Hi Kostas:
In your post of 02/21/11, you mentioned pumps, timers, etc. That's exactly what I have. I wanted to have an automated system to be able to go away on vacations, weekends and give more consistent care. I originally set it up in December 2009 when I went away for 2 weeks. At that time I had ~ 25 orchids of different types. In July 2010, I was away for close to 3 weeks. In February 2011, I was away for 1 week again. I lock my house, nobody touches my plants, I have heat, but no AC. Rhynchostylis gigantea is blooming now. The system works. I didn't make it too pretty though.
My original setup was with a submersible pump in a container and thin (1/4") clear tubing going to the plants (Ascocenda and Rhynchostylis gigantea). The same water was used for both plants. The water was pumped to plants and dripped down back in the container. A timer was set to start the pumps twice a day for 3 min (6:30 am and 3 pm). I change water ~1/week. If I remembered, I put fertilizer.
My original container was a small garbage container, so it wasn't very attractive. In January of this year, I saw awesome pictures of orchids in vases. I loved the look, but there was no way I'd be watering daily by hand. My boyfriend drilled drain holes in glass vases (one per vase), so I have a similar setup as before, but it looks more attractive. Now water collects in the bottom of the vase and runs back into the original container.
Disclosure: since the move into glass vases, the roots of my Rhyn. gigantea are not looking so good, hence, I'm here looking for answers and ideas. I haven't been paying too much attention to it lately
I'm wondering if I watered it too much. I changed the setup, but didn't adjust watering.
Good luck,
Natalia
pumps
Linear Mode
