Temperature tolerance

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by plumania

Thanks Tucker. I am not too far from you. May be about 1/2 hr drive south. I have a big tree on the south side of my lawn but no concrete or any other surface. Just a bit of grass.
Do you think they can be left hanging from the tree, or even in screened patio(protected from wind but light level is moderate to low).

Thanks for pitching in. I forgot to post on our Florida Orchid growers forum.

Your cattleyas and encyclias will be fine hanging on that tree as long as they have some protection from the wind during those cold fronts. The wind is the number one problem. The screened patio is even better because the temperature is always a little higher under the screen and it blocks some wind. Like I said before, bring phals and vandas indoors when it's below 50. The previous post by James is correct. You want to water in the morning so the plants are dry at night. Fungus can be a problem if the plants are wet at night too often this time of year. I usually don't worry about the occasional rain during cold fronts but if it rains several days in a row, consider using a fungicide. Do you belong to a local orchid society? We have some good ones in South Florida and the members are very knowledgeable.

[plumania]

Thanks Tucker. I might just bring them in my patio since I am considering 2 week vacation in winter. Will not be able to water them in my absence but I think they should be OK. Mine do not have much of roots right now, all cattleyas lost most of roots by the end of rainy season even though they were mostly in a sunny, protected location and I did not water much either. I am new to Orchids and I was growing them in clay pots. I think it was too much environmental humidity with abrupt changes in weather and probably too much media in pots.....
Anyway, I re potted all in baskets with lava rock and little bit orchid media and they have a root or two by now. I still do not know if I should water them more. They are currently in full morning sun and dappled sunlight rest of the time,hanging from a tree. Encyclias got plenty of roots though.
Hopefully they will do fine in patio .
I do not have Phals and Vandas.
I have not joined any orchid society due to personal reason and also the fact that most of them would require at least 40 min driving and they have meetings at times that are not suitable for me. I would prefer daytime meetings on weekends which does not seem to be happening anywhere close to me.

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by plumania

Thanks Tucker. I might just bring them in my patio since I am considering 2 week vacation in winter. Will not be able to water them in my absence but I think they should be OK. Mine do not have much of roots right now, all cattleyas lost most of roots by the end of rainy season even though they were mostly in a sunny, protected location and I did not water much either. I am new to Orchids and I was growing them in clay pots. I think it was too much environmental humidity with abrupt changes in weather and probably too much media in pots.....
Anyway, I re potted all in baskets with lava rock and little bit orchid media and they have a root or two by now. I still do not know if I should water them more. They are currently in full morning sun and dappled sunlight rest of the time,hanging from a tree. Encyclias got plenty of roots though.
Hopefully they will do fine in patio .
I do not have Phals and Vandas.
I have not joined any orchid society due to personal reason and also the fact that most of them would require at least 40 min driving and they have meetings at times that are not suitable for me. I would prefer daytime meetings on weekends which does not seem to be happening anywhere close to me.

With cattleyas in wood baskets and few roots you should definitely be watering them as long as we're having these days in the 70 degree range. I water my orchids in wood baskets three times a week right now. I water my encyclias once a week. When we have cold spells I decrease watering to once a week for cattleyas. Do you use seaweed extract? Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed will encourage your plants to grow roots.

[plumania]

Three times a week!! Thanks for letting me know, I have been watering only once a week as i was afraid they might rot if watered more. I was wondering how something would grow with such little watering though . Now that I know it is safe to water more,I would do that.
I do have some sea weed extract but I stopped using it after my Cattleyas lost roots.
Would it help develop roots better if I use sea weed even now?And how often?

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by plumania

Three times a week!! Thanks for letting me know, I have been watering only once a week as i was afraid they might rot if watered more. I was wondering how something would grow with such little watering though . Now that I know it is safe to water more,I would do that.
I do have some sea weed extract but I stopped using it after my Cattleyas lost roots.
Would it help develop roots better if I use sea weed even now?And how often?

