I've been keeping a few orchids for about five years. Recently, as my interest has shifted toward the smaller, humidity loving varieties, windowsill culture has become less suitable. In my climate (northern MN) it gets cold (it's -20 today) and extremely dry. In these growing conditions, a haven for my plants became necessary, so I built one.

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am in my early 50’s and for the last 7 years have been getting more serious about growing orchids. My interest, however, goes back over 35 years to my late cousin, who is responsible for my love of orchids. I was in high school and my cousin, Charles Weigner, was owner of the Orchid Loft in Perkasie, PA. One summer in the early 1970’s he was going to South America on a collecting trip and asked me to stay and tend his orchids while he was gone. For three weeks I roamed the greenhouses, tended the orchids per his instructions and became fascinated with them. I went on to other things, however, and my cousin later died in 1985. While my fascination of orchids continued, and I tried an orchid or two (with no success) over the years, it was not until 2001 that I was in a position to give it a serious try. It was then, while searching the internet, that I discovered that my cousin had hybridized and named an orchid after his mom (my aunt) named Paph. Eva Weigner. That did it, and my quest to obtain that particular plant as well as other plants originating from him began, I guess in part as an attempt to preserve some heritage of what my cousin had done. I started

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live in Southeastern PA and grow my plants indoors during the colder months. Because I have a manageable collection (my wife would argue about the term "managable"), I have adopted a few techniques that just about anyone can use to help save growing space and improve the growing form of your plants. Specifically I am referring to the cattleya alliance, but this could be applicable to other orchids with sympodial growth habit.

Materials needed: Raffia (from Michaels or other hobby store) [or coated wire if you prefer]; Bamboo skewers (from grocery store) [or bamboo or metal stake]; sterile (ie, new) razor blades or razor knife

When new growths are about 1/3-1/2 developed, I soak a length of raffia in soapy water or a weak physan solution (physan is a great surfactent); once softened up I will tie a knot around a stout pseudobulb adjacent to the new growth. I then loop the raffia around the emerging growth, tie a simple overhand knot (like tying your shoelace) and very slowly and carefully pull the raffia tighter until the emerging growth starts to straighted to a more verticle position. You need to be careful here - if the growth is too young, or if you pull too tight, you could break the growth. If you do this when you first obtain your plants, eventually you will end up with most of your p'bulbs and leaves rather perfectly upright. The limiting factor is the underlying growth habit of your plant, determined by its genetics. For example, I love the blooms of LC Marie's Song 'CTM 217'. However, the foliage is very sloppy and tends to "flop" over. For plants like this there is little you can do. But for plants with an inherently better growth habit, "training" new growths produces a neater looking plant and avoids having pseudobulbs sticking out at odd angles. You will be amazed at how much more growing space can be liberated by "training" plants like this. If you don't have a stout p'bulb to anchor your raffia, or if an existing mature p'bulb is not in the position you need, insert a bamboo skewer (or a more substantial stake if needed), tie a double overhand knot at the desired height, and use this as your "anchor" to pull the new growth into the desired direction. If, after the raffia dries out, you find that the knot you tied to the stake is loose and slides down, simply secure it in place with a bit of masking tape.

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my phal antarctic is in extremely bad shape i just was going to repot it after coming back from my vacation. i saw that out of its four leaves it has lost 3 leaves and the last leaf is dark green and plump but has 2 horrible scrorched yellow marks. no sign of growth is seen. and it has about 6 medium sized roots which are just satisfactory.

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There are up to 35,000 species available, they actually comprise the largest family of flowering plants on earth. In fact, one seventh of all plants are orchids. Over the past few years some have been grown commercially on a large scale for what we call at the Depot “potted plant” market. They are forced grown to a saleable blooming size and in most cases the easiest to grow for the novice grower. When buying orchids; buy for your growing conditions and area.
One advantage of growing indoors is that you get to see your orchid’s everyday as well as being able to see their environmental condition. Unfortunately, as the old proverb goes, "orchids tell you what they want, but by the time you listen to what they are trying to tell you, they are dead". Hopefully with this verbiage indoor growing will help prevent this old proverb from becoming a reality.
In order to successfully cultivate them, you must meet their requirements for light, temperature and humidity. But if you provide the proper environment, you'll be rewarded with fabulous blooms.

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How I grow Pleurothallid Orchids.

