darn Air conditioning!!

[(..._...)]

Does anyone else find that the airconditioner makes the plants take much longer to dry out?

ugghhh.. here in Montreal, last weekend was the first real start of airconditioning season. I, however, do not have my outdoor orchid set up prepared yet so.. well... my plants are stuck in the airconditioned house. Since most of my plants are in moss, I find this awful! the moss is now not only drying out as fast as usual, but it is crispy dry on the surface, and still quite moist down in the pot. nice.
Does anyone else get this problem?
*I miss the winter heating *--kinda

[whygreenberg]

My boyfriend and I have just had to put in our A/C unit because of the heatwave we're having. I spent all day a couple of days ago building a chute out of foam-core to direct the air away as much as possible from where my 'chids are.

Only thing is, it was causing the apartment to not get cool, and doing funny things to it's thermostat. So off the foam-core chute came. I still have my humidifier running for the 'chids right in their area of the apartment.

It remains to be seen just how it's going to work out.

[Lagoon]

I do find the plants take longer to dry-out in the AC rooms. Although it shouldn't make it or break it. So I fan and use perlite in all my mixes. I would not use pure sphag for 1 of these reasons.
Don't for get Cam, we have 4 seasons, any mix that we use has to be gear towards that.

In the summer time I water more no matter what, in the colder months, I water less - the lighting can also be less, there is a balance there. My plants are growing more in the heat then the winter months.

We have to strike a balance for all our seasons.

[(..._...)]

Yes, I'm hoping the airconditioning won't make a difference. It just seems to be taking a wee bit longer, but I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination, or if they were in fact drying out faster.

hmmm... now I am doubting putting my plants outside... I was going to build a wooded 'cage' like structure with screened sides (to keep the bugs out), and a wooden 'roof' to keep out the rain, but I am scared of disturbing the already happy plants. The one thing I do like about outside is the temperature difference between night and day, especially towards the end of august. Is there anything specific you do to create a temperature change?

the perlite you use, is it the regular rona/homedepot stuff, or is it the really large, light and airy perlite?

Originally Posted by Lagoon

I do find the plants take longer to dry-out in the AC rooms. Although it shouldn't make it or break it. So I fan and use perlite in all my mixes. I would not use pure sphag for 1 of these reasons.
Don't for get Cam, we have 4 seasons, any mix that we use has to be gear towards that.

In the summer time I water more no matter what, in the colder months, I water less - the lighting can also be less, there is a balance there. My plants are growing more in the heat then the winter months.

We have to strike a balance for all our seasons.

[Lagoon]

Yeah, you can get the smaller perlite at the hardware stores, got mine from rona. It's not the all purpose grade, it's a big bigger - fayfard was the name brand I believe.
I also use the very large perlite from clouds orchids - now this is large stuff - I use this in my catts and dens mixes, works great with sphag.

Has it been hot enuff for ya? Geezus!!

[Ross]

What's Air Conditioning

[texasbartrambaby]

Air conditioning is the stuff we turn on in March and run till December ....

[bkim]

Hmm sounds odd to me. The whole principle of air conditioning is that it cools down the air by stripping it of the moisture. So I would think that A/C would dry out your plants faster. Sounds like its doing just that with the outside of the moss. What could work for you is to allow better air penetration to the inside of the pot by using a pot with holes. If its a plastic pot, just punch some holes in the side. It will allow the medium to dry out more consistently.

[(..._...)]

hmmm so you use the small perlite? I find it it bit small, so I wasn't sure if it would work that well. (I find when used with bark, it always sinks to the bottom over time, and takes the bottom a lot longer to dry out. I do wish they would sell the stuff cloud's uses!! I know clouds says that they don't ship potting materials, but since this is light, do you think they would consider shipping some?

ughhh the heat!!!! saturday was extremely hot, and I wasn't expecting that!! lol

Originally Posted by Lagoon

Yeah, you can get the smaller perlite at the hardware stores, got mine from rona. It's not the all purpose grade, it's a big bigger - fayfard was the name brand I believe.
I also use the very large perlite from clouds orchids - now this is large stuff - I use this in my catts and dens mixes, works great with sphag.

Has it been hot enuff for ya? Geezus!!

[cirillonb]

This brings up a not unusual ecology that I experience. I live in a Condo (apartment) with not opportunity for outside growing. During the winter we have never needed to heat absorbing heat from the neighbors. I ran the HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) unit full time with an humidifier on as high as it could go (this also helped my respiratory problems.) With Air conditioning season coming on, I bought deflectors for my ceiling vents, going directly on my window sill orchids, and also set up low flow fans to run about 16/24 hours a day to avoid fungi. I was concerned about dehydrating the plants with the AC. This is my first year doing this but I have somewhat of a scientific and horticultural background. So far I have noticed no dehydration. In fact I notice some tendency to less need for watering (pencil/finger tip method) on some plants and need for additional watering on others. I guess I am not smart enough to know why...but to be honest...I haven't spent the time analyzing it. All I know is that nothing is in distress(to my unknowing eyes) and all seems well. Now blooming...that remains to be seen.
Nick