Thank you for taking that much trouble. I guess that growing advice is not of any real use to to anyone living in a totally different climate from the person giving the advice ! Here in cool temperate England, the advice for vandas is to give the plants every scrap of light that you can - assuming that you are already growing orchids in a glasshouse ( and you can't grow them anywhere else, over here ). So "moderate shade" means something quite different to me, I suspect: it's what we would think suitable for say Masdevallias....
Well, I am grpwing my Trichos with the Rrenantheras and Vandas, which means hanging up in the roof of my glasshouse - but there are two layers of 40% shade cloth on but due to come off shortly ; also rather too much algae on the inside of the glass , as a result of my activities in spraying all the hanging plants more or less daily - and due to come off when I do a winter clear-up towards the end of the year .
I used to think that it would be better if actual light values were quoted , but when i read some of the figures suggested ( like 3000fc ) I wonder just what they are using as a light meter - and I say that having once been on a journey through South east Asia looking at orchids in th wild, and taking light readings everywhere . 3000 fc is not moderate shade , it is a figure occasionally seen at mid-day in the growing season, in the upper part of the forest canopy only....
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