Vacation?

[tryingtoflower]

I' m going on vacation and I'm leaving my C. rex ,that is mounted, my vandas, and a large number of seedling cattleyas in my daughter's care. The cattleyas are in clay pots with bark. I've placed a number of buckets with RO water under the vandas for easy watering. How do you handle times away from home? I lost my Vanda Rothschildiana last time I left. I don't want to lose the replacement

[Fairorchids]

In NJ:

A. Getting another orchid grower to water on my schedule.

B. Placing plants outdoors on tables with shade cloth. Then rigging a sprinkler connected to an electronic hose control with timer (abt $30 for single hose, $40 for dual, at Home Depot). If it rains, plants get extra, but that is better than not enough.

[tryingtoflower]

Thanks for the tip. The sprinkler system is something I'll definetly look into.

[lotis146]

How long will you be gone for? I've learned - by accident - that some Orchids can be quite hardy. I would think if your daughter waters at least once a week they should be fine. However given that I don't have any plants mounted I'm not sure how they would fair. Some of my plants have been left to fend for themselves for far too long but seemed to almost be happier having that chance to dry out.

Or you could try setting up a drip system like those they sell at the home improvement stores. Of course I'm not suggesting these as any better than FairOrchids suggestions.

Good luck!

[tryingtoflower]

Well everyone survived. My daughter managed, with morning reminders, to keep everything alive. I'm grateful for your advice so I won't cancel my future plans. So. California is so dry right now I stress over my ever growing collection. The mounted cattleya is my prized possession and the one needing daily watering. It's doing fine and putting out new growth. I worried about all the seedling cattleyas I acquired because it's been in the 90's here. I knew the orchid babysitter would quit if I gave her too much to do so I watered right before I left and kept my fingers crossed. Glad to report all is well.
.

[Ordphien]

Have you looked for a house sitter?
My friend house sits/nannies for a living. She has orchids listed on her resume.

I'm happy everyone made it. It's been very dry here...
Turns out even daily watering wasn't enough to save my mounted cattleyas beautiful roots.

[kindrag23]

Glad they all made it. Summer here comparatively speaking has been mild....98* I think has been the worst I have dealt with.

[tryingtoflower]

I've had a hard time with the heat and fighting mealybugs and ants. I keep telling myself no more plants but then I just buy a new genus. I've found the cattleyas and vandas are very labor intensive. My phals and paphs are much easier to deals with when I'm away from home.

[mimigirl]

Well what i do with all of my plants, and will do next month for a week, is water everything thoroughly, move away from window but still getting light, and lightly cover with dry cleaners bags. I have more orchids this year and hope this will work. Does it sound OK?

[tryingtoflower]

I think I'd be afraid of the bags. Isn't your humidity pretty high there?