Introducing orchids to their new home
Hi everyone,
I just bought 3 new orchids this weekend, but I'm always a little nervous about introducing the plants to their new home. I've heard that even high light orchids should start with lower light conditions in their new home until they're used to the conditions, but what about heat and humidity?
I've got a warm orchid case (about 18-30c) with good circulation, usually 70-85% humidity (unless I let the humidifier run out of water) and 4 flourescent "grow lights". I just ordered an RB81 LED UFO light, but it'll be a couple weeks before I get it.
These are the plants I currently have in there:
Dendrobium Emma White (2)
Miltassia Charles M. Fitch (2)
NoID Phalaenopsis
NoID Oncidium
NoID Cymbidium
Vanilla planifolia (2)
BLC Pokai Tangerine x Chocolate Sun
Ascocenda Princess Mikasa 'Mood Indigo'
Paphinia Majestic
Angraecum sesquipedale
Chilochista usnoides
Dendrobium unicum
And these are the three I'll be introducing within the next few days (I'm still out of town, but should be home soon):
Paphiopedilum spicerianum
Paphiopedilum Yi-Ying Northern Lights
Brassavola nodosa
Should I just put them in the case and hope for the best? I can put them further away from the light until they get used to their new surroundings (and until I get my new light), although a couple flourescents probably won't do any damage. Is there a standard way you introduce new orchids to their home?
This is my other newbie question: out of the orchids I've listed, are there any that definitely should NOT be growing in these conditions? I'm not too worried about the Phal. - it had some serious root rot and may not survive anyways. The Dend. Emma White and Miltassia CM Fitch are doing really well. They both took a bad tumble before I built my case, broke the blooming spike off Emma and broke the plants themselves into pieces. So I divided them and repotted in the fall and they've got some great new growth now. And the rest seem to be doing okay at the moment (although I had a big repotting and root surgery session at the beginning of the month, so I'm still waiting to see if they'll all recover from that.
Thanks!!
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