Place your orchid plants under a fluorescent, LED, or high-intensity discharge light to provide more light. Contrary to what you may initially believe, orchids can indeed be grown successfully under artificial lighting. This may be a good option if you do not have good natural lighting in your home.
Moreover, how many fluorescent tubes do I need for orchids?
The type of lights most frequently used for orchids, however, are fluorescent tubes, usually 48 or 96 inches long, 40 and 74 watts respectively. If you want supplemental lighting for a less-than-sunny window, two such tubes will probably be adequate.
Will orchids grow in low light?
Phalaenopsis Orchids will do best with low light because they grow in the shade. Another reason they are good choices, is because they are readily available to purchase in grocery stores and big box supermarkets—which makes them accessible.
The main reason why low light orchids should be kept away from direct sunshine is that they are more susceptible to leaf burns compared to other orchids. However, they will not grow well if you keep them in darkness, for example, on a remote shelf or in a dim corner of the room.
How much light do Orchids need to grow?
For orchids depending entirely on artificial light, stick to a mini-mum of four fluorescent tubes for good growth and flowering. This will provide adequate light intensities for low-light orchids on growing areas 18-22 inches wide.
(But many orchid species can be trained to acclimatize to very strong light, even the full sun, and would even thrive with under very strong light ) Orchids are supposed to open their stomatas during night time and during the early morning hours which are supposed to only close when it gets bright and hot in the day.
What type of lighting do I need for my orchids?
To correctly supply lighting to these, we recommend using a combination of Fluorescent lights, or a High Intensity Fluorescent Light. HID lights are specialized in producing the red/blue spectrum that your orchids grow so well in.
One of the next things we wanted the answer to was; how far away should HID light be from orchid?
Here is what our research found. instead of the four inches away from the orchid as used in Fluorescent lights, HID need to be further away depending on the wattage. If you have a 250W bulb, then keep it about a foot away from your orchid.
What are the best low light orchids to grow indoors?
Paphiopedilum orchids, commonly called Lady Slipper Orchid, is one of the easiest and best low light orchids that you can grow indoors! If you are ready to graduate from growing Phalaenopsis, or Moth Orchids, Paphiopedillum orchids is a great next step! Let me show you how easy they are to grow.
What is a high-light orchid?
Any orchid that thrives in over 3,000 fc of direct light is a high-light orchid. Vandas, Cattleyas, and Brassavolas are great examples. Dendrobiums can fit into this category, but do some research to see who the parents are and its specific species. Some don’t like that much light.