Newbie
 

Hi Guys,

Joey here from Southern California. Recently I decided to get rid of most of my plants (it was beginning to look more like a science experiment than a indoor garden) and decided to collect a few really nice looking plants instead of the jungle I was trying to tame.

Unfortunately for me I stumbled on a Orchid at the local Home Depot and now I think I'm sick with the Orchid bug!
I picked up a Phalaenopsis with purple flowers you can kind of see in the picture below and decided to put the breaks on buying any more until I learn a bit about them and decide on what types to keep.

So here I am waiting on my copy of Understanding Orchids from Amazon and jonesing to start right away =)

Considering my limited space ( I live in a very small 1 bedroom apartment ) I was thinking of maybe getting into miniature orchids. Do you guys have any advice on small, easy to start with orchids that don't grow too tall. My little grow area doesn't allow for much height.

If you can take a look at the little setup I have right now and give me some pointers on what I need to do to prepare this setup for an orchids obsession I would be very appreciative. Right now I just have two fixtures with 4 T5 bulbs each -- the top shelf has a mixture of 2 6500k and 2 3000k bulbs and the bottom shelf has 4 6500k bulbs. I do plan on keeping a few other plant varieties in here but would like to make it comfortable primarily for orchids. This setup has worked great for my past gardening endeavors and hopefully I don't have to change much if anything for Orchids. The only thing I ever had a problem with was maintaining a good amount of humidity when running the fan. It's not exactly a sealed environment so sometimes the humidity falls below 50% when the fan is on. The shelves I believe are 20" deep by 40" wide and lives in my bedroom with 3 Southern facing windows and one East facing window. Very bright room.

By the way, I am a complete newbie to Orchids. The one I have on the bottom shelf is my very first one and I know absolutely nothing about it but expect to immerse myself in orchid info this weekend.

Looking forward to making some new friends!

http://www.blackoctopus.org/gh.JPG

:welcomeflowers: Welcome to the forum ! You're starting in the right direction it seems, unlike many of us who jump in the deep end before realizing we don't know how to swim !! Guess I'm talking about myself here !! LOL !!!

Read, study, research and ask every question you think of and THEN go out and buy !!! Don't ever forget that one man's pudding is another's poison !!! What grows like a weed for me could just as easily die instantly in your environment. We can suggest this or that 'chid but it's up to you to decide and figure out if it will do ok in your environment. Right now I have a Den. White Bota I've grown since 2005 which is in a 4.5" pot and the plant is 10" tall. I also have a Bulbophyllum lasiochilum I got in 2008 and is covering a 3" pot. See pix (blooms about 1"). The Den. is hard to kill, it likes to dry out completely between watering and I give it plenty of benign neglect and it always has bloomed for me. Easy to be fooled by their size. I gave up plenty of "small" ones from Home Depot that turned out to be standard sized ones !! When they got to be more than 20" I traded or sold them off. Buyer beware !

Good luck with your endeavor and welcome again to the 'chids forum !!!

:welcomeflowers:

Glad you found us!

Hello and welcome!
Joann

Welcome to the Board!

Thanks Chryss and everyone else who has welcomed me so far!

Wow that bulb looks really cool. I've never seen an orchid like that. That one is definitely going on the list =) This time around my intention is to keep not so much rare plants but unique plants and that one I find pretty unique!

I would like to see what you have going behind that black partition. Is that partition for photographing or is it shading the light from the den?

Joey - Welcome to the Orchid Board. I am so glad that you are taking a practical approach in starting your collection.

There are so many genera of orchids that will do extremely well in your growing conditions. It really is all a matter of what you like.

I have posted a few plants that are small growers and fairly easy to grow, just to give you an idea of what is out there besides the 5 genera that you can find at every big box store or garden center.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ph_Psyche_.JPG

http://www.orchidboard.com/community..._sanguinea.JPG

http://www.orchidboard.com/community..._violacea_.jpg

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...e-up-copy-.jpg

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...walkeriana.jpg

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...e-up-copy-.jpg

Welcome to Orchid Board. :welcome:

Miniatures can be fun. They only one I've found easy though is Gastrochillus japonicus. I love that one and would recommend it to any one.

Welcome & Hello !
Sit back and relax...you've come to the right place...read postings from the other members and learn from their wealth of knowledge coming from their years of experience on growing orchids.