The common cooling question

[Thyroyalgeek]

In the triad area of NC.

---------- Post added at 11:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:51 AM ----------

In the triad area of NC.

---------- Post added at 11:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:57 AM ----------

Oops. Doublepost.

[rbarata]

As far as I've seen online your climate is somewhat humid and not that hot, in fact it's somewhat cool during the year at night.

Temperature ranges must not be taken as black and white. Plants can get acclimatized and sometimes there's good surprises.

Although I'm not a cloud forest orchid grower, maybe you could tell us which genus are you planning to grow.
That's also an important piece of information.

[Thyroyalgeek]

It's definitely humid, but it's not that hot...... And then it is......... And then it isn't again. Temperature fluctuation is pretty wild here, so you never know quite what you're gonna get, but I do know our summers are HOT (one of the perks of living in NC!) on our warmest summers temps can even go to 101°, but that's not the norm, it's generally somewhere from 70 -95°. In the blue Ridge and smokies though, if you're wanting to grow cool-loving orchids, that's the place to be. If you're at a decent altitude, the conditions are as described: super humid, the fog literally rolls in like a horror movie, can't even see out the window going up Mount mitchell, it's a wonder we've never got in a wreck up there. Cool nights and warm, not hot days. It's the exact same conditions in a cloud forest except one thing....... The catch is that winter is AWFUL! it's absolutely freezing up the mountain and on the highest peaks the winter temps go below 0° fairly often. The only things that I grow that survive our chilly winters, (yes it's cold in the triad area too,) are my carnivores, and orchids like tipularia, platanthera, aplectrum, cypripedium, and epipactis. So I would need a cloud forest mini-biome no matter where I live. But I'm not complaining atleast I don't live in Canada wink wink. Here are some examples of what I want to grow.... Paphiopedilums, phragmipediums, soterosanthus, rossioglossum, angraecum, peristeria, anguloa, those particularly. Some of these are intermediate but still like cool nights. Sorry about the rambling, I probably sound like an ourstate magazine by now XD.

[rbarata]

From your description it doesn't seem that bad.
From all the orchids you've mentioned I only grow a Paph leannum which is a cool/intermediate growing orchid and I've been sucessful without any problems so far (I have it for more than 3 years).
My temps in summer are warm day and night (high 70/low 80's) without variation and the humidity is around 20~30%. It just needs extra watering.

In winter it goes to the 80% and temps are in the low 50's range.

[Thyroyalgeek]

Yeah it's not too bad here, it's just the winter that destroys stuff. It's not the summer, summers fine, it just gets too cold in the winter to keep a small greenhouse warm.......

[naoki]

Most of what you wanted to grow are not really cool-growers like Masdevallia or Oxyglossum. You can easily grow there (I lived in Durham) without special enclosures. Cheapest way to grow them would be to grow them outside in the summer, and bring them in when it is cold.

If you want to grow cool growers, modified refrigerator/chest freezer might be a good option.

Temperature fluctuation is beneficial because how photosynthesis and respiration is influenced by temperature. Both photosynthesis and respiration rate increases with temperature (excluding extreme heat). There is an optimum temperature which maximizes the difference between photosynthesis and respiration (most carbon assimilation). At night, lower temp. decreases the respiration rate. But if it is too cold, some other enzymatic reactions don't work too well. But plants grow under a constant temp.

If you use cheap LEDs, it does increase the temperature of enclosed area quite a bit. Cheap ones have the conversion efficiency less than 40%. In other words, 60% of electricity is released as heat. So the heat generation is not just at the driver. Once the efficacy is close to 180-200lumen/W, I can put them inside of fairly tight enclosures without the overheating problems.

[Thyroyalgeek]

Maybe not all of them are cool growers, but all of them need temperature drops, which I'm still wondering how to provide.

[rbarata]

To bloom some orchids need a temp drop but that happens naturaly, in general, between seasons instead of between night and day.
If that's the case, nature provides it to you and me.

If you haven't done it yet, I sugest you to investigate each of the potencial genera about this particular requirement.

[Thyroyalgeek]

True, but if I keep them outside, then they will die of 20° temps, and inside, suffer from lack of temperature change. I have actually read an AOS article on each type, and pretty much all of them are either cool growing or intermediate. I'm just wondering how to get a temperature change in the winter...... Temp change in summer, spring, and fall, No problem, nature does that, but in the cold months I will have to keep them inside which I'm still wondering about.

[rbarata]

Maybe I was not clear enough...you get the temp drop between summer and winter, not between night and day...unless your whole house is heated.
If so, don't you have a spare room unheated?