UMM... no, it doesn't sound like enough light from your description.
But...
First a question or two
You did mean 24" not 24' ?
So this is a single fixture 24" long with (2) bulbs (florec.) at 20
watts each?
Does this fixture have a diffusing lens between the lamps and your
plants? If yes remove it.
Is there any other natural light? Is this next to a window? If so what
way is it facing N,S,E, or W?
What flavor of orchids? Onc. Phal. Phrag. Paph. Cat. ......
As for the new light green leaf, hard to say without seeing it or
knowing what it is.
Many years ago when I grew tomatoes (yeah that's it....tomatoes) we
experimented with Fluorescent bulbs and fixtures of tiny and super
long. In short what we came up with is anything shorter than the 36"
bulbs just don't give off enough light to be any good to anything but
seedlings for a very short time. The super longs work if you create a
fixture that holds more than two tubes side by side. (a real pain in
the butt to get aligned and hung then changing the bulbs takes two
people) We were trying to stay with floro. so we didn't have to air
condition but for that operation we had to go to MH and HPS lamps.
The best est and easy est thing if you stay with Floros is a
standard four tube fixture from The retail or wholesale outlet of your
choice. (Lowes, Grainger) Shouldn't be more than 50 bucks. Grainger
sells a moist environment one for really wet areas but it is costly. I
have taken an old fixture and sealed it with RTV then sealed a plastic
sheet to the top overhanging the whole fixture and it has been getting
a good misting every day for about two years and is still in
operation. You can get a fairly cheap light meter from a local garden
supply now as well. Many books and sites will give you a candle power
need for the kind of orchid you are growing.
I don't like to say "you have to have X amount of light, air,
moisture, or temp" cause I have seen and grown orchids far out of what
is considered normal range for good growth for a particular species.

Buy a bigger light cause you are just going to buy more orchids anyway
and you will need the light. LOL


On 31 May 2005 20:26:25 -0700, wrote:

Hi,
I started growing my orchids under 2 24' 20 watt wide spectrum lights,
about 5 inches away, they're smaller orchids.
Is this too much ligght or too little, I have an orchid with some new
growth, the new leaf is very light green.
Is this cool?
-Eric