans soon thereafter.
Maybe I'm being too meticulous - but this is what works for me.
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Fantastic advice. Wish I would have known this a few months ago! My 3 tolumnias are varying shades of purple currently.
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