When the big one hits, whats your plan to save your orchids?

[My Green Pets]

I keep my collection around 40 plants so that if I get evicted I can still fit them all in my car. lol

I rent space in a commercial greenhouse here near Denver and it had baseball-sized holes punched in it by hail in June 2018. Thankfully the impact slowed down the hailstones and plant damage was negligible.

If they lost heating or got pummeled by a winter storm during the cold months, my plants would be mush. I tend to keep around 10 of them in my apartment and the rest in the greenhouse, so I wouldn't lose all of them if something bad happened.

And the latest strategy is to pollinate my favorites and send the seed to a lab. So even if I lost everything, I'd still have the flasks coming on.

[DirtyCoconuts]

I appreciate the thoughtfulness, William. I had a good friend in college who was, let’s just say, more likely to get himself kicked out of a place.

He and I were friends since middle school (played lacrosse together) and we shared a love of plants. He would bring an assortment of plants to my house/apt from time to time with the explanation that he had just been booted or was about to be and he didn’t want to lose X. One thanksgiving when I was going home I called his mom and said I had some of his plants and she said to bring them by...I showed up with close to 100 hoyas, orchids, lycopodium and assorted others and she (seriously) asked me if he robbed a nursery.....

When he saw he almost kissed me. He was sure they were all dead and gone and he couldn’t believe it.

[Keysguy]

SaraJean- what Cat. hurricane do you think the bungee cords and velcro straps are rated for? I'm just curios because I had some vanda seedlings zip- tied to trees on what ended up being the lee side of my house in Irma and all that was left were a few threads of root structure. Even the damn zip ties were gone! How is that possible? And the tree was fine, albeit it looked like a nuke had landed on it but it has come back perfectly fine.
I guess my point is, Irma was my first exposure to a biggie and I was just stunned by what can happen. We saw things that just couldn't be explained.

[My Green Pets]

DC I hope your kindness has paid you back with dividends, that was very nice.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Originally Posted by Keysguy

SaraJean- what Cat. hurricane do you think the bungee cords and velcro straps are rated for? I'm just curios because I had some vanda seedlings zip- tied to trees on what ended up being the lee side of my house in Irma and all that was left were a few threads of root structure. Even the damn zip ties were gone! How is that possible? And the tree was fine, albeit it looked like a nuke had landed on it but it has come back perfectly fine.
I guess my point is, Irma was my first exposure to a biggie and I was just stunned by what can happen. We saw things that just couldn't be explained.

This is a tricky question and it is the most annoying answer, it depends....on a lot

So, they are not rated for any cat storm but they can do a great deal when used in conjunction with good planning and architecture

There are two keys (in my mind for storm prep); don’t let it START to move, or don’t let it catch wind.

Sara’s Velcro is great for keeping those plants from the initial movement, once they start moving and flapping it is over. The bricks and straps, the same goal, don’t let the bins move at all or they will get tossed about, tucking them under a patio is also clever

I have an aluminum prefab shed, it’s miraculously made it five years already. The “safety” measure for the shed is basically a 3’ corkscrew that one twists into the ground on all four corners and then uses, you guessed it, ratchet straps to secure the structure....it does NOT inspire confidence lol but it also works up to a point



On number two, I opted for a lath house over a shade house because mine does not catch much wind. I put it on the north side to avoid direct wind and I think it will be fine in most storms up to 3/4 unless something hits it (huge unless, but there is nothing that will stand up to a flying 19’ palm tree)

I find a lot of this is the awful task of prioritizing the plants you care about (terrible) and the amount of personal resource you are willing and able to spend. I do the best I can with the materials and technology available to me and try not to let laziness ever dictate my actions when it comes to storm prep...in 37 years of Hurricane living I have learned that complacency is the biggest killer.

[ArronOB]

Thanks for starting this thread Keysguy - it’s a good one and has got me thinking.

As we don’t really have extreme weather events here our only real threat is bushfire. We have a bushfire plan but I had not included a strategy for my orchids. I would be devastated to loose them all - especially if they were lost largely because of lack of forethought.

I think maybe the strategy should be something like assembling a handful of fold-down tables or racks in the garage. Move them to the carport when danger threatens and carry the plants down and crowd them together in the carport on those racks. I think the idea would be to get the orchids settled as early as possible so we could go on to the important business of defending the house (or fleeing) without distraction.

Thinking about it more - whatever is done would need to not create an ember trap.

Good thread.

[DirtyCoconuts]

X1000

It is that old adage about a teaspoon of planning.

Even if you don’t do any preparation, having a plan in your head can be the difference.

[SaraJean]

Originally Posted by Keysguy

SaraJean- what Cat. hurricane do you think the bungee cords and velcro straps are rated for?

DC pretty much nailed it. Keep things from moving and catching wind, if either of those happen you’re SOL.

On their own, the bungees and Velcro wouldn’t do much. So I try to secure things at several points in the most protected spots. The pots are placed snug against each other, secured to the benches, the middle and tops of the plants pinned to the back wall that is covered in lattice, and the lattice is bolted to the back courtyard wall that is pretty protected from the wind. The courtyard is small and the walls are 8’ high, that works in my favor and provides a good bit of a buffer from the wind.

The bins are in another protected spot, under the balcony and against a wall. As long as they are strapped together and have things in front, they don’t move. The bricks in the bottom bins might help against some minor storm wind, but are primarily there to add weight for flooding (our major issue since the city is a bowl. the bins started floating away one year, lol).

Would any of these things work against 180mph winds? Not sure. I can also see where securing something like Vandas that are on trees out in the open could be an issue.

---------- Post added at 07:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 AM ----------

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

I have an aluminum prefab shed, it’s miraculously made it five years already. The “safety” measure for the shed is basically a 3’ corkscrew that one twists into the ground on all four corners and then uses, you guessed it, ratchet straps to secure the structure....it does NOT inspire confidence lol but it also works up to a point

First time I saw somebody do this to their shed I busted out laughing. But color me shocked, it works.

[WaterWitchin]

Here, we do tornadoes. And there's usually not much warning time. When lucky, the tornado doesn't do a direct hit on your property. Some years we never have to hit the basement. Some years multiple times.

In years of multiple times, I'd have gone insane carrying orchids inside, then back outside, then back inside, rinse and repeat. And never having a tornado hit. That would first presume there was time for that. We have many tornado "watches" during the season, at times several during a week. When it escalates to "warning" there's enough time to grab kids, dogs, the beer cooler, and hit the basement. The radio, lanterns and candles, and zero G lawn chairs stay there year 'round.

The outside animals, the plants, etc, just have to fend for themselves while we all pray it's not our day for a direct hit.

[SaraJean]

Not much terrifies me more than tornadoes and wildfires. I’ve lived in areas where both are problems, spent many nights in the basement in Ohio and had the car packed n ready to flee fires in Napa, I’ll take a hurricane any day of the week. I’m probably just kidding myself thinking that I can actually do anything to prevent major damage from a big storm, but it’s that sense of control when you have time to prepare and knowing when it will hit that helps my mental state. But really, you can only prepare so much for any natural disaster