My first advanced attempt at rain-forest mist emulation

[diegazo]

Hello everyone. I just finished building this orchid planter with a hidden humidifier (ultrasonic cold mist). The humidifier mister is a recycled humidifier from an old mushroom kit I bought years ago. I changed and rebuilt everything except for the container. More powerful fan and ultrasonic mist maker.
I hid it inside a cabinet and fed it with a 1/4 inch line from the toilet water supply. Inside I put a float valve that keeps the water level always at the same level, so it never needs to be filled up. The same system the toilet reservoirs have but a mini version.

Then I sealed the planter with black rubber paint and silicone sealer by the seams. It does not leak.

I put a warming matt under the mounted orchids as it can get a bit cool here in winter.

I used 1/2 inch pvc pipe to pipe in the cold mist. The fan that creates the positive pressure in the humidifier and thus pumping mist into the system came from an old server. It's just powerful enough for the system.

Then I mounted the 3 orchids with dried and live moss on old drift wood I got from the beach. The orchids I got from an orchid store for 1 dollar each since they had no blooms. The store has a section with $1 orchids which have no blooms. I thought of using these so I can learn how to make them bloom, in the process and in case this fails it doesn't end up costing me $60. I can risk the $3 dollars.

I have never had orchids before that lived, I'm new to orchids, so I'd really appreciate some feedback from you veterans. It would mean so much to hear your opinions.

I have a couple of videos in this link below that shows the the final results and some photos of the different building stages.

Dropbox - orchid board - Simplify your life

[Dorchid]

Honestly, I would have just changed the potting medium to bark (assuming they came potted in sphagnum moss) and just put them in a warm sunny window. Good light, stable temps and a good watering routine is really all they need. I have several phals in a bathroom window that get watered once a week and they bloom constantly. Remember the old saying, KISS.

[diegazo]

You know I agree with most of it. The reason, I did the mist thing is because, it can get around 20% relative humidity in here and I just don't see that the orchids do well in general because of that. I definitely do need extra humidity here in souther california. Thanks for the great input

[Roberta]

Hi, neighbor...Welcome! I live south of you, in Orange County, also coastal. I really don't think that you need to worry that much about humidity... there are days when it gets down to single digits, but those are pretty rare. Overall, humidity isn't fantastic but not bad either. Phals are really quite forgiving. Bark in the pot gives lots of surface area to give the roots "humid air", which is what they want. When I water, I do it thoroughly, so water runs out of the pot (which flushes out crud, and also pulls fresh air into the root zone) The heat mat is a good idea - they like warmth. Also, I have found that they benefit from some supplemental light - they don't want particularly bright light, but do want it for enough hours... LED or fluorescent, for 12 hours a day will greatly improve your odds of blooming.

[diegazo]

Hi neighbor thanks for the input. Even if the dry days are rare. My winter heat, indoor environment dries it out even more, so the whole winter is super dry in my apt. I do have a couple of grow lights right on top of them for about 15 hours a day, you see it on the second picture right?

[Roberta]

This can work! One consideration... you'll want to be sure that the sphagnum moss doesn't stay too wet - damp is fine, but air around the roots is a biggie.

[diegazo]

wonderful thanks for the input