Second batch of new orchid frenzy buy--more advice for a noob?
Hi, guys!
This is a loooong post. Sorry! I've decided to not cut anything, hope someone reads through it and has advice for me? Thanks a million if you do!
I have mentioned in other threads that I recently became the proud and completely unprepared parent of a den. reflexitepalum, a sophronitis cernua and an eria pannea.
Well, part of the same impulsive gesture that brought those plants into my life include a purchase of five plants from a different on-line vendor, which just arrived today.
These are:
Two dendrobrium lindleyi
Two dendrobium cucumerina
one ascocentrum pussilum (vanda pusila is what the label says)
The dendros are mounted and well-established on cork. The vanda is sitting in a basket filled with large-ish rocks. All seemed in ok condition to my eyes on unpacking.
I gave all the plants a good soak (5 minutes) on unpacking them, just in case? Hope that was ok was the lindleyi, which seem to already be (semi-)dormant!
The lindleyi are positioned under my hallway skylight, where they will get very bright, indirect light for as many hours as the winter season at this lattitude allows and also not be too warm (I was thinking of moving them in the evening to my sheltered porch. This would give them temps closer to 55 degrees in the evenings). I was planning on watering these once a week during their dormancy. Too much or too little?
The dendro cukes are currently hanging about a foot above and to the side of my light garden, so getting indirect light from a single 123watt T5 in 6500k range. I don't think I want to keep them in this spot. Could I move these to where the lindleyi are? There is certainly room.
The vanda is sitting a little to the side, off from the T5 and I plan on moving it immediately underneath in a couple of days or so. Does that sound right?
Other important details about my enviro:
Light garden: I have carnivorous plants under the T5 that spend much of their day enclosed in terrarium jars, but do get taken out for an hour or so most days for air circulation. The ambient humidity is around 47 degrees, getting up to 50 degrees with the humidifiers I have currently. Is this too low?
The light garden is also about four feet from a long (but not very tall) window with an unobstructed eastern view. But I live in a cloudy place, so intensity of daylight varies quite a bit right now. Also, about four feet away from the T5 set-up, I have a 55 watt HO CFL light, also 6500k, that dangles about five feet above the ground (so maybe two feet above the level of the T5 area) and runs for six hours a day for my succulents and butterworts. The T5 runs 14 hours, starting about 2 hours after sunrise, so plants get some kind of light for 16 hours a day. This area tends to be around 72 degrees in the day, 62-68 degrees at night.
Hallway with skylight: The skylight is about 2'X3'. The hallway has no heating vents so is a little cooler and maybe a little more humid than the light garden. I am in cloudy Oregon, so the days are short and dark.
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