Ambient light?

[Halloamey]

Have a look at this article from the AOS, you just need a white paper and your hand to asses the light intensity
AOS Beginners Newsletter

Bruce can you put this up into sticky threads or something so people can easily look for it. It is such a nice article.

[espranch]

No, they are not very expensive, and they come with directions...Betty

[Dazed]

Light meters maybe a hard find down here, never been something I've ever come across in the hardware store. Thanks for the info Amey, will give it a try when the weather brightens up, been over cast for the past several days.

I just saw the foot candle, I was going to say the one you keep nearest to your foot, but that explanation is better.

[Kmac]

I have a light meter, and used it when I first got it. But then I realized that light changes during the day, by season, etc, and I prefer now to just use the hand test anytime I want to check it...it seems to work well, and its perfect for a lazy grower like me, as the implement is always right there!

[DEC]

Love the foot candle.

[sand_tiger86]

Lighting is honestly such a frustrating topic for me. Some people seem to bloom certain high light plants without optimum levels, while others can bathe them in sunlight and still see nothing. (I guess mostly because something else isn't going right, but still). It seems that even if you have a light-craving orchid, it would bloom eventually as long as it's receiving decent light and not sitting in a dark cupboard. The way people talk about Cattleyas and Vandas makes it seem like it'll never happen if they're not hanging directly from the sun itself. I mean, the entire purpose of an orchids existence is to flower in order to reproduce, right? You'd think where there's a will, there's a way and they would just get over having 2,500 foot candles instead 4,000. That's usually the way most plants work, anyway.

[Dazed]

I have been given the impression that those who deem that there must be specific light are in less than ideal places for the orchids they have, so as they go through trial and error they say: "This works.." and neglect to add the 'for me' part. As Kathi and Amey said, the paper and hand method works, and the rest will be trial and error.

[yvonni]

ha foot candle...... really

[cakedaddy]

I will go out on a limb and say that that the issue of light is certainly qualitatve as a subject in discussion. It IS quantitative when dealing with specific units...sunlight differs for us all dependent on location. That being said, I have generally misread "bright light" as direct sunlight. This has usually lead to sunburn for me. Even catts like shade...
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[Dazed]

I will go out on a limb and say that that the issue of light is certainly qualitatve as a subject in discussion. It IS quantitative when dealing with specific units...sunlight differs for us all dependent on location. That being said, I have generally misread "bright light" as direct sunlight. This has usually lead to sunburn for me. Even catts like shade...
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Well, I'm in the same boat as you, because I just started with orchids, so reading light requirements throw me every time. Hopefully it won't make me a serial orchid killer.