Wardian Case
 

I've finally gotten around to posting pictures of my homemade Wardian Case for miniatures on a new blog along with some of the orchids that have recently bloomed in it.

Orchids in Bloom: My Orchidarium

Looks pretty cool. Lots of plants. Nice.

Looks really great, and I appreciate the information. Your plants seem so happy!

-Tristan

Thanks, Philip and Tristan - my plants have always done well in a set-up like this.

That's a nice setup Ron. It really shows that if your conditions aren't optimal for what you want to grow, you can make your own little environment.

Bill

It worerks very well for me, Bill. Thanks for looking.

Ron, what type of fans are you using for internal circulation, and what type of air movement are you getting from them?


Also, did you ever think about placing the lights outside the case? I always found that made a huge difference in temp control


Either way, it looks like a great design and it would be awesome if you could put together a small build tutorial

Hi,
I have two 3" muffin fans above the plants and two four inch fans hanging below the plants and blowing down into the water in the bottom of the case (they are protected from dripping water). This provides enough air circulation that I've had no problem with leaf drop and the plants gently move in the "breeze."

Really the lights are outside - there is a plex divider between them and the plants, and the top of the case above them is open.

Wow Ron, that is really nice!!
Joann

Thanks, Joann. It's been perfect for my hobby needs, though I wish now I'd built the grow area a little taller.

Ron, do most DIY stores carry the type of aluminum framing you used in your case, and if so, how hard is it to work with?

Hi Friend,
You can get it at DIY stores - I ordered it on line at a considerable savings. I cut it where needed with a hacksaw and a simple mitre box. I didn't find it at all hard to work with.

is framing with it pretty strait forward?

i imagine it's just drilling holes and bolting it together.

Yes, that's really all that's required, though you should use aluminum bolts. As I understand it steel bolts will react with the aluminum.

That looks really cool, wow!

Thanks for looking, Rosie.

Thanks for all the help Ronald

No problem, friend. Hope you find the time and means to make one for yourself.

I should have mentioned that I started with eight HO bulbs but found that too many for the space - have switched off one bank and am now operating with four bulbs. Some of the plants were actually "sunburned" by the eight bulb setup.

HI Ronald,

Wow really cool.....

2 question:
Your cooler growing orchids I saw on your list on your blog....

I have an odontoglossum. Can I grow this in a growing case with warmer orchids eg Vanda or will it do it no good....

I was thinking of a 1.2m high x 1m x 600 growing case, you mentioned that you wished you had built yours a little higher. Do you think 1.2m is too high for the light to get all the way down to the bottom?

Thanks in advance...

Hi Cally,

I don't think 1.2 meters is too deep. That's about as deep as I would have gone. As to the Odont., if it's a species, probably not, if it's a warmer growing multi-generic hybrid, it might go. They're more tolerant.

Ron

Ron,

I like your idea of the aluminum angle, I think I'm going to steal it for my project.
Do you have some sort of drain at the bottom for excess water or do the fans evaporate that for the most part?

Hi Willie,

In the original case I put a drain in, but never used it. In this one I have no drain - the fans evaporate enough of the water that it isn't needed.

i built something similar to grow pleuros in in houston, when i lived there, too lol. Great minds, eh?

-Cj

My original case was built when we lived in Houston - I had moved there with a collection of Pleuros and that was the only way I could come up with to grow them. Still miss Houston and the Orchid Society there.

I was just too hard headed to believe people when they told me i couldn't grow Masd. veitchiana in houston. ANd i also miss the society, there.

-Cj

I hear you - had exactly the same thing happen.

Thats a well thought out growing case! Years ago, in a former life, I was the NE regional distributor for the now defunct Greentech environmental growing chambers (they were also originally out of Texas) I had one of the chambers for seven years or so & miss it dearly. I eventually sold mine to the Omaha Zoo.

I remember Greentech. Wanted one of their growing cases, but couldn't afford it.

Really nice looking case, Ron! I am thinking about something similar for my plants that want more humidity. Does the evaporating water and air movement keep the temp down pretty well, or do I have to cool off the house all the way down to the desired temp? I know from my mudskipper tanks and my riverine biotope that the water temps would always stay a few degrees lower than room temp because of evaporative cooling. It wouldn't be hard to heat one of these cabinets up for gesneriads or warm orchids, but adding cooling would be beyond my limited skills.

Is there a fairly wide temp range within the case, or do the fans tend to keep the air moving enough to even it out pretty well? You mention cold spots and warm spots. Were these a couple of degrees apart, or was there a five or ten degree difference? This really has me thinking! I could put a baffle or partial wall within the case to make one end a little warmer than the other to keep different plants happy. Mine may be two levels high, and not quite as wide, to fit my existing space, but the basic idea of yours looks pretty good. (Plus you have already worked most of the bugs out!)

Thanks again for posting this great setup!

Dave

Hi Dave,
The evaporation and air movement probably do help keep the temp down, but that is offset in my case by the heat from the lights, even though they are separated from the growing area by plexiglass. The temperature range seems to have more to do with proximity to the lights as well - it's probably about 5 degrees difference between the top and bottom of the case, though that varies a bit with the opening and closing of the doors. The warmth of the lights seems to add some heat to the top of the case, even though the plex is there.

When I built my first case I tried to make a kind of evaporative cooling system, using cloth on one side of the case that hung down in the water at the bottom and exhaust fans at the other end to draw the water through the case, but that didn't work. I'm still convinced, however, that something like that could be done, though it probably wouldn't work here since the humidity is usually high here and evaporate cooling works best in a dry environment.

If I built another I'd make it higher by at least a foot, since you can always raise the plants up, but you can't lower them any further than the bottom of the case.

Looking back over this, I should have mentioned that this is in a basement which helps keep the temp down and in cooler weather I also control the temp by opening a window (or closing it), but the temperature of the room is pretty much the temperature of the case.