lighting troubles

[dipasquo]

I'm having trouble finding lighting conditions in my apartment to suit the recommendations I have been reading. Most seem to call for 1000-1500 fc of indirect or shaded light - little to no direct sunlight.

I've got large southern bay windows that in the day time read 5000+ fc on the meter, and right at the windows the temp gets quite hot; a couple feet in from the windows I'm still reading 5000+ fc but the air not so hot. There are a couple places that get hit by direct sun only intermittently during the day, as window frames, etc., cast shadows as the sun moves across the sky. Across the room and out of the direct sun, light levels fall off quickly.

I also have easterly and westerly windows shaded from direct sun at all times of the day by neighboring buildings. If I open the window, stick my hand outside, and point the meter straight up, I can get 1500 fc or so, but just inside the window the levels are 300-500fc.

So it seems to me I have either way too much light or not enough. With the days getting longer and hotter I think I need to come up with a better plan for light management. Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[mayres]

One solution would be to place them in the rooms that don't get enough light and add supplemental artificial lighting - with minimal effort you can come up with something that is quite nice for low light level orchids - such as phals, paphs, etc. Is there any way to put shears or some other type window covering over all or part of your bay window? I put shears across my office windows for just the three hottest most direct sunlight months of the year. I think you should be able to get high light requirement orchids to do well as long as they are back a few feet from that bay window and slowly aclimated. It most certainly is a challenge for many of us who don't have greenhouses and have to make do with the best we can with portions of our living quarters. Good luck! Mike