At this present time I am growing in two orchid cases (Exo Terra) and have another two planned for the future to set up. I have made no physical adjustments to these enclosures and would recommend that beginners do not replace the top mesh with glass. The reason for not making this adjustment is that the mesh supplies the exchange of new air coming in and stale air going out of the enclosed case. Remember that your ultimate goal will be to provide high humidity however; high humidity with stale air will be the perfect breeding ground for bacterial and fungi.

My small growing case is 18" x 18" x 18" (W x D x H) and I grow all of my leaf cuttings, keikis and divisions within this case. I have added capillary matting to the base of the growing case to soak up excess water which also helps with maintaining humidity. The plants growing in pots are situated on a wire shelf to prevent plants from taking up the water from the capillary matting. Plants that are mounted are hung on the side of the glass enclosure with suction caps. Placed on the top mesh of the growing case are two small refrigeration fans running 24/7. I use refrigeration fans as they are generally more powerful, reliable and waterproof as opposed to PC fans. These two fans supply plenty of air movement inside the growing case. Placed inside the growing case is an automatic mister nozzle that is controlled by a timer to supply a fine mist of RO water over the plants and within the case, this keeps humidity between 70 – 99%. In the summer the mister comes on at 8:00am for 30 seconds and then every two hours for 30 seconds up to midday. From midday it comes on every hour for 30 seconds up to 4:00pm and one last mist for 30 seconds at 6.00pm. In the winter the misting interval times are significantly reduced.

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This Article documents the thought process involved in designing and setting up a large custom Orchid environment. After following a lot of threads on this and other related boards, I decided to construct my own custom tank (or, as it turned out, having it constructed for me.)

Objectives for the new Orchid Tank

• Need a tank large enough to house an expanding collection of, mainly, miniature species orchids. These will be low-light, high humidity/moisture species.
• Most of the plants will be mounted and hanging, as in stick or cork mounts.
• Need an environment that allows low maintenance for the plants. This means I want to be able to ignore plants for at least a week at a time. Occasional fertilizing is understood, but daily is not going to make it.
• Must have an environment where excess moisture drains away by itself, misting is taken care of regularly, light is not a problem, there will be places for lower wetness plants and higher wetness plants, and air movement is controlled over 24 hour period.
• I desire to use 48” T5 fixtures as the only source of light. Lights will be timer-controlled.
• Locating tank in basement where ambient temps are approx. 62 degrees F at night and 67 degrees F day during winter months will moderate temperature. Temperatures during summer months will be approx 65-70 degrees F at night and 75-80’s during the day. Cool to Intermediate growers are the best choices. A few spp on the edge of being warm-growers are also a possibility.
• Tank should be easy to care for by non-orchid grower for periods of up to a month or more. My caretaker, while I am away, is not an orchid specialist.
• Esthetics is NOT the primary issue – casual visitors will not see this tank. The tank is for hobby purposes and function is more important than esthetics. Quality of construction is important in order to eliminate future problems such as warping, separating of seams, etc.

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"Chat" Chatfield was 96-years old when my wife and I met him at a small orchid show in southern California in 1990. He told us all about his orchids and invited me over to see his greenhouse and help with some repotting. I stopped by his place that following weekend and went home that evening with sore fingers after helping to divide and repot about 50 specimen-sized orchids! I also took home three healthy, newly-potted Cattleya divisions for my efforts! That was the beginning of my orchid indoctrination and addiction!!! Over the next few years, Mr. Chatfield taught me everything I would need to know about growing orchids. Orchid-growing fads come and go, but the basics he taught me have never changed!

One of his many lessons involved a handy method of dividing plants when your Cattleya has 7 or more pseudobulbs or is nearing the edge of its pot. This can be especially helpful for those plants that seem to prefer to grow in a straight line and only have one blooming lead at a time. Also, this method gives your back bulb divisions a head start with a new lead prior to repotting instead of repotting the back bulbs with NO leads and lots of stress!
Here’s what you do...
Start with a plant that has at least 7 growths of any size. Count 3 or 4 growths from the lead growth and make a cut all the way through the rhizome with a clean cutting tool. Do not disturb the plant in any other way!
Write the current date on an old plant stick from one of your dead plants and place the stick all the way through the cut as shown. The purpose of the stick is to simply identify the location and date of the cut, not to keep the cut from healing itself.
Return the plant back to its shelf and continue loving care; nothing different than before.
With luck, you'll get an extra growth or TWO fairly quickly from dormant eyes located on the back bulbs. If the plant is not in active growth, you probably won’t see results until it returns to life so BE PATIENT!!! This method works almost every time on a healthy plant!

