accomodating species with different light requirements in the same shadehouse
 

Hi,

I wonder if anyone would be so kind as to give me some advice on the subject of housing orchids with both high and low requirements in the same growing space.

I am growing mostly light loving orchids like D.speciosum, Catts, Cyms and Onc
in my shade house with 70% on the roof and 50% on the sides.

I want to incorporate, if possible, some cool to intermediate growing Phaps in the shade house.

One idea I had was to place them directly beneath the bromeliad/cymbidium bench which would afford good shade. the only trouble with this is the water which will drip onto the phaps from above.

Any ideas, tips or advice which might help?

thank you

Adrian

I'll throw a couple of thoughts out for you:

If the paphs are under another level on a bench, you can attach a slightly sloped piece of rigid clear plastic under the bench to direct away the water draining from above.

I won't claim to know the physics behind it, but it appears that - when placed under glazing or shade - plants perceive that glazing to be the source of the light, meaning that varying distances from it can allow you to vary the light intensity. To help grasp that, consider this:

In my greenhouse, I have vandaceous plants hanging high, right under the glazing, so they get the most light intensity. My lower-light plants are on benches 6 feet away so they won't burn. If the glazing was not acting as the "light source", the difference in light intensity between 93-million miles from the sun and 93-million miles plus 6 feet would be insignificant.

You can always screw in some laserlite on an angle underneath your benches to direct the water away from the plants below. The light loss from the laserlite itself is minimal, although it can collect a bit of gunge over time from the plants above, which will effect light transmission, so you'll need to give it a good spray clean every so often.

---------- Post added at 01:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:45 AM ----------

Ray beat me to it :biggrin:

thanks very much. sounds like a great idea!

cheers

Adrian