Vertical wall design indoor orchid setup

[Jussi_K]

Hello,

I live in Finland. Outdoors is suitable for tropical plants maybe 2-3 months a year. We have very cold winter which results in dry air indoors. Not ideal conditions for orchids.

Before I had vivarium type setup. It was very expensive and bulky. My wife didn't like it at all.

Now I have made this vertical garden design. It has been running for 1 month now. Everything seems going pretty well. There was some plant damage at start but it was expected considering the size of the setup.

Vertical wall is very simple to make. I have plywood case covered with pond rubber. Plants are grown in 3 layers of epiweb substrate.

I have water container at the bottom. I add maybe 10 liters of water in week and every other week add fertilizer. I use water also for my bonsai to get excess minerals away from the setup.

Lightning:
I have 1 main light. Its cob led light. I chose it purely because it is cheap to buy and very small. It paid around
130-140 dollars for it. It uses around 110 W. It is very bright. To make this living room suitable you could use 50% white and 50% red leds. This will however be much more expensive to run.

That's why I have separate light just for the looks. I have 10M 5050 smd leds around the wall. These are very cheap if you buy from china through ebay. I use 50% white and 50% red leds in strips. I took waterproof ones. These are super easy to work with, just cut the length you need.
Watering:
I have 1 pump that waters twice a day 15 minutes. This keeps plants moist all the time. However my substrate is very, very airy. That's probably the reason I get away with the over watering. Setup resembles these ebb flow hydroponic systems. Wall drip watering oxygenates the water very well. Water is distributed through PVC piping which is full of small holes.

Nutrition:
I have biotope of bacteria living on lava rocks at the bottom. They keep PH constant. They also will dissolve plant waist and convert nitrites to nitrates.


Air circulation:
None is needed thanks to extremely airy substrate.

Plants:
I have some ferns, some bromeliads and orchids. Orchids are mostly cattleya hybrids. Some aerangis and phragmipedilums too. I plan to buy mini phals if I lose bromeliads during winter.

[TOMMYMIAMI]

It looks really great!

[DeaC]

Looks very interesting. Seems you've met the challenge and good luck. Post pix when you can.

[WhiteRabbit]

Awesome!

[kaede]

Good work

[Jussi_K]

Report
- Bacteria culture seems to work well
- Plants do new roots and grow quite well.
- all cattleyas came with no roots or very few roots. Now they are doing 5-7 roots per new bulb.
-angraecum did not survive. All died in few weeks after planting.
- aerangis species are doing quite well
- Gorgonias seem to thrive.
- Paphiopedilums are also doing well.
- bulbophyllums are also doing well

Feeding:
Every week I fill the reservoir. I don't change water. However I use water from the reservoir to water my other plants. So there is some change to battle oversalting. This could be solved by using rainwater or reverse osmosis unit.

I add regular garden summer nutrition once a week. I add it for 10 liters. Winter time I think I'm going to add half of this dose.

There is no sign of over nutrition. No yellow leaves or burned tips.

Because there is no organic medium I need bacteria to get rid of nitrites.
- I use lava rocks in the reservoir to house them. Lava rock has vast surface area for bacteria to grow on.
- I used some humus to kick start bacteria growth.
- System is maintenance free. You don't need to change the water. Maybe change every 3 months 50% to prevent salts accumulating. In regular hydro you have to change water every week 100%

[Becky Jo]

Do you like the waterproof strip led lights? I have heard some don't like them

[Aratz]

Is Microsorum pteropus the green plant of the 3th photo?
Your wall is awesome! I like it so much!