Orchid Hydration during Vacation

[jantigercat]

Hello all!

I will be away for 14 days for vacation and I am now a little worried about my orchids:

Some orchids are grown in an Ikea Greenhouse Cabinet and I am planning to install a 4L-capacity flogger (which I hope will be enough to last for 14 days)

My Vandas in glass vases: the vase will be filled with water just to the level of the roots and the vase will be partially covered with Saran Wrap to slow down evaporation.

The others would be placed on a humidity tray and then our neighbor would just fill the tray with water and let it evaporate. When it is dry she could fill it up once more.

Would these measures work? Any suggestions?

Thank you!
Jan

[Louis_W]

I feel like the safest strategy is to ask your neighbor or perhaps a family member to water all the plants once or twice while you are gone. You will need to explain them how to do it, and bring them back a little thank you gift!

[camille1585]

What orchids do you have other than the Vandas you mention? That plan generally sounds pretty good to me.

Every summer I go away for 3 weeks and the orchids are on their own with no one to plant-sit. Important to note that I have mostly phals, vandaceous orchids, a handful of slippers, and an assortment of minis (nothing mounted). Nearly everything is potted in bark.

I give all the plants an extended soak the day before leaving and move all of them to the spare bedroom (cooler than the living room) and draw the curtains. Each plant is set in a saucer that I fill with water. The slippers and more fragile plants (some dens and seedlings) were set in a plastic tent on a humidity tray and stay in the living room.

This year there was a heatwave while I was away and it went up to 33C indoors, but everything survived perfectly without wrinkled leaves and they don't seem to mind the extended period of very dim conditions.

I'm not saying people should do this, but find it good to point out that when you don't have any/many options, orchids can be surprisingly drought resiliant. This may not apply in all cases and really depends what you have in your collection!

[jantigercat]

Originally Posted by camille1585

What orchids do you have other than the Vandas you mention? That plan generally sounds pretty good to me.

Every summer I go away for 3 weeks and the orchids are on their own with no one to plant-sit. Important to note that I have mostly phals, vandaceous orchids, a handful of slippers, and an assortment of minis (nothing mounted). Nearly everything is potted in bark.

I give all the plants an extended soak the day before leaving and move all of them to the spare bedroom (cooler than the living room) and draw the curtains. Each plant is set in a saucer that I fill with water. The slippers and more fragile plants (some dens and seedlings) were set in a plastic tent on a humidity tray and stay in the living room.

This year there was a heatwave while I was away and it went up to 33C indoors, but everything survived perfectly without wrinkled leaves and they don't seem to mind the extended period of very dim conditions.

I'm not saying people should do this, but find it good to point out that when you don't have any/many options, orchids can be surprisingly drought resiliant. This may not apply in all cases and really depends what you have in your collection!

It’s a relief to hear that. I have mini phals, lady slippers…

The mounted orchids are inside an ikea green house cabinet. I wonder if the hourly fogger would keep them for drying. My neighbor would be coming to check the plants every three days.

[tmoney]

that's great that you can have the neighbor come and check! hopefully you have shown them in person how you water your plants. if not, this year i put together a watering guide as a one sheet page with very simple instructions and 2 pictures to show how to water (describing how NOT to get water in the crown or by the stem), perhaps you could do the same for your person. our caretaker also came over for a beverage and a quick lesson on how we water our plants before we left.

it's good to have a plant caretaker. but, its also reassuring when you have colleagues bring you plants that they say they have ignored for 2 years and they are still hanging on for life. the lesson for me is that, orchids are waaay more resilient than i or the internet give them credit for, and a little time away from them probly won't hurt too much. sure, a couple of our plants this year took a hit and it will be more time for them to get back to full strength. we did, in fact, have 2 precious phals die. but, that was not the fault of our caretaker, it was just that the changes in routine showed weakness in the plant. and thats fine, as we want to strengthen our collection, not baby along weak genetics.

so....i guess....don't worry bout it!!! enjoy your vacation!!