Cooling down a Vuylstekeara in S/H
 

Here's my new experiment. This Vuyl got a little dehydrated after arriving with a heavy bush snail infestation. Managed to treat it (coffee) and transitioned it into regular S/H and placed a bag on top of it. After a few months, it started to shoot a new growth with new root tips so in preparation for the summer, I transitioned it into a clay pot with a high saucer tray acting as an external reservoir.

You still need to drill holes in the pot so the plant doesn't sit in water for long and to control the water height of the reservoir without overflowing it. This plastic reservoir has also holes on the side to keep the water at the desired level. I fill the pot and overflow every time I water so if I didn't have holes the water level would come down too slowly. The reservoir is placed about 35% into the pot as this plant doesn't like to dry out at all.

My hope is the clay pot will contribute to and increase evaporative cooling, keeping the plant colder during the summer months. Will perhaps get some temperature-sensitive strips to have a better idea of the temperature in the pot and perhaps use the Oncidium you see behind as a control so I can measure the difference in evaporative cooling between the plant in the clay pot and the one in the plastic pot.

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I like that pot, where’d you get it from?

Sunset Blvd. Nursery here in Los Angeles!

There's also a giant warehouse store in the Los Angeles flower district called "Moskatels" and you can find pretty much every imaginable terracotta pot in addition to many types of glazed and glass pots.

It's owned by Michael's and it's allegedly an arts and crafts store, I actually went there to buy drawing paper to find out they had more pots and plant products than anything else (it's inside "The Original Los Angeles Flower Market" so I guess it makes sense). I don't know if the fact that they're owned by Michael's may help you find a similar shop.

I would check if there's a flower district or a flower market in your area. These are the places where your local flower shop or event producer comes to buy their wholesale flowers.