Orchids in the Mist (King) - Orchid Board

lycaonpictus · #1 10-10-2012, 02:18 PM

Ah, humidity (specifically, the lack thereof)! The bane of all northern orchid growers in the winter.

So I successfully set up the Orchid Case of the Gods, which I bought from the talented and wonderfully thorough ocelaris. I love this case! It’s exactly the right size for me and my tolumnia, and was so thoughtfully designed that the only thing I’ve altered is to put the occasional hook on the outside to ziptie power cords to.

One of the wonderful design elements ocealaris built into the case is a humidistat-driven fogging system. A five-gallon bucket of RO water houses an ultrasonic mister, with a muffin fan to blow the resulting mist up a tube into the case. Works like a dream! I can set the humidistat to whatever relative humidity I want, and the fan-fogger system automatically kicks on and off to keep things reasonably steady.

The only downside is that I’ve burned through at least three ultrasonic foggers so far! I started with the little 1-disc models. They worked fine, but had to run almost continually to produce the necessary humidity. I could float two in the reservoir, which helped, but that was pretty much it as far as expansion. So I graduated to the big 5-disc models. These were PERFECT! Great amounts of mist, filled the whole case quickly. The first one I got simply ceased working for no apparent reason after a few months; the manufacturer kindly replaced it. The second one worked for maybe another 6 months, then ALSO stopped working. This time, though, it had horrible corroded spots around some of the discs. I managed to clean it up, seal the corrosion, replace some discs, and it worked for maybe another week. I can only conclude that the sort of on-off usage required to keep a big orchid case at humidity is just too much for something designed to make fountains in restaurant lobbies look pretty.

Still, these puppies are expensive enough that I can’t be replacing them every 6 months! Not to mention my poor orchids suffering the feast and famine of great humidity / no humidity whenever a fogger breaks.

So I finally broke down and did what I SHOULD have done years ago – bought a Mist King system. When you add up everything I spent on the various foggers, I would have saved money if I’d just bought the Mist King to begin with! Ah, well. Live and learn.

I just received everything over the weekend, and have it 90% hooked up (I had to order some more tubing to finish). So far, it’s fabulous! And, oh my god, this thing could not be quieter! The foggers were louder! I am looking forward to many years of misty fogs in the orchid case, and lots of happy orchids.

Is there a question in all this? Why yes! There is!

I’m curious how folks who use a misting system like this implement it. Meaning: Do you set a timer, and have it run x-many minutes every y-hours? Do you have it set up with a humidistat? Right now, I’m experimenting, to see if I can identify timing intervals that keep the tank high-humidity but not dripping. But I’m also planning to run it through the humidistat to see what sort of results that produces. I was just wondering what input the Group Mind might have from other such endeavors.

Thanks in advance, crew!

naoki · #2 10-10-2012, 07:25 PM

I was just thinking of getting Mist King. Maybe you can help me. Do you think that it can be used to irrigate a couple mounted orchids? You are using it for humidity, but I'm thinking of putting roots of mounted orchids close to the mister. I'm wondering if the mist is really fine, it may not be suitable for irrigation. What do you think?

I'm growing orchids in a grow tent, and I can get enough humidity (around 70%). Mostly it's coming from passive humidity tray, but I have evaporative humidifier which is controlled by hygrotherm when the humidity become really low. So you might like hygrotherm to mist king. You can obtain more stable humidity than doing interval spraying because RH is influenced by the temperature.

Bud · #3 10-10-2012, 07:47 PM

I am a windowsill grower in Manhattan....I invested in a three gallon humidifier/air cleaner since I got my Vandas....it provides 60% humidity in the room and it also is healthy for me....with oscillating small electric fans in the day and a constant 80F in my climate controlled apartment....I am providing my orchids with tropical environment all year round

isurus79 · #4 10-12-2012, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lycaonpictus

I’m curious how folks who use a misting system like this implement it. Meaning: Do you set a timer, and have it run x-many minutes every y-hours? Do you have it set up with a humidistat? Right now, I’m experimenting, to see if I can identify timing intervals that keep the tank high-humidity but not dripping. But I’m also planning to run it through the humidistat to see what sort of results that produces. I was just wondering what input the Group Mind might have from other such endeavors.

Thanks in advance, crew!

