herp kits for orchids from petsmart
 

not advertising here but found petsmart has a lot of goodies for orchid people that you would not think of to go look at a pet store for. Like coco husk bricks and mats, cork, new zealand sphag, wood mounts, hydroton, fiber planks...alll kinds of stuff.
I found one of these on sale and I think they would make great starter kits for a mini orchidarium

Exo Terra Rainforest Kit - Starter Kits - Habitats & Accessories - PetSmart


you can get foggers, misting kits, mini waterfalls, and

the repti fogger has got my attention
Zoo Med Repti Fogger Terrarium Humidifier - Habitats & Accessories - Reptile - PetSmart

:biggrin:

cool! