hi ob
as we r aware there is a sort of low-level energy crises happening in europe currently, and as such, we haven’t been using the heaters this winter, but instead mostly relying on conductive heating from apartments below (we r on the third floor). i will turn a couple on for less than an hour before we go to work, and then for about 10-15 minutes in the evening. our avg temps in the main growroom have kept pretty steady at 15 at night to around 18 during a normal day. but, about 2 weeks ago we had a hard cold spell that lasted for a week, and outside plunged to -7 c or colder in our area.
we have noticed this temp shift having an impact on some things. mostly, our phalaenopsis are not affected, in fact many saw it as a good time to start new roots, which we r happy with. two phals, the parishiis and the micholtziis are really not happy though, and we probly will lose one or two of the mics. our outside dendrobium hybrids (mother and 2 cuttings groups) all perished in the cold snap. by the time i thought of them and came up with a plan it was too late. they did great outside all last winter, but we didn’t have that cold for that long. sooo...basic beginner learning experience that cost us 3 plants we really liked.
some things, like maxillaria schunkeana we posted about recently are liking the cold, and in fact have been moved to our cold room and are thriving. yes, even without running heaters we have a northern bedroom that gets quite cold. in fact, all the seedlings were in the cold room since october. surprisingly, we haven’t lost any of them after exposing them to a week or so of about 10c or less. i thought for sure they would suffer, but promptly moving back to the warm rooms they all seem perfectly fine (with lots of new root growth)...that is species and hybrid seedlings, so i am starting to think they are tougher than i was giving them credit for.
finally, little fun fact for ya, in germany it is in many rental contracts that windows must be fully opened for 5 to 10 minutes per day to fight the mold. so, you can imagine that with most of our plants near our balcony door they get lots of very cold drafts for exctended periods. honestly, most of our plants don’t seem to mind, and some phals like the manniis have all put on new spikes that i assume will bloom in spring. even the gigantea is still growing it’s spike, however it seems that most northern hemi gigantea s have already bloomed so i would conjecture that we are about at its temp limit in that it is still flowering just way slower than i think it should. also, our sanook is in direct line of those breezes, in full breeze force, and has kept its blooms for pushing 3 months.
so, tl:dr, cold temps aren’t as stressing to (phals) as many believe. maybe after 2 more months of this i will change my mind, but initial signs are positive! oh, and happy holidays, everybody!!
observations during a cold winter
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