Not really off topic but...6

[greenpassion]

Is anyone out there grown orchids successfully when the temperature is in Winter suddenly go from a normal 32 maybe 25 degrees, to 17 below 0? Due to global warming of course, Southern Vermont now is in a deep deep freeze. This is expected to last for 12 to 14 days and maybe longer. In my 35 years of being in my home here this has not happened. I've been growing orchids for seven years. And wasn't really passionately into it until the last year-and-a-half.New homes might be fine but for my home which is over 70 years old and built by someone who had no idea how to build a house, it is frigid and dry and I have 26 phalaenopsis orchids in Spike. Has anyone ever been able to manage something like this, and bring there plants to fruition? Heat is not a problem but very expensive. I have a hot-air furnace. Humidity once again is. Can these orchids that I grow who has been accustomed to 45 to 55% humidity go down to 20 for an extended period of time.? If I was retired and it stay home I could keep the humidity up. But as I speak, I have three humidifiers and a pot on the stove with a fan blowing the air and I can't keep the humidity up in this large room past 37%. I guess what I'm asking is is there anyone from the Arctic or Alaska that grows phalaenopsis orchids successfully?

---------- Post added at 10:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:08 PM ----------

I apologize for being so redundant. I guess I need to talk to someone from the deep Arctic who grows orchids who can't afford high-tech temp and humidity controls.

[Roberta]

Brrrrr... I can't even begin to imagine that level of cold. But as long as you can keep the temperature under control (not only for the orchids but for you and your family) I doubt very much that the humidity drop will cause harm. You may have to water more often. I don't have the cold where I live, but I do have wild humidity fluctuations, and my orchids - including the Phals, have been OK even with RH down into single digits. 20% RH should be no problem as long as they are hydrated. With the low RH, don't worry about overwatering... moist media gives a local humidity boost, as the plants dry out they pull air into the root zone which is good.

[Subrosa]

Keep an eye on you at those humidity levels. I thought I had pneumonia after a week in an old house with a gravity hot air system.

[katrina]

We get some really cold snaps in Ohio but even during the not so extreme cold...my house can be very dry in the winter. I tried a humidifier one year but it did next to nothing so I stopped messing with it after only a short period. I do have to water more frequently to compensate for the drier air...but I've never had a problem w/the orchids (since '08) or with any of the many other plants I grow and have been growing for a very long time.

With that said...I grow only one very humidity sensitive orchid (a Paphinia) and even 50% isn't going to make that one happy. It was an impulse buy and I didn't do my research...I will probably lose this one at some point. All the rest though...catts, phals, dens, trichs, ctsm, lyc, etc, etc, etc,..they never skip a beat.

One word of caution. If your older windows are also very drafty then you should check the temps near the windows. Even non-drafty windows can have a lot of cold radiating off the glass when the lows are that extreme and that could affect any plants sitting too close. It's easy to feel the area and you can tell...if it feels very cold to you then you might consider moving the plants further into the room. I grow some orchids right in the windows (I'm talking only a couple/few inches away from the glass!) and there have been some times where I pulled those closest to the glass and temporarily put them in a warm spot...until the extreme cold passes.

I should add that before we got new windows...I never had the plants quite this close to the glass because the insulation factor was horrible on those old things. The newer windows...even this morning when it's a whopping 3 degrees (w/a wind chill factor of -3), it's not so cold that i need to move anything. Those old windows though...I would've had to move the orchids late yesterday and I would've woke up to some ice on the metal around those old things.

[rbarata]

I'm assuming the temp units used is F.

[katrina]

Originally Posted by rbarata

I'm assuming the temp units used is F.

Yes, Fahrenheit.

[greenpassion]

I have a humidity monitor that I keep on the table that is with my orchids in front of the big picture window. It is a new or replacement window. I do feel with my hand that the temperature is cooler and that area but it hasn't been bad enough for me to have to move them yet. This morning the 10th is 66 and the humidity is 40. That's pretty good I think.

[No-Pro-mwa]

'Due to global warming of course' hee, hee, hee the things they try to get us to believe.
Any way my house gets pretty darn cold in the winter at night. I stopped using a humidifier because the one I bought died after just a few months. I do have one that has lasted but it is down in the basement with my Masdie's. My humidity is very low but most of mine seem to do fine. I do have a time keeping up with the watering. Well it would be better if I were watering now instead of yakking on this board.

[Subrosa]

Originally Posted by No-Pro-mwa

'Due to global warming of course' hee, hee, hee the things they try to get us to believe.
Any way my house gets pretty darn cold in the winter at night. I stopped using a humidifier because the one I bought died after just a few months. I do have one that has lasted but it is down in the basement with my Masdie's. My humidity is very low but most of mine seem to do fine. I do have a time keeping up with the watering. Well it would be better if I were watering now instead of yakking on this board.

In the 70s they said we'd be living on a snowball by now. Maybe they were right?

[jkofferdahl]

{{{{Sigh}}}}

What's the TEMPERATURE INSIDE?? Orchids don't care what the temperature is outside.