I bought a full kit when I got my mistking and it comes with a timer. This is not the kind of timer that you get for $10 at Home Depot either. It is fully electronic, can be set to run multiple times per day (or per week) and you can set exactly how long it runs for. In my tank, I have a reservoir of water at the bottom that keeps humidity high, so I only need to water 2x per day. In the morning, the system runs for 1.5 minutes and then I get a 30 second misting 3 or 4 hours before the lights turn off. I know of other people that don't have the pool of water at the bottom of the tank and run their system for a minute or once every hour. I don't have to touch the tank because my orchids get watered automatically, the fan comes on automatically and the lighting system is automatic too. I have a bucket (5 gallons maybe?) holding the mistking reservoir and I think I fill it every other month or so. Definitely saves A TON of water over hand watering!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by naoki

I was just thinking of getting Mist King. Maybe you can help me. Do you think that it can be used to irrigate a couple mounted orchids? You are using it for humidity, but I'm thinking of putting roots of mounted orchids close to the mister. I'm wondering if the mist is really fine, it may not be suitable for irrigation. What do you think?

I'm growing orchids in a grow tent, and I can get enough humidity (around 70%). Mostly it's coming from passive humidity tray, but I have evaporative humidifier which is controlled by hygrotherm when the humidity become really low. So you might like hygrotherm to mist king. You can obtain more stable humidity than doing interval spraying because RH is influenced by the temperature.

I've always wondered if there are orchid growers in AK! My wife is from there and she never knew of any. lol Anyway, using a mistking would be a great way to water your mounted orchids. I have one in my 29 gal grow area it works really well on all my 'chids in there, mounted or otherwise.

naoki · #5 10-12-2012, 03:21 PM

Thank you for your info, Steve! I've also seen a similar product, AquaZamp, recommended in a Chameleon forum. But it seems to be more expensive. Exo-terra Monsoon is cheaper, but people seems to prefer AquaZamp and Mist King over Monsoon. I'm probably going to get MistKing.

Indeed, I don't know any other orchid growers in interior alaska. Anchorage seems to have an active orchid society, but it's too far away to go there every month. When I moved to AK about 10 years ago, I managed to kill all of my orchids, but the grow tent solved the problem of no humidity issue.

stonedragonfarms · #6 10-24-2012, 12:04 AM

I use a mistKing in my masdevallia viv; I have it set to come on in 1.5 minute increments every 3 hours while the lights are on; there is one plant that never seems to stay moist enough, so I supplemental water it 2-3 times a week, but aside from pulling the plants out to fertilize or show them, the misting is all the watering that they get. 75% of them are mounted (tree fern or cork), the rest in sphagnum moss in plastic pots. I've not had any problems with dripping, though I am also running twin katana fans at 1020cfm in the tank 24/7. I don't have a relative humidity monitor on the tank, but I'd wager it runs somewhere between 80-90% during the day, with a drop at night when there is no misting occurring.
Hope this helps,
Adam

lycaonpictus · #7 11-03-2012, 11:04 AM

So for the last few weeks, I've had the mister hooked up to the humidistat. I've got THAT on a timer, so that it only functions when the lights are on. (In Western PA in the winter, I don't need to be spraying water on plants in the dark!)

It seems to be working pretty well. Not only do the plants look pretty happy, I've been able to drop back to officially watering the tolumnia (mostly mounted) every few days.

I'll try to get some pictures of the case up once things start blooming in the spring.

Purple_phal_gal13 · #8 11-07-2012, 10:29 PM

One of my ultimate Orchid dreams is a Orchid case with a misting system in it. For display of course.

derv88 · #9 01-10-2013, 10:51 AM

New member, first post!

I am trying to replicate a "greenhouse" in the winter with a small room, florescents + natural sunlight, and of course a humidifier.

Question on humidifiers - I bought a cheap wick style after reading some suggestions on this board, but the problem with it is that it only has a 1 gallon tank and it burns through that in less than 24 hours.

I work in PGH a few days a week but live in Chicago so I can't exactly fill the tank every night...is there a potential solution to this? I've searched for high cap water tank humidifiers, but the most seems to be the console style which actually consume as much as they put out thus still requiring a daily filling.

If I let the humidity level drop down to match that of the house, it gets into the 20% range (steam heat). No wonder why I've been struggling figuring out what is wrong with my orchids and why I can't get them to re-spike.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!!

Jack

ALToronto · #10 01-23-2013, 02:10 PM

I also have a Mist King system, but I have a different setup. The 'living wall' below is hollow inside, and that's where the misting nozzles are located. The plants are potted in net pots, in Hydroton, and some have retained their live sphagnum cover from the seedling pots. At the bottom is a reservoir, and I'm now recirculating the water, with a small homemade filter on the hose inlet. Still a few leaks that I need to take care of

I wish I could say this is working well and the Hydroton stays evenly moist in every pot. It doesn't. I probably need to add a couple of nozzles (I'm using 3 right now), and use some other water-absorbing material together with Hydroton (Rockwool maybe?). However, the plants aren't showing any signs of distress (actually, one phal had to be removed, but it probably didn't like the lights). The catts and the encyclias are all doing well.

Anyways, so far, so good.