edwards@houxa.UUCP (D.LEWAN) (01/08/86)
Well, the good news is that I'm already a year ahead of
schedule with my orchid collection. That is, I figured it
would take at least two years for my mature plants to get
used to my conditions; probably longer to bloom, and there
are signs to the contrary. Those signs are: one Paph.
preparing to flower and two Phals. sending up spikes.
The bad news is that one of the Phal.'s spikes is getting
cramped under the lights.
Is the solution to this problem obvious? But if I take it
out from under the lights what about energy for flower
production? Are there other, less evident things I should
know about at this point?
Thanks.
Doug Lewan
(...!ihnp4!houxa!edwards)arnold@hpfcla.UUCP (01/20/86)
Dear Doug, I have several thousand orchids in Hawaii and several hundred under lights in Colorado. I find that the larger orchids will tolerate having the lights a little higher allowing you to move the plants around and change their directions so the spikes will not get fried in your lights. This will result in the spikes bending off toward the lights and give you strange shaped spikes but that's the trade off. If your lights are high enough and your plants young enough (no 3 foot spikes) you shouldn't have any problems. For bigger spikes, just guide them with stakes so they go through the spaces between the lamps. This works on Paphs too. Also, if you find the lights going all over the room, try adding some tin foil to reflect it back in. You'd be suprised how much it helps. Good luck. Arnold