monn millenium culture advice/help

[hypostatic]

Yeah, there's only a couple days in the near future that it's supposed to be sunny and in the 60s during the day, so they'll def be inside until then.

If they seem to be OK being blasted by the sun, I'll leave them outside full-time once the temps are at least in the mid-50's at night. Then maybe once full summer rolls around I'll bring them back inside, or put some shade cloth for high noon.

[mook1178]

They only thing I do mid summer is water more. There's times where we don't get rain for a week or more in July and August. I water almost daily or put them in a saucer with water. I usually grow in clay pots with moss. I'm trying the PET method this year with a couple.

[DirtyCoconuts]

i would say start it with a shade....you can always reduce it or remove it but you cant undo a bad burn.

[hypostatic]

OK so I've tried 2-3 days without any coverings for some of the more developed catasetums, and they don't look like they've taken any damage. Over the past week or two, all the trees outside have regained their foliage (I guess I forgot about them ), so now I think the area I had in mind for them only gets unfiltered sunlight 11am-2pm.

Despite this, I'm still planning on some shade cloth -- that way I can also put some cattleyas outside as well.

EDIT:

Oh, and to elaborate, I've been putting them outside in the morning, and bringing them back in at sundown. Still pretty chilly here at night

[hypostatic]

OK, so now I'm up to having the ctsms several days outside during the daytime, with no apparent negative effects. They are getting mottled sunlight till ~11am, and then unfiltered sunlight 11AM-2PM. The light intensity should be peaking at ~9400 FC. The ctsms are getting brought back in for the overnight chill.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by hypostatic

OK, so now I'm up to having the ctsms several days outside during the daytime, with no apparent negative effects. They are getting mottled sunlight till ~11am, and then unfiltered sunlight 11AM-2PM. The light intensity should be peaking at ~9400 FC. The ctsms are getting brought back in for the overnight chill.

Sounds good. Keep us updated!

[hypostatic]

OK so this week we had the first "real" hot sunny day. The high reached about 87F, and it was a totally cloudless day. I guess the UV index was high or something, unlike other clear days so far -- I could feel the sun stinging my skin a bit. The catasetums stayed outside for th entire daytime. If at any day, the light intensity was truly reaching 9400 FC, today was that day.

"But what are the results??", you might be asking. Well, the majority of the catasetums were perfectly fine. A few (but not all) of the smaller growths did get a bit sun burned (the brown spots):





Welp, good thing I ordered the sun shade! Like, I guess I could keep trying with the beefier plants... but do I really want to push my luck?

[Roberta]

Time for the shade cloth. The sun is getting pretty intense, so they'll still get plenty of light with the shading, you don't want to toast any more of them.

[isurus79]

Ouch! At least you know their maximum tolerance now. They weren't acclimated very long to this level of sun, right?

[DirtyCoconuts]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

i would say start it with a shade....you can always reduce it or remove it but you cant undo a bad burn.

Sorry you had to learn this way...

I have a lot of experience making odd shaped shades. On me if you need help

---------- Post added at 11:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:07 PM ----------

And don’t worry. Nothing looks more than cosmetic. All those should survive easily