Orchid Sunday!

[jkofferdahl]

[estación seca]

Yes! I'm leaving the house soon to help a friend move. This is one of the benefits of having a pickup truck with an 8 foot bed (2,438mm.) A lot of people ask to borrow it, but change their minds when they find out it has a stick shift on the floor. The driver doesn't usually come with when this truck is borrowed, but these are some good friends. Plus, moving is a great whole-body weightlifting workout.

It was surprisingly dark when I woke up early (or, that is, the dogs told me to wake up.) We have overcast, likely a remnant of a Pacific hurricane, and there have been enough sprinkles to mud the windshields. I drained the water from the Vanda vases, set them outside in the bright cloudy shade, made coffee and breakfast, and now will remove some other mounted orchids from their overnight soak in the rain tub. I watered yesterday.

[rbarata]

Hello, my friends

Today I've dedicated part of my time on war to spider mites. I've found two of my phals with it so...water, soap and alcohol bath time. Weather here is always dry and hot in summer so I'm starting to see that mites are something I won't never get rid of, even indoors.

The last two days temps have been cooler (75 F / 24º C max and 52 F / 11ºC min) but not for long as next week the forecast is mid 90's (33º C) with little perspectives of changing in the next two weeks.

I've watered some of my orchids and notice 3 spikes in my cambria and 3 more spikes in two of my cymbs (one of them is blooming for the first time in my hands).

I also got a weekend visit from my daughter who is away for uni and I'm about to leave for a snack (she and my son, who still lives with me, invited me so I have hopes they'll pay.
Just kidding.

Next wednesday it's an holiday (5, Oct, more info here) so I'm glad tomorrow it's thursday again.

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by rbarata

I also got a weekend visit from my daughter who is away for uni and I'm about to leave for a snack (she and my son, who still lives with me, invited me so I have hopes they'll pay)....

: :

[Leafmite]

Kids...I have three kids in college right now. It was tough when each one left but the last one leaving was the worst. This year, I have noticed that I am pampering both the dogs and plants more.

Plants...I ran out of space in my windows two years ago and had to start growing under lights. This will be the third winter. This year, I had to put a number of little trees under lights as some other 'little' trees have really grown and there is no room for these others. I do have space on the new shelf for a mini 'fairy' garden (I love what people do with the train set ups but am not that ambitious so...fairy garden).
I have just a few tropical plants still outside but they will be coming in at the end of the week. The weather here is about to drop another ten degrees so that we will have temperatures in the sixties ('F) during the day and forties ('F) at night. Even though the plants would be fine in these temperatures, I do not like to stress them just before winter. If it was spring, I would leave them out there.

Spider mites. They are rather nasty. One year, I bought a plant with them and ended up spraying it and the neighboring plants with olive oil one evening and washing them in warm, soapy water the next morning out of desperation. Fortunately, it worked and I had no more issue with them that year.
I don't like to use a pesticide for them as they become resistant and we have fruit trees so I am always looking for something to which they cannot become resistant. Lady bugs help but there are also various predator mites one can buy. I usually go the lady bug larvae route. One year, I bought lacewing larvae (they work well, too). This year, I am trying using a fan on the plants as someone says that helps to discourage them. Anyone have an opinion on that? I also have trays under the plants for more humidity (I know there is some debate about that, too, but the water does go somewhere when it evaporates....).

[katrina]

We used to raise mantids! We'd collect the oothecas every fall from our beds. Very, very cool. Some of the cases were large enough that they would hatch thousands. We'd then release then in the beds when they hatched in the spring. We had so many cases some years that we would give some to friends and family. Definitely very cool critters and especially entertaining for kids...as well as adults.

[Leafmite]

We bought the mantis egg-cases too for a few years. They are quite a bit of fun.

[gngrhill]

Nothing going on here as exciting a raising mantis babies, but orchid work still. I've been rearranging space trying to make room for the "outside" plants to come in. Brought my Oncids into the living room where they have a South window and will have warmer temps than in my grow space. My Cyms and Nobile Dens are still out until it gets colder and I need lots of room for them. Eight Nobiles and 3 Cyms. This is going to be a problem
On a plus note, I have noticed some beginning spikes on some of the plants when I watered this morning, so maybe some blooms soon.

[pipsxlch]

Spent a big chunk of the afternoon finding somewhat safe looking places to lay my orchids on the ground- Matthew may bullseye us, I live about 25-30 miles from the coast at Cape Kennedy as the crow flies, and I live in a 20 ft trailer so nowhere inside for them. Pooh.

[FairyInTheFlowers]

I'm always jealous of those who have the money/space/location to grow their orchids outside for a part of the year. I always have joked that if Canada adopted a tropical island, my friends would never see me again. We had a record breaking snow dump yesterday into today and I HATE the cold and snow.