Light Requirements Amongst Cattleya Alliance

[Clawhammer]

Hi All.

I am rearranging my collection of catts by pot size and light level and thought I would ask you all what members of the Cattleya alliance divert from the mean lighting requirement.

For instance I keep Laelia Praestens in lower light.

I believe C Trianae requires higher lighting.

[Keysguy]

Mine are all in the same section of my shade house so I do not differentiate. My suspicion has always been that whatever distinction there may be within the genera, especially Catts, it's probably minimal. I always ere on the side of more light vs. less because with some, less means they may not bloom well, if at all. Just don't cook them!
How was that for fencewalking?

[isurus79]

I keep all my Cattleya types in high light. I keep my walkeriana, nobilior, lobata, and lueddemanniana in higher light. I honestly don't know that I should keep the Catts separated and will test how well my other Catts do in higher light during summer.

[SouthPark]

C.H. ------- I'm just casual with the lighting. Some of my catts just get full/direct morning sun for most parts of the year ---- and even early afternoon sun. Others are just put in relatively bright light with no direct sun.

During intense summer days - some of my catts leaves do get burned heheheh, but the plant doesn't get destroyed (ie. not serious burns that is). They still handle it and push through without issues. In general, no scorching occurs.

My direct sun ones include a dowiana 'aurea', anceps 'chamberlainiana', Memoria Helen Brown, Caudabec Candy, violacea 'muse', tenebrosa 'rainforest', aclandiae 4N, Porcia 'cannizaro', Dal's Emperor 'michelle', Dal's Emperor 'allan', Lulu Land, and more. These have become fairly sun-hardened ----- the leaves are pretty much yellowy-green coloured.

Totally agree with KG. The main thing is to be aware of what the sun and temperature for our particular region or area is capable of. Some plants that don't seem to handle the situation can always be placed in more suitable or fitting locations.

[Clawhammer]

Luckily I grow under LED, giving them a brighter light is just a matter of putting a brick under their pot

[Keysguy]

Ah ha!

In that instance I would tell you to keep an eye on the color of the leaves. You want a nice bright green. Dark green means give them more light. Yellow means back off.

[pdxtyler]

I'm wondering if anyone has experience growing cattleyas or mini hybrids under ONLY T5 LED lights. Currently I'm using 3x Spider Farmer 600 LED panels on a 2x5' wire shelf. The light are about 12-18" above the canopy on for 13.5 hrs/day. This is working well! I'm trying to get another 2 shelves below on a 6' unit which would leave me with about 9-10" clearance between a potential light and plant canopy. I'm thinking of getting Active Grow 4' 8 bulb fixture/s. Would this be a good height for this light? I guess it's similar output to fluorescent tubes but lower heat and better spectrum.

Curious if anyone grows mini cattleya under T5s. If so, please let me know how high above the canopy your lights are and how long you have them on per day. Or, better yet, do you have a PPFD reading or map for your light.

I almost want to buy a quantum light meter but they cost around $200-400. I wonder if grow shops rent them out??

Thanks!

[Subrosa]

In PA I keep aclandiae, dowiana, and trianae in as much sun as I can give them.

[estación seca]

There are a few that need much less light. C. luteola is one of these. Alan Koch told our society it blooms better under lower light than even Phals prefer. And he said C. aclandiae grows and flowers far better under much lower light than other bifoliate Cattleyas. He told us to drop the light until the spots are nearly absent on new growth.

[isurus79]

C. alaorii also needs less light.

But I know several folks who grow high light Cattleyas only under T5s and Bernie Butts in Canada only uses T5s for his Catasetums, which like as much light as Cattleyas.