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Basic Types: Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilum, Cattleya, Oncidium, Dendrobium

Temperature:
Warm…80-90f days, 65-70f nights
Intermediate…70-80f days, 55-65f nights
Cool…60-70f days, 50-55f nights

Most of the basic types of orchids can be grown successfully in the home environment. Microclimates can be created or found naturally in the home for those that want to try more difficult plants. i.e.: cooler areas next to some windows/basements or warmer areas over radiators or in sunrooms etc.

Light
Any window but a north facing one will do for most orchids. A south facing window may need some shading (sheer curtains/blinds) as direct sunlight will burn. Some morning/late afternoon sun is beneficial. Dark green leaves is an indicator of not enough light. Leaves should be light green in colour.
Fluorescent light is a good supplemental light source. Tubes (banks or 2 or 4) or compact fluorescents are okay
HID lights are a good quality light source. They come in High Pressure Sodium and Metal Halide. Costly to run.

Watering & Fertilizer
Good quality tap water or rain water is best. R/O is also a good choice. Fertilizer such as 20/20/20 should be used at ¼ strength every second watering. Pots should be flushed THOROUGHLY every other watering to flush out excess fertilizer salts. A buildup of salts will destroy root growth on plants and eventually the plant itself. When the plant is in dormancy it should receive less water and no fertilizer.

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rchid culture books often state that Dendrobium kingianum (recently re-classified as Thelychiton kingianum) is an easy orchid for beginners. Many orchid growers would disagree. Any orchid is easy if given the proper conditions, but the proper conditions for D. kingianum are not our typical household or greenhouse conditions.
Dendrobium kingianum was my very first orchid, given to me in 1988 by a local orchid grower. This grower never got little from the plant in terms of flowers but did get plenty of keikeis. So a few keikeis were passed to me. At the time I was having great success with African Violets and this gardening friend said I should have no problems growing orchids. And thus the addiction began!
My keikeis grew gang-busters and by the following fall the plant was in a 3.5" pot. I grew the plant in an unobstructed east window.

The minimum winter temperature was about 60 F with days around 70 F. The fall and winter came and went, but no flowers. Not to worry, many orchids take a year or two to settle down and start blooming. The next fall, the plant, now in a 5" pot, produced 7 spikes! However, when the spikes were 2" long, the buds started to drop. In the end I had only 4 individual blooms. The flowers remained open for 2 months and were delightfully fragrant, smelling to me like Johnson’s Baby Powder.
I later read that in their native habitat of eastern Australia, this orchid blooms mid-winter after a cool, dry autumn season and during this rest they may actually be exposed to near freezing temperatures! So perhaps my growing area was too warm. The following late September I placed my plant in a sunny, west-facing basement window. My basement is unheated and is the area where I grow my cool-loving Cyclamen. The night temperature in that window was about 50 F with days under 65 F. At this stage I only watered my plant every 2-3 weeks. By mid-December the night temperatures were down to 38 F and the days were only 50 F. I lost 3 leaves to frost where the leaves were touching the glass! However, at this stage, the plant had the beginnings of 15 spikes! I then brought the plant back upstairs and placed it an east window where the night temperatures were about 55 F and days about 65 F. Regular weekly watering resumed. The spikes rapidly elongated and by late January I had a total of 54 blossoms. The fragrance filled the entire living room each afternoon.

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First decide whether you simply want to shift your plant or divide it into several pieces. To shift your orchid, remove the plant from the pot and clean the old mix off the roots. Then choose the proper pot size allowing room for two years of growth.

When dividing cattleyas and other orchids with similar growing habits, we recommend leaving 3-5 bulbs per division. Decide what size cutting you want to make. Then use a sterile knife to cut down through the rhizome and the roots staying as close as possible to the older growth. Choose the proper pot size allowing for two years of growth.

Next consider what type of container will suit your orchid and watering schedule. Most orchids grow well in plastic pots. However, if you have a tendency to over-water, clay pots may work better for you since they are porous and will dry out faster. Clay pots, because of their extra weight, will also help top-heavy plants to remain upright.

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