Master the sunlight characteristics of orchid flowering, and their value will be higher

First, the first optical property that affects orchid growth and flowering is: light quality.

First, let's analyze what light quality is.

Light quality refers to the hard or soft nature of the light used for shooting. It can be divided into hard light and soft light.

Hard light is intense direct light, such as sunlight on a clear day or a spotlight among artificial lights.

Soft light is a diffuse, scattered type of light with no clear directionality, leaving no obvious shadows on the subject. Examples include sunlight in heavy fog and floodlight sources.

The sunlight spectrum includes ultraviolet light, visible light, near-infrared light and far-infrared light. The energy released is related to wavelength: the shorter the wavelength, the stronger the light energy, such as ultraviolet light; the longer the wavelength, the weaker the energy, such as red light. Measuring the proportional amounts of light at different wavelengths requires a complex spectrometer.

The ratio of far-red light energy to red light energy affects stem elongation, and orchids under strong light show this very clearly. Plants can effectively filter out red light and let far-red light pass through or reflect it, so in shaded plants the energy ratio of red light to far-red light decreases, prompting excessive growth.

Second, the first optical property that affects orchid growth and flowering is: photoperiod.

Photoperiod refers to the alternating changes in the length of the light period and the dark period within the day-night cycle. The photoperiodic phenomenon is an organism's response to the pattern of the day-night light-dark cycle. The flowering of most annual plants is determined by the length of daily sunlight. Besides flowering, the formation of tubers and stem tubers, leaf abscission and bud dormancy are also controlled by photoperiod (referring to the relative length of day and night within a day). It is the characteristic of a plant's physiological response to periodic changes, especially the day-night light-dark changes and the length of the light and dark periods. It especially refers to the phenomenon in which certain plants must experience a certain photoperiod before they can form flower buds. But other physiological activities are also affected by photoperiod.

The photoperiod orchids need varies with orchid lines and varieties. Some orchid varieties can flower only under short-day conditions, such as Cattleya, Dendrobium and Phalaenopsis. For orchids that flower in winter, when the daylight period is very short, extending the light can inhibit their flowering. However, continuous light will harm the plants, so there must be at least 6 hours of dark period each day.

Third, the first optical property that affects orchid growth and flowering is: light quantity

There are two units for calculating light quantity: instantaneous measured values and the total daily sunlight measurement. The corresponding units for sunlight quantity are light quantity and sunlight hours.

The light quantity units used in greenhouse production include lux and μmol/m2·s. Another energy unit, w/m2, is used to express the energy entering the greenhouse. Light unit conversion is very important, especially when light quantity units have not yet been unified; different technical materials use different units and need to be interconverted before they can be applied.

Orchid production needs to pay attention to light quantity. If the light quantity is too low, orchids cannot flower, and new leaves that open appear thin and weak; if the light quantity is too strong, the leaves will be scorched, develop spots and lose their photosynthetic capacity, and too strong light quantity can also cause spots on the petals and deform the flowers.

To reduce the amount of sunlight entering the greenhouse, shade nets can be used together with an automatic control system, but be careful whether the inner and outer shade nets block some special spectra, which may lead to a decline in orchid quality.

These three are the main lighting factors that affect orchid growth and flowering. I believe that as long as they master these three keys, the vast number of flower growers can control the growth and flowering time of orchids as they wish, so that orchids can be marketed according to the seasons and festivals, raising their value and selling them at a better price.