Need Grow Light Guidance for Cattleyas to Bloom

[realoldbeachbum]

Hello OB. It is me realoldbeachbum, once again with a question. I need advice on lighting, specifically what it will take to get my Cattleyas to bloom.

I understand that Cattleyas need 2000 - 4000 foot -candles to bloom. So that is my goal, in foot-candles.

History: About a year ago (without knowing anything about lighting and foot-candles) I purchased Monios-L T8 Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights from Amazon, based on user reviews. Under these lights, my Cattleyas are healthy and putting out new growth and roots, but NOT ONE OF THEM is even attempting to sheath. [They get about 6 hours of T8 light per day – about 4” from the lights, with perfect humidity, food, ventilation and water.]

My questions: How in the heck can I find out how many foot-candles they are getting? I can’t find the amount of “foot-candles” on Monios-L website (they measure in terms of “nm’s”, not foot-candles), and I cannot find out how to convert from nm’s to foot-candles! Is there even a way to convert? Perhaps I only need to increase the hours and forget about nm’s and foot-candles all together?

If I had it to do over, I would purchase orchidhobbiest.com lights. But, for now I need to work with what I have. Thank you sooo much, OB. All advice is GREATLY appreciated.