Quote:
Originally Posted by smweaver
Paul, what kind of orchids do you have? I live in zone 5 and all of mine go outdoors from late spring to early fall. I don't have a huge collection (less than twenty plants right now), so it's not such a pain to move them back inside if the weather is predicted to get a little crazy (example: that nifty hail storm that Ross mentioned). I mostly have medium-to-high light demanding species (aerides, cattleyas, dendrobiums, etc.), and they all seem to do quite well with in an eastern exposure location during the warm months. To avoid but problems, I use a product called tanglefoot on the legs of the benches. I think it was originally designed as a bird deterent. But it's also effective at keeping anything from crawling over it (and it's not toxic and doesn't wash away from rain). My only suggestion would be to be careful when you start exposing your plants to higher light levels. Even high light demanding plants don't tend to react well to being suddenly exposed to lots of direct sunlight after having become accustomed to the lower indoor light levels of a long and dark winter.
|
Ive already started to move the plants out on nice days and then back in at night. Just the high light ones for now, the catts, dens, some cyms and whatever else i can think of. I have some low light plants as well. Those I'll probably keep on the front porch. It gets some early morning sun before the locust tree blocks it out. But it should be fairly suitable for the paphs, phals and stans. My back porch gets the late afternoon sun. From 3:30-4 on til dusk. Do you think the catts and dens would do ok back there? I can also put my zygos and cyms back there and set them in a little closer to the house. It was suggested earlier to try some of the plants under my trees. The only tree I could do this with in the side yard is a big red maple. It goes from direct sun to full shade in about 6 inches. The only thing I can get to grow under there are some shade loving hostas and ferns. The rest of the yard is full sun. I love this place, but its making it very difficult for me do do anything outside with my plants.