Car fumes near orchids?

[astrid]

Originally Posted by mimigirl

OK I know this is a stupid question but I have to ask. Someone told me that if you have your orchids near the street, road, interstate, etc. that the car fumes are good for them. That can't be true, right? Of course, the person cannot remember where they found that little tidbit! Any info on this?

I don't know, but I do know that I do my own acrylic nails inside my room, which is extremely fumey, and my orchids have never had an issue.

I mean, think of it this way: Do other plants by roadsides have any negative issues from being near car exhaust and so on? Do trees and shrubs and roses wilt near stalling cars?

I personally have never seen such a thing, and I therefore doubt that the car exhaust fumes would really harm the orchids.

Also think about this:
"Outside" is a huge place. Imagine, for the sake of argument, that it is a swimming pool sized place.
So, in the swimming pool of "outside," we pour a single cup of pee. Okay, gross, right? But eventually, that small cup of pee will spread through the pool to be so dilute it would be as though there were no pee at all.
Hop on in!

I hope that made sense.

What I am saying is that the atmosphere outside is so vast that the car exhaust fumes will dilute and dissipate over time. You're not growing your orchids in a bell jar full of car exhaust gas- you're growing them in the open, well-ventilated outside!

Logically speaking, they shouldn't have a problem.
This was all determined by my thought experiments, though, haha.

Edit: Many of our members are growing orchids with great success in Los Angeles, and I've been there and seen the cloud of smog at sunset from the Griffith Observatory!! I mean, it's hard to not be close to a road in LA, so if they can grow there, they should be fine in most places, right?
And dear fellow OB members in LA, this is meant with no offense to you or your awesome city!

[silken]

Originally Posted by astrid

I don't know, but I do know that I do my own acrylic nails inside my room, which is extremely fumey, and my orchids have never had an issue.

I mean, think of it this way: Do other plants by roadsides have any negative issues from being near car exhaust and so on? Do trees and shrubs and roses wilt near stalling cars?

I personally have never seen such a thing, and I therefore doubt that the car exhaust fumes would really harm the orchids.

Also think about this:
"Outside" is a huge place. Imagine, for the sake of argument, that it is a swimming pool sized place.
So, in the swimming pool of "outside," we pour a single cup of pee. Okay, gross, right? But eventually, that small cup of pee will spread through the pool to be so dilute it would be as though there were no pee at all.
Hop on in!

I hope that made sense.

What I am saying is that the atmosphere outside is so vast that the car exhaust fumes will dilute and dissipate over time. You're not growing your orchids in a bell jar full of car exhaust gas- you're growing them in the open, well-ventilated outside!

Logically speaking, they shouldn't have a problem.
This was all determined by my thought experiments, though, haha.

Edit: Many of our members are growing orchids with great success in Los Angeles, and I've been there and seen the cloud of smog at sunset from the Griffith Observatory!! I mean, it's hard to not be close to a road in LA, so if they can grow there, they should be fine in most places, right?
And dear fellow OB members in LA, this is meant with no offense to you or your awesome city!

Just remember if you are standing shoulder to shoulder with everyone in a crowded pool and they all the think the same about your pool analogy. No thanks, I won't hop in

[astrid]

Originally Posted by silken

Just remember if you are standing shoulder to shoulder with everyone in a crowded pool and they all the think the same about your pool analogy. No thanks, I won't hop in

It'd be just like the waterpark south park episode...