The orchids that I'm putting outside right now should be able to handle these temps. I did my research. A couple Dendrobium speciosum, jonesii, a kingianum, Laelia autumnalis, and a high elevation Oncidium. Monthly average lows go into low 40s F, 90% standard deviation according to one website is around 37F. But the 20 year extreme is 27F.
I had thought that if I kept them dry, frost wouldn't be an issue (because they would be dry, there would be no frost), but that seems naive. I could bring them in when there's freezing weather on the forecast, but I wouldn't be able to keep a very large outdoors collection like this. Maybe a frost blanket would work?
The second issue is last night and the night before (forecast shows we won't reach dew point until next Thursday) started getting wet at night -- let's call it 9PM. It cleared up this morning. The plants are placed along a wall on the west side of the house that gets morning light. The wall and shade cloth takes care of late afternoon. But that's a good maybe 10 hours of dew. Should I be spraying preventative fungicides in these situations, or does it usually not get too bad assuming the culture is otherwise okay?
---------- Post added at 01:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:29 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by estación seca
Yes, it matters which plants. Go to Roberta's Web site and look at what she's growing outside. She's probably closer to the ocean than you are. She probably has temperatures like that from time to time.
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If I'm not mistaken, Roberta is in Sunset zone 23/24. I'm in Sunset zone 20. That means her temperatures will be consistently 3-6F higher than over here in winter, and lower in the summer. I did find another member on this board, epiphyte78, that lives in Glendale, also zone 20, that climate sites say are within 3F lows of my city. Maybe I'm excessively paranoid, since indoors I would take specific care not to get water onto the leaves and crown.
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