Took the plunge....

[Ross]

Originally Posted by cb977

Ross, I was tempted with the H odorata but it's so happy where it is, I can't bear to move it It took a long time to find it's "happy place"

OK

[shakkai]

So, Sue... now that its been two days and this one is full... when are you planning your next one?

[shakkai]

I am waiting for the LECA to arrive so that I can actually get things set up, but in the mean time, I've gone ahead and attached things to the wood pieces that are going to be placed inside. Here's what they look like so far:

A view of the left side (minus a couple of things on the far left which are shown in the close-up shot below):

From left to right, front: Masdevallia tovarensis, Zootrophion dayanum, Restrepia brachypus. Slightly behind these, on another piece of wood is Dryadella hirtzii - still in flower!, Masdevallia scabrilinguis, Dryadella edwallii, and Masdevallia barleana. Behind all of those, the big one at the back is Masdevallia coccinea. The piece of wood in front on the left has: Masdevallia Tuakau Candy, and another Zootrophion dayanum.


The right hand side:

This side starting in the front left, you can see again Masdevallia Tuakau Candy and the other Zootrophion dayanum from the previous picture, then Restrepia dodsonii, Platystele oxyglossa, and in the far back corner Restrepia guttulata 'Fyn Get'. Hanging on a tree fern slab is a young plant of Oncidium ornithorhynchum, just forming its fourth pseudobulb. Outside of the tank, you can see two old Masdie hybrids: Chelsonii (amabilis X veitchiana (1880) Williamson R. J) and Bocking Hybrid
(cucullata X veitchiana (1899) Ai, David).

And this is the close up of what's down in the front left-hand corner:

Top left is the first Zootrophion dayanum - still a young unflowered plant. Behind that you can just see Restrepia brachypus. Front left is another Dryadella edwallii with the dark green leaves, and to the right is an unknown plant that came labelled as Pleurothallis pseudopellucida.

I've taken to calling this tank the Pleurodarium.

[gmdiaz]

Are you fellow exo-terranians going to leave your orchids in their pots sitting them on top of the moss or orchid bark mix? Or planting directly in the mix?

And I am wondering if you're going to add one of those little fans? It gets HOT in the glass tanks if you need to add lighting.

I bought the tall version of the exo terra tank & TWO compact light hoods.

I am mulling over my plans but am still not sure what I want to do. I'll be playing this weekend and will try to post pictures tomorrow.

Even though I love the look of a naturalistic environment, I am thinking of building egg crate shelves and making mine a little care unit. I've got a bag of the clay pellets. So I was thinking to add a thick layer of that on bottom.

And just so you know. . .I bought the thermometer & hygrometer that slides onto the exo terra light hood. . .for less than half price on ebay. See, I CAN be good when I am shopping for plant stuff. I am SAVING money, yeah, right-o.

MY GAWD. . .this is so much fun I LOVE seeing what you guys are doing with your orchids.

[gmdiaz]

Oh Shakkai! That looks awesome. . .you posted pictures while I was writing the above post.

Sure wish I could see how things are actually planted or attached. Especialy the masde hybrids! I am not sure what to do with mine.

[cb977]

Originally Posted by shakkai

So, Sue... now that its been two days and this one is full... when are you planning your next one?

LOL

This one is far from complete!
The backing is too thick to allow the cool from the ice bottles I've set up behind it to come through (I moved the backing forward far enough to allow for small frozen bottles of water to be placed in the tank with easy access).

I have to work on it today...but I love it

[cb977]

Gwen, I'll be getting a fan for air circulation but I'm not installing a light...yet
I've chosen plants that do well in shade so we'll see how that goes first

As for planting...two of them are on pieces of cork, not actually mounted but just sitting on top of it. The Paph is in a little pot and everything else will be planted directly into the aliflor since that's what all my 'chids are in anyway

[shakkai]

Gwen, People have gone both ways, and they both have advantages/disadvantages. I chose to take all of mine out of their pots - this reduces any risk of root rot as more air is circulating around the roots. The humidity stays high inside the case, so I'm not worried about them getting too dry. I've been able to do this because nearly all Pleuros like to stay moist and never dry out, but they don't like being soggy - they need the air circulation.

If you look at Ross' article on http://www.orchidboard.com/Setting-u...om-Orchidarium
you will see that he chooses to keep all of his plants in their pots and focuses on providing them the ideal growing environment. (I'm sure it also means that when they flower, they are easier to take out and take photos of!)

I think ventilation is a primary concern in an enclosed environment like this. Not just because of the heat, but to keep the air 'buoyant' with that much humidity.

Each set up is different, because each person is different! And because each one need to fit with the llifestyle and other constraints of a particular situation. Mine is next to a South facing window (which gets ideal shade from trees at midday) so I don't need lights. Being next to a window which opens at the top gives me good air circulation without being a direct draft which I don't think the plants would like. I'm lucky that these things are true as there are no power outlets near this spot, so I couldn't run lights and fans if I wanted to... I'd have to move the set up somewhere else.

So, in the end, it comes down to what YOU want out of the tank... As long as what suits you also suits the plants, there is no wrong way, in my opinion, to set one up....

[shakkai]

Gwen, I'll try to get some other close-ups for you... but basically the wood pieces have lots of little nooks and crannies and hollowed out bits to them. I just chose some suitably sized ones of these and padded the roots with some sphag, plopped them in, and loosely covered with some more sphag. On a couple of them, the 'nook' was smaller than I'd like, so I used rockwool cubes instead of sphag, as I didn't want to tightly pack sphag around the roots (recipe for rot!).

[shakkai]

Sue, Make sure you keep us up to date with !

Where there is a will, there is a way.... so I'm sure you'll find a solution that works.

Its almost sinful how much fun I've been having!