FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello and Merry Christmas! I got a Phalaenopsis, but my growing space is limited and my windowsill is also full.

My artificial lights produce about 2000 lumens per square foot, but only about 300-500 lumens per square foot falls on the leaves of the orchid. Will that be enough light for a few months until I find a better solution?

I grow carnivorous plants under the artificial lights and I don't have more space under them, so I placed the orchid beside the lights.

Thats plenty of light for a phal.

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Congrats! It looks nice! If not acclimated to bright light, you may even see some sunburn under grow lights. It will look like large pale splotches on the leaves. It probably won't at that angle, though. Phals can live in pretty low-light conditions, but the more bright light they get, the faster they grow.

Since it's your first, I'll warn: make sure you never get water in the crown! If you do, tear off a corner of a paper towel and stick it into the crown as deep as it will easily slide to soak up the water. Leave it sticking out like that until it has wicked the water out and evaporated. The leaf tissue is very susceptible to fungus and rot so it's best to avoid leaving water on them anywhere, but especially in the cracks and crucially in the crown. Some growers also recommend only watering them before noon to help with this. It might seem surprising that they would be that sensitive because, after all, in nature they get rained on all the time, but in nature they don't grow straight up like we grow them in pots so the water drains away from the center naturally.

Another thing you can do to prevent rot is mount the orchid so that it's sideways or even upside down, as that's how they grow in the wild.

Here's some that I just mounted, I'm giving it a shot, it's my first time, but they seem to like it. The little one without flowers was a rescue from homedepot with almost no roots, but it already seems to be perking up!




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Those are nicely mounted

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Yesterday i got my first orchid, looks like the same one as you have only its white. Got it from the grocery store so it had no tags.

I was also thinking of mounting it with some sphagnum on a piece of wood. Do you think that aquarium wood would be alright? Its supposed to be antibacterial and does not rot.

I'm no expert in mounting plants, but as long as the wood is somewhat water resistant, it should work fine I suppose=)

Wikiwakawakawee wrote:Here's some that I just mounted, I'm giving it a shot, it's my first time, but they seem to like it. The little one without flowers was a rescue from homedepot with almost no roots, but it already seems to be perking up!




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Hmm... I've had a passing thought or two about trying to grow Orchids. I'm GREATLY intrigued about the method of hanging them that you have employed. Any chance you can elaborate on how it works? Admittedly, I'm not very familiar with them or how the root system works. I assume it is grown to the bark, holding it in place?

i also heard that the roots need light for the plant to survive (hence the transparent pots). but is this really true or not? just asking as i want to wrap the roots in some sphag

MPHampel86 wrote:

Wikiwakawakawee wrote:Here's some that I just mounted, I'm giving it a shot, it's my first time, but they seem to like it. The little one without flowers was a rescue from homedepot with almost no roots, but it already seems to be perking up!




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Hmm... I've had a passing thought or two about trying to grow Orchids. I'm GREATLY intrigued about the method of hanging them that you have employed. Any chance you can elaborate on how it works? Admittedly, I'm not very familiar with them or how the root system works. I assume it is grown to the bark, holding it in place?

I'll make a separate thread on how I did it, we kinda hijacked zoliky's thread...Sorry about that!

Aozora wrote:i also heard that the roots need light for the plant to survive (hence the transparent pots). but is this really true or not? just asking as i want to wrap the roots in some sphag

I'm still learning about Orchids too, but from what I understand, the roots CAN photosynthesis when they are exposed to the sun, but they don't need to photosynthesize from their roots to survive, its more like a bonus . If they are covered up, then they'll just grow white I believe.