Dracula vespertillio grown on a Cool Tube

[missmorbus]

I just wanted to share this since I know I'm not the only one out there desperately searching for ways to grow Draculas (and other cool growing Pleuros) in warmer temps.

I read about Cool Pots and Cool Tubes a while back, but I'm always leery of products that seem too good to be true, so I just kind of assumed they were. A couple of weekends ago at an orchid show, I stumbled upon The Orchid Gallery's booth and actually got a chance to see the Cool Pots in action. I have to admit....I was shocked the first time I touched one...it actually was cool and damp to the touch. So, I picked up a Cool Tube and a type of Cool Pot that you can mount smaller plants to the side of (I don't see this one listed on her website). When I got it home, I filled the Cool Tube with water and treated it like it had a plant mounted on it for about a week just so I could get a better idea of what conditions it could offer me. I tried to watch the temp to see just how cool it would get, but we ended up having freakishly cool weather for Louisiana that week, so I don't feel like my temps could accurately portray what I could normally expect. I do feel that I can expect cooler temps than I would normally get in my grow area. I ordered a Dracula vespertillio and mounted it on the Cool Tube a few days ago. It's an intermediate growing Dracula, and from what I've read, it isn't a very difficult one to grow. If it does great, then I plan on getting another Cool Tube and trying out a cool growing Dracula. Here's a picture.




So far it's keeping the moss very moist. I was putting a little water on the moss and then topping off the water in the tube, but it ended up dripping a lot, so now I'm just topping off the water in the tube every evening. It feels cool to the touch and the plant seems happy. It's only been a couple of days, but it hasn't lost any leaves or had any browning, so I'm happy about that.

[Wouter]

Looks very interesting please keep us updated!

[Daethen]

Looks great. Now I want one just cause it looks so awesome.

[Paul Mc]

I actually did order their cool pots a while back and am trying Masdie's in them. I was also concerned about it sounding too gimmicky. However, last month at the Greater St. Louis Orchid Society meeting, a grower and distributor of orchids was speaking about Ondontoglossums and mentioned several methods of keeping them cool. One thing he mentioned was the cool pots to which almost everyone in the audience made a "Yeah - I know these" positive type comment. Then just this friday at the next meeting, another grower had them available for our mounting culture class and mentioned how useful they were for reducing temperature.

At first my Masdie's appeared to be dying but I discovered the medium I was using was probably not the best. So I replaced it with sphag and now there are many new leaves in just one month's time. With that and the grower's mentioning them I have to think I'm rather sold on the idea. I have not had the time yet to do a real test of the substrate temperature in relation to the room temperature yet though.

Now, don't everyone rush their stuff at once - let me get some more first! LOL...

[Zoi2]

I've seen these and understand the cooling idea, especially in the warm/hot summer. I do wonder what temp of the pot or tube is during the winter when the room temp drops down to the 60'sF. Anyone have an idea?
Joann

[ronaldhanko]

I think you have to be very careful about using good water or the salts build up in the porous material and damage the plant - otherwise I've heard good things about them also.

[Amanda L]

Looks very interesting! Gives me hope that I would be able to grow cool growing plants. Thanks for sharing and keep us updated on how things go.

[Tindomul]

Very interesting. How does it work exactly? Are you keeping these in an enclosed area or out in a regular room?

[RosieC]

It's looking good!

Tindo the principle is the same as just using porous clay pots (which I do with Masdies). The evaporation from the clay has a cooling effect. These 'cool pots' are designed to have a much larger surface area for the evaporation to occur so have a larger cooling effect.

[missmorbus]

Thanks everyone! I'll definitely drop in periodically and keep this updated.

Zoi2 - I haven't really figured out a way to get an accurate reading of the temperature of the tube and substrate. I keep a thermometer/hydrometer in my grow area, but I really need something I can stick in the moss. Maybe a cooking thermometer would work. I'll have to experiment.

Ron - I definitely agree with using good water. I'm using distilled water only for this. I even used distilled water when I was testing it before I mounted the plant on it. I didn't want to risk the tube getting a salt build up from my tap water.

Tindomul - It's a curved ceramic tube. You put the water inside the tube and mount the plant on the outside of the tube (in the curved part). The tube basically wicks the water out. If you feel the outside of the tube while its full of water, it feels like a drinking glass that is sweating. It keeps the plant wet and the water evaporating through the porous material keeps it cool. I think the type of ceramic/clay is what makes this so effective. It seems to "sweat" more than terracotta. I have a Masdie in a terracotta pot, and the outside of that pot isn't nearly as wet as this tube. To answer you second question, I am keeping it in a regular room. I have a couple of humidity trays, but nothing is enclosed. My humidity is usually around 50%. I keep all of my orchids that like to stay moist in sphag and water them frequently. I have a few mounted Masdies that I water twice a day. I'm definitely babying all my Pleuros, but my collection isn't that big, so it's manageable. Plus, I like it.

I should add that I originally said that I top off the water once a day, but yesterday I ended up topping it off twice (morning and evening). It probably would have been fine, but I don't want to risk it drying out.

Just a warning, it was pretty difficult to mount the plant on there. I tried, but wasn't able to do it by myself. I ended up holding the plant and moss on the tube while my husband wrapped the fishing line around it. I'm not that experienced with mounting plants, so maybe it was just me.