Orchid Keeping Innovations
 

Wasn't sure what to title this thread.

So, some of you know I suffer from a condition that, while can at times be controlled, will never go away. It makes my skin dry, makes wearing my contacts difficult and sometimes it causes me to wake up with a serious dry mouth if I fall asleep with my big mouth open.

I suffer from ultra low humidity. I'm not ashamed of this condition any more because I know its not my fault. ;)

However, since I'm addicted to orchids, which love humidity and air, I have a really problem on my hands! So yes, I have to come up with crazy ways to make my orchids not only survive but thrive, because in the end I want them to bloom and be awesome.

In a recent thread titled "orchid fatigue" I admitted the exhaustion I've been feeling with my collection. While I love most all orchids, I'm finding them tiresome because I need to water or debug or whatever the issue. During this time, however, I've grown fond of vandaceous type orchids, from Vandas to hybrids to neos. It's the neos, however, that I've grown very fond of. I have a tiny bean leaf type that is a cool plant even out of bloom. I decided I would pot it the tradition Japanese way and so far, it is working out great! However, I need to extend the time between watering as I don't want to feel orchid fatigue again and I do travel a few days at a time. I the end, if I come home from work, which I work at night, and I'm exhausted I want to be able to go to bed without worrying if the pants need my attention or not.

The neos are small and so are their pots so I came up with a new purpose for an old wine bottle. At first, I went small...

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/11/hezy5ema.jpg

Turned out to be too small to take the plant in and out without the risk of injury for both the pant and my fingers. I also needed to repot the thing because it was staying too wet for too long.

Then I planted it traditional Japanese style and upped the bottle size. CAUTION: you must be prepared to polish of wine in order to use these bottles for orchids. Do not use wine bottles for orchids if they still have wine in them. It's not good for the plant and its a travesty against the wine.

So I repotted the plant and then cut a bigger bottle to fit it. However, doing that meant I was also exposing the plant to more air, this drying it out too fast. I had to come up with a way to balance ventilation, the ease of removing the plant for periodic checks and for watering but also keep it moist enough to not have to water every single day, but not too dank that it doesn't get air.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/11/equbu8yb.jpg

And so when I cut the bottle, I saved the piece I cut out.... Added hinges and now I have a neo house.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/11/avuvy3ez.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/11/byneha6y.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/11/pyju8any.jpg

A thermometer probe inside suggests the plant enjoys 70 to 75 degrees during the day with some exposure to sun and 60s at night. I limit the amount of water if its pretty cold out and thus my sun room is cold too. I'm actually experiencing the plant growing new root tips on existing roots. No new roots yet!

It's been in this a week and I can go three days if I water it moderately. I imagine I can go four if I add a bit more and that gives me another day or two of it being dry that will allow me to complete most trips I take. Woo! Testing continues.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/11/u9a4a4ar.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/11/ymydu4a5.jpg

Here is another growing method I'm trying out... These glass globe are nice looking and if planted on a slant, orchids like phals grow with their crowns down, thus negating the chance of crown rot. I have used variegated phals for this but also schilleriana keikis and all are growing really well. The most variegated phal is always slow growing but to my surprise, it has grown several new roots at what I'd call an exceptional rate. At first I saw some bud for new roots and it was maybe three weeks later these same roots had already grown to the glass! Not sure what got into it but it went a little crazy, which is good because it had almost no roots when I did this. Lol

I 'cheat' with my haraella rectrocalla. I mounted it on a larger red lava rock, bare root, stuck it in a clear plastic box with clear plastic lid, and poured water on the bottom. It waters itself for...weeks. Easiest orchid ever!
To cut down on watering, basket pots and lava rock set in a disk of water can cut down on watering (cattleyas, vandas = large lava rock). I do this in the summer. The good airflow at the roots and the heat seem to prevent rotting. I also just water by tossing the mounts in water at night, then, in morning, hang the mounts and pour water through all the pots (takes ten minutes). Under my large grow space is plastic drop cloth and I have saucers under the other pots. I don't water every day unless the weather is hot and dry. Hope this helps. :)

---------- Post added at 03:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:31 PM ----------

I like your bottle! Very nice! The globes look great, too! I have a little too much humidity sometimes so I need to have the versatility of mounts or rock/basket pots. :)

I really like both your growing methods. Keep us posted on how they work out. It looks like a lot of work went into that wine bottle. I guess, after finishing the wine, it's best to wait until the next day to start cutting the bottle. It could be dangerous if you're still a little drunk.

Really nice show of planting ideas - I myself purchased a large red lava rock with a Neo in mind to mount on it. Good to hear of others that are doing the same. And good idea about the plastic box, as long as there is enough air circulating in it.
I also fight low-humidity and recently was at a thrift store that sold me a LARGE humidifier with a built in hygrometer to measure the relative humidity in the room. Now I can boost the moisture up to 75-85 % in no time, with nights dropping to 60-65%. The plants love it so far. I have had to increase the air movement with a larger fan added to the room, but other than that it was so simple and only cost about $15.00 at the thrift store.
Your wine bottle planters are really great - I used to try and cut glass, but was much better at cutting my fingers! Congrats on a really nice glass cutting.
Keep us updated -
Steve

The little phal with mostly yellow leaves is so pretty! :)

The haraella rectrocalla actually is fine enclosed in the box. I open the box about once a week. :)
I love the way the bottle looks, though. Very cool.

Thx all..here's another new addition to the glass and globe gang...

A bellina.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/03/12/ytebusyb.jpg

These are all cool ideas I think I may have to try one :D

Tucker, I use a Dremel tool to do this work. They sell diamond studded bits that make quick work of this relatively soft glass. I tried cutting flint glass once and that was a very long process! But bottles are easy. To get the clean lines, I used a rotary blade made to cut small tile with a Dremel and was done with it in about 8 minutes. The gluing of the hinges took so much longer for drying time than it did cutting the bottle. The newest one I made is cut in half... Meaning I cut halfway around the bottle and it worked perfectly. I also made the cuts higher and lower on the bottle so I can now put a small potted neo or sedirea inside without any trouble.

My initial response to the low humidity was a humidifier as well. But it wasn't enough. I'm convinced now that I'd have a team of humidifiers in order to keep up with the dry air here. Instead, I went bulk.... If this were in real time I'd have scary music playing now.

I bought a 40 gallon trash can and sent my RO line to empty into it with a float switch on the inside so that it never overflows. I placed a five head ultrasonic mister inside. Then I put the top of the trash can on top to close it all up but also cut two holes in the lid. One has a fan forcing air into the can and another allowing very moist air to escape into the grow area. I also have the area enclosed.

At first it worked too well and it rained. Not good for inside the house. It's in the basement so not that big of a deal. Then I couldn't control how humid it got because if I used the fan it was either way too much or way too little. I am getting a limit switch for the fan so that it shuts off at a predetermined high humidity point.

Then I ran into the problem of the mister moving below the holes and it would erupt water out onto the lid and then to the floor. So I place flexible dryer hose over the air in and the air out holes, tall enough so that the mister could move directly under the holes but never spill water out of the lid and can.

Now I'm just waiting to get my controller and ill have it completely automated. The humidifier burns off about 35 gallons in just over a week. I can leave my RO unit running all the time if I go away for more than a week and it'll never run out!

Thanks for the pics and ideas-the little door with hinges is too cool.