Ideas:

I just looked at your pic gallery -

1. you mentioned that you moved. It is always a disaster - new water, new conditions. I moved 6 months ago, lost half of the plants in first 3 months, they were dying like flies. Whatever survived - now grows. If you get a well water - it can be high mineral content, if you got a water softener - it is a death sentence for your plants.

2. Your Chirita looks dry, but perky. Kinda love the color. Try to leach the soil with bottled water - may be something in a soil (mentioned above).

3. you have a single shoplight setup, aren't you? It looks too high above the plants, 10 inches is better.

4. The soil in your strep pot looks too dark and heavy. Where did you buy it? If it is from a nursery - you need to repot it into a much lighter soil, 50% perlite - otherwise it is too easy to overwater it.

Your Howeara is fabulous and your Phal is very happy. If you can make orchids bloom that way - you can do anything!!!

Cheers

Irina

The orchid photos are decieving... I just bought them. Those are kinda 'before' photos. :) The trip home through the winter weather shocked the Phalaenopsis blooms right off. I was sad, so I went and bought the Howeara and paid more attention to keeping it warm for the ride home.

As for water, I moved from one city to another, and haven't had either tested. I'll look into it.

I was thinking about repotting the Chirita, as it's getting a little long necked. I'll use a bit more perlite this time. All of my houseplants (except the orchids) are in 1-1-1 peat, vermiculite, and perlite, sometimes with an extra part of one ingredient. I'll go ahead and move the chirita to a lighter mix.

The photo on the web is just the temporary staging ground while I got the shelves set up and the other shop lights installed. I usually have 2 shoplights about 12" above.

I'm beginning to think that the red pigment is a reaction to too much light. I'm gonna move the chirita to the floor next to the plant shelf for a few weeks to see if it greens up a bit.

Thanks for the input. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Hi -

My Stardust is 5" from lights and blooms right now. 1 shoplight though. Was yours tinted before you moved?

Phal will love to be under 2 lights. Actually mine just sent a bloomstalk. Even if yours dropped the flowers - do not cut the bloomstalk- they branch and give more flowers. I just started playing with orchids and I got a phal ready to rebloom and my noname paph rebloomed for me. They live with violets but under 2 shoplights. I do not have a setup for higher light requirements orchids and I do not have sunny windows, so Howeara is not for me...

Cheers

Irina

PS Add lots of perlite for streps, chirita is possibly Ok as is.

Yeah, the chirita was under the same lights at the old place, and has been getting more and more red for months. I'm gonna try moving it furthur from the light for a few weeks and see what happens.

According to the literature on orchidweb, howeara do fine under lights, so if you like the plant, there's no reason not to try it.. The only problem that people seem to have with it is root rot, so if you get one, make sure your mix is extra airy. When mine is done blooming, I'm gonna repot to something better than it's currently in.

Here is a link that might be useful: Howeara info.

I have Chirita that got similar tinting after blooming and not being repotted for too long. I repotted it 3 weeks ago and just looked at it last night. It seems turning greener.

Howeara - when they say the light between phal and catt - it is like between Pacific and Atlantic. Phal takes 800-1000 foot candles - and it is just right under 2 shopligts, and cattleya wants 5000 footcandles - so it is metal halide type of light source - or good window.

I have Beallara on the windowsill - and I checked the light - 1500 foot candles max. And it is too low for it - even it is the same medium light requirement as Howeara, I think it has Oncidium in parents as well. Means it grows, but not blooms. So - better go for a good window.

To my regret in my new home the windows are not bright. Big old trees and tinted glass. There is a charm in it but I miss light.

Irina

I thought I'd chime in with an update. I moved the Chirita to the very edge of the lights, and the tinting is noticably less. Also, the plant bloomed! I guess it likes the lower light. Thanks for the ideas. I'm glad to have figured this out. I've always liked this plant, and was disappointed when it looked so sad for so long.