hey guys it's danny welcome to another episode  from our orchid care for beginners series today  

oh i have quite the subject for you we're gonna  talk about light it is not an easy subject it is  

quite complicated but i'm gonna do my best to  make this discussion as friendly as possible  

but unlike other topics in the series it  is indeed a little bit more complicated  

and it's actually not one of those topics that  has a rule that you need to follow and if you  

follow it everything will be okay it's more of  a each individual case a type of a thing but  

if we always refer to what things actually do and  how our orchids work everything actually makes  

sense so are you providing enough light for your  orchid is it too little or too much well that's  

what i'm going to try to help you determine today  today's video together with our entire orchid care  

for beginners series is sponsored by reypotmy.com  who offers you everything you could possibly need  

to properly take care of your orchid from potting  mixes to fertilizers accessories and much much  

more if you're into bonsais african violets or  succulents they do have something for you as well  

so i'll be sure to link you to their website  down below in the description and i will also  

link you to my personal favorite products that  i've already been using for years at this point  

and i really really like them even before i knew  about repugnant and before we start don't forget  

to give this video a like it lets me know that i'm  doing a good job for you a share would be great  

and why not subscribe i post three times a week  right so let's just start with talking about why  

light is important for orchids and what it  actually does because that will explain the  

signs we should look out for when determining  if we're giving enough light to our orchid  

basically light makes photosynthesis possible  through photosynthesis orchids produce their own  

food which supports growth without this food which  is actually sugar compounds orchids would not be  

able to grow leaves roots flowers anything now  the processes are a little bit more complicated so  

i'll be sure to link you an article that explains  photosynthesis a little bit more down below in the  

description but basically when we're wondering if  our orchid receives enough light we are actually  

wondering if the orchid has enough food or enough  energy to grow normally hence why i think it's a  

much better idea to focus on this aspect when it  comes to determining if your orchid is receiving  

too little light and yes i know you'll find  articles or other growers telling you that if your  

orchid does not receive enough light it will have  darker leaves and if it's receiving too much light  

it's vice versa it will have two light leaves  and well sally that rule only applies to about  

10 percent of cases or 10 of our kids and for me  as a beginner many many years ago it was very very  

confusing so i will touch base with that but i  will not focus on that sign because in my opinion  

it just doesn't apply for the vast majority of  you and furthermore it will just create confusion  

so let's refer to the things that will help you  put your puzzle together rather than just some  

random rules that may or may not apply the first  sign that will tell you you may not be providing  

enough light is the fact that your orchid grows  very very slow and yes generally speaking where  

kids grow very slow in comparison to other plants  but when they don't receive sufficient light they  

will grow even slower and it makes sense if  light directly determines the quantity of food  

or sugars produced by the orchid it will  definitely determine the growth rate as well  

for example a healthy phalaenopsis can produce two  three even four leaves per year depending on its  

size very big phalaenopsis will not create as many  leaves but mini phalaenopsis can actually create  

three leaves per year easily when we are now  providing enough light a phalaenopsis may create  

only one leaf per year or maybe even half a leaf  quotation marks what i mean is leaves don't even  

get too mature within a growing season that is  definitely a warning sign that you should take  

into account and try to figure out what is wrong  with your orchid growth rate should not be so slow  

if you know that your orchid has an adequate  root system and you are providing an adequate  

pot an adequate medium ventilation and all  of that stuff fertilizer included and still  

your orchid grows much slower than you read  about on the internet then maybe consider  

light i know it's more of an obscure cause but  it actually happens a lot because phalaenopsis  

are advertised as low light growers but this  doesn't mean that they don't need the light  

at all so many people place these orchids in  very very dark or shady locations in their home  

and as a result they will have excruciatingly slow  growth so even with low light orchids make sure  

they do receive if not filtered sunlight then at  least bright shade or artificial light which will  

get you towards the end of this video don't worry  so first sign slow growth it is a silent culprit  

that i think you should take into account the next  sign which goes absolutely hand in hand with slow  

growth is fewer structures grown per year it is  pretty obvious in the case of leaves if you don't  

have speed you don't have enough leaves per year  but it can also refer to the root system and again  

it makes sense if the orchid does not have enough  energy to support all of these structures which  

absolutely need energy to grow then obviously  their numbers will be lower as well and again  

this is a more obscure let's say effect you cannot  really gauge how many routes your orchid should  

have especially at the beginning but again in  the case of phalaenopsis it is not uncommon for  

these rockets to absolutely take over the pot  within a year or so you should definitely see  

roots on the sides of your pot if not everywhere  then definitely you should see about 50 to 60  

of the space around the pot occupied by roots this  applies both to many phalaenopsis as well as two  

larger sized files because both of them do have  pretty thick roots and they create a lot of roots  

so if you've just repotted the orchid like this  one is take a look back into the pot one year  

from now if the situation is very similar to  the beginning something is wrong the orchid  

might look pretty healthy up top but if you're  lacking root system i would suggest you consider  

light again considering you've done everything  else properly another sign would be the production  

of smaller and smaller structures now this  will happen very very gradually and in time  

have you ever seen a phalaenopsis that  arrives to you with pretty large leaves  

suddenly creating smaller and smaller leaves well  that can actually be a sign of too little light  

although i will have to admit the vast majority  of cases actually refer to the quantity of roots  

to dehydration which is a much more common cause  also if you've never fertilized your orchid again  

that is the cause of the smaller structures  but again if you've done everything right you  

watered correctly your orchid does have roots you  are fertilizing regularly and still your orchid  

is producing tinier and tinier leaves then light  quantity is the next culprit you should be looking  

at again it makes sense the less energy you have  the poorer looking the structures will be as well  

so in the case of phalaenopsis obviously we are  referring to leaves but if you have a sympodial  

orchid such as an obsidium or a catelya then this  can appear as smaller and smaller structures again  

though light might be at the bottom of the list  when you're considering culprits first look at  

the root system most cases it's a dehydration  issue caused by lack of roots or inadequate  

watering but if you've eliminated everything then  definitely look at the light quantity as well  

and lastly of course no blooms or very very little  blooms in my experience it is actually more common  

for orchids which don't receive enough light  to not bloom at all rather than having a poor  

blooming typically when we don't fertilize  enough or when the orchid does not receive  

enough hydration but it is receiving enough light  it will actually put on flowers but the show will  

not be great when it comes to too little light  actually orchids just refuse to bloom and some  

orchids are very adamant about it vandal orchids  typically will not bloom if they don't receive  

enough light because they are highlight or kids  but in my experience phalaenopsis where kids will  

refuse to bloom if they don't receive enough light  as well and i actually did a test on purpose i  

grew some phalaenopsis in very very low light and  even though they looked pretty good none of them  

actually bloomed that season even with the drop in  temperature as you know i grow all of my orchids  

in the same room and they receive pretty much  the same conditions everybody who received enough  

light bloomed beautifully these guys did not  and the only parameter that i changed was light  

so i can say a hundred percent that light quantity  affects blooming and specifically if the orchid  

will bloom or not so again through the process of  elimination if you know you did provide adequate  

care and culture for your particular orchid and  still it does not want to bloom definitely check  

the light for some species of war kids it is  the determining factor when it comes to blooming  

while for others it might be a secondary factor  but definitely not one you should overlook  

now before we start talking about too much  light let's address a little bit the situation  

of leaf coloration depending on light yes  in some cases the leaves will actually be  

a little bit darker if they receive too little  light but actually some more kids will respond  

in the same way if they're receiving too  much light because they will try to produce  

a pigment which protects them from light and this  pigment is called anthocyanin and depending on the  

orchid it can look slightly purple or even red  and i do have quite a few examples to show you  

so if we have a pretty varied collection and i'm  not saying a lot of different orchids maybe a lot  

of phalaenopsis because they can be different  between them as well so if we do have quite a  

few orchids we might actually get mixed signals  some of them might actually respond with lighter  

leaves instead of dark leaves when it comes to  the quantity of light while others grown in the  

same conditions might respond with dark leaves so  you're going to get a bunch of very mixed signals  

i would definitely not take that rule into account  or just that rule and rather think about the big  

picture so now let's talk about signs of too  much light because here is where leaf coloration  

comes more into play if an orchid is receiving too  much light in many many many cases it will respond  

with a coloration change and in most cases you  will see the appearance of a reddish or purple hue  

on the leaves now this is an example that i  actually had recently the circuit has been  

exposed before me purchasing it to  very very very high amounts of light  

and as you can see in the footage on the screen it  was almost purple and now receiving adequate light  

you can see the coloration completely changed to  a rather darker green as i was saying the reddish  

pigment is called anthocyanin and i will link you  to an article which talks more about it down below  

basically this pigment amongst other things has  a role in protecting leaves from intense light  

so obviously when orchids experience intense  amounts of light they will try to protect  

their leaves so that they don't get burned we're  gonna get to that don't worry however not all  

orchids will respond in the same way and here  i have an example of two phalaenopsis or kids  

but i think it's really obvious to see that the  coloration on their leaves is really not similar  

at all in the case of this orchid which is the  phalaenopsis bolina no matter how intense the  

light you will never see purple leaves it is not  prone to produce high amounts of anthocyanin it  

only produces a little bit for the flower but when  it comes to the leaves it just doesn't do that  

this circuit on the other hand in very intense  light will respond with paler leaves they're  

not going to be much much paler than what you see  here but they won't be this vibrant green so you  

can see how that rule can be very very misleading  because if you have these two orchids in the same  

amount of light let's say intense light you might  notice that one appears to darken up while the  

other appears to lighten up so in this case it is  just about knowing what orchid you have and all  

you have to do is google it if you're not going to  find written the way it behaves in intense light  

then just look at the pictures look and see how  the vast majority of them look like just gauge the  

coloration of the leaf that you see there to the  one that you have at home and try to figure out  

if it is the type of orchid which will get red  or the type of orchid which will lighten up  

in intense light what you want to have is a sort  of a medium type of green and obviously if your  

orchid is just growing like no one's business and  it's blooming there's no reason for you to wonder  

if you're providing enough light but just so  you know orchids do respond with some coloration  

change on their leaves but it just might differ  wildly depending on the variety or species  

next sign which indicates too much light is  sunburn and i'm going to keep the sore kid because  

it actually has sunburn so you remember  the footage that i showed you earlier  

where this orchid was completely red well  the most red parts actually turned out to be  

burnt spots each orchid will respond a  little bit differently this particular one  

got super super red before it got burned but  some orchids will just go directly to burns  

now this is a bit of an indirect sign because  the burns are created by the temperature of the  

leaf the tissue gets so overheated that it just  collapses it dies off and typically overheating  

happens in intense light and what you have to do  is try to shelter the orchid from direct sunshine  

you can use sheer curtains or you can just change  the location of your orchid to a shadier location  

orchids still need to photosynthesize they  need light just not so intense that it actually  

burns them it's easy to determine if your  orchid will get burned throughout the day  

try to touch the leaves from time to time and see  if they get hot if they're cool or just slightly  

slightly warm that's typically okay what you  don't want to feel is heat proper heat so best  

thing to do is not to let the leaves get to that  temperature by providing a little bit of shade  

mind you just because the foliage of your orchid  is red doesn't actually mean you should reduce the  

light quantity for example cat layers which are  highlight orchids they are very prone to having  

either purple freckles either a reddish tinge to  their leaves that is not a sign you're providing  

too much light but rather adequate light and  again it has to do with just researching what  

type of mercury you have some orchids are  highlight orchids and they will actually  

appreciate the higher intensity and they won't get  burned as easily as others so the purple pigment  

is definitely not bad but you have to put it in  the context of your orchid and of your environment  

now let's talk a little bit about artificial light  which is absolutely great for orchids in case  

we don't have any space that receives adequate  light for them most door kits actually respond  

super super well to artificial light in fact at  the moment most of my orchids are grown under  

artificial light because i just don't have enough  well-written spaces in my grow room so adding some  

artificial light can be a great booster for your  orchid but the topic of artificial light is quite  

bushy and i would prefer to dedicate a separate  video to it in which i will talk more about what  

types of lights to choose how to position your  orchids under the lights and some best practices  

that i myself have discovered along the years  basically the signs of too little light and too  

much light apply with artificial light as well  but with artificial light indeed there is less  

of a chance for you to burn your orchid especially  with the brand new lights available on the market  

which are leds these lights don't tend to become  very very hot and unless the leaves are directly  

touching the bulbs it is highly unlikely for you  to have actual burns on the leaves if there is a  

little bit of a distance between the orchid and  the light everything should be fine but indeed  

be on the lookout for signs of too much or too  little light and of course stay tuned for another  

episode for beginners regarding artificial light  since recently repot me introduced their very own  

grow lights and that's great timing because as i  told you a few months ago i do intend to switch  

all of the lights in my grow room to actual grow  lights since i do believe there is a difference  

and that difference is worth it for now though  we're just going to stick to natural light or  

basic artificial light alrighty guys so that is  about it on light did i tell you it's a pretty  

bushy subject i just hope that i gave you some  ideas at least to research and learn more about  

if you didn't know about these terms i'll be sure  to include as much information as possible down  

below in the description as always feel free to  go and research on your own bottom line light  

is very very important for orchids the best source  of light is of course natural light but not all of  

us have a good exposure we don't all have very  very bright houses well orchids generally grow  

tremendously well under artificial light and  generally speaking they don't do well in very  

very dark places so hopefully now you know what  you're looking for and when it comes to artificial  

light on my channel you're gonna see a lot more  videos on the subject and more future videos as  

i am kind of switching from kitchen lights  that i've been using for the past four years  

to more advanced type of light so stay tuned  for that but for today that's about it hope  

you guys enjoyed this subject and you got to  know your orchid just a little bit better thank  

you repot me for sponsoring yet another video  and thank you guys for offering me your time  

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it's always nice to stay in touch there as well  and with that said i'll see you next time bye  

you