We recently moved to a new 2-bedroom+den condo (yay). This means that I have
more space to expand my orchid collection :-). However, I still need to
figure out the new conditions.

One of the windows is an unobstructed northern window -- we plan to add
florescent lights in the window niche -- do I understand correctly that 4
regular florescent tubes next to each other is the way to go?

The rest of the windows are east facing, but unfortunately heavily shaded by
trees, so I think I still need to supplement with additional lights.

One thing I have noticed is that the orchids have been drying out slower in
the last two weeks, and a couple of them had some mold on top of the medium.
Now the weather in the Washington DC area has been rainy and cooler this
past week, so I assume part of the issue is weather. Also I know that I
still need to add more lights, and hopefully that will help with this
problem.

I am wondering whether the air movement is sufficient or not. The orchids
are currently at windows in a fairly big living and dining room area.
However, a large number of the orchids are now on the window sill of the
afore-mentioned window niche -- it is an area about 6 feet long, 1 foot
deep, and about 2.5 feet high; it is not a bay window, since it has the
window on only one side, and walls on the other sides. Would such an area be
likely to have insufficient air movement, even if this window is in a large
room? Should I try to install a fan nearby -- how could I tell whether a fan
is necessary or overkill?

I still have not put any orchids in the master bedroom of the new place,
which also has a heavily shaded eastern window, and the living room window
space is not exhausted yet. So I truly have some space to expand my
addiction (yay). However, I will try to resist the temptation of placing any
orchids in the room that is to become the child's room -- I will need to
figure out how to keep the young rascal out of my orchids once he becomes a
toddler, but since he won't be born until early January or late December,
and at the beginning he won't be mobile, I figure I still have time enough
till I have to worry about child-proofing the orchids' areas.

Oh, and the new place also has a den without any windows, in the future once
I exhaust the window space, I could experiment with growing orchids only
under artificial lights in there. I had hoped that we would find a place
with better windows for the orchids, but in this housing market I am just
thrilled we found a place that met our needs and is really nice. I figure my
orchids can adapt to these conditions, especially once I have improved them.
And considering that our old apartment had only heavily shaded northern
windows, this should be an improvement or at least not any worse.

Joanna