Right now is perfect weather for your orchids. It's in the 70's during the day and the 60's at night. You can get roots to continue to grow until we get our first cold spells. I don't know which seaweed product you have, but use it according to the label. Maxicrop directions are to use 1 ounce per gallon of water, once a week. That's exactly what I do when I want to encourage root growth. Do it for at least three weeks. Continue to fertilize at a weak concentration also. The fertilizer and seaweed can be mixed together and sprayed at the same time if you want. You can use a little hand sprayer from Home Depot to spray the seaweed and fertilizer. They cost less than $5.
I assume your encyclias are in wood baskets also. Water them real well, once a week. They don't need much water this time of year.
With the cattleyas, it's the wet/dry cycle that's important. In wood baskets and on mounts, they dry very quickly and they can be watered often. Root rot is no longer a problem when cattleyas are grown that way. Right now I water cattleyas on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday. When it gets cold I'll decrease to watering once a week when it's real cold or twice a week when it gets a little warmer between cold fronts. Good luck.

[tucker85]

One thing I should have mentioned. When I have a cattleya on a mount or in a wood basket and there aren't a lot of roots, I sometimes just mist water on the roots in the morning with a little hand sprayer, rather than watering the whole plant. In nature they would get a little water from dew each morning with maybe a rain once or twice a week. You can water heavily once or twice a week and just mist the new roots occasionally on other days. As long as they dry quickly there's no reason to worry about root rot.

[plumania]

Thanks Tucker, your response is really very helpful and encouraging.I will follow your advise.

I checked my Cattleyas again today, and they do have additional small roots now.Hopefully these roots will keep growing well. But my Bifoliate catts seem too slow to put out roots.

Even though weather was cooling, it has still rained about least twice a week here. Grass is always wet in mornings so they must have gotten water.

Seaweed brand is maxicrop. Glad to know I still have time to use it.

Thanks again.

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by plumania

Thanks Tucker, your response is really very helpful and encouraging.I will follow your advise.

I checked my Cattleyas again today, and they do have additional small roots now.Hopefully these roots will keep growing well. But my Bifoliate catts seem too slow to put out roots.

Even though weather was cooling, it has still rained about least twice a week here. Grass is always wet in mornings so they must have gotten water.

Seaweed brand is maxicrop. Glad to know I still have time to use it.

Thanks again.

I'm sorry that I keep posting. I'll shut up after this post. Bifoliate cattleyas are very sensitive to being repotted. They should only be repotted when new growth is visable, usually in the spring. They can actually die if they're repotted at the wrong time of year. Good luck.

[plumania]

Originally Posted by tucker85

I'm sorry that I keep posting. I'll shut up after this post. Bifoliate cattleyas are very sensitive to being repotted. They should only be repotted when new growth is visable, usually in the spring. They can actually die if they're repotted at the wrong time of year. Good luck.

May be that is why my Bifoliates are not doing well.
All I can do now is just wait and try to stimulate rooting. Really did not have any choice because most of the roots died when they were in clay pots.

Tucker, no need to apologize for posting. You have done me a huge favor by the valuable advise you gave. And I feel it was timely advise and absolutely related to the topic.

[james mickelso]

The reason your roots died in the clay pots wasn't because they were made from clay but because of watering. When pbulbs mature they reduce the need for water. They can't take up as much water because the pbulb has grown as large as it is going to (to a certain extent) and there is no further room for it. It shifts to making new growth. If the pbulb is not producing a flower or flower sheath, it requires much less water. More if it is in a hot environment and less if in a cool one like winter. I find that most people water more than necessary to keep the orchid healthy. In florida where tucker lives the orchids need more water than here on the west coast and less in Canada which is getting much cooler. Hope this makes sense. Just mist the undersides of the leaves daily or more if you want. If it has roots, mist them too. If your environment gets dry water. You can also use that stuff Tucker told you about on the undersides of the leaves and the orchid will take it in even with few to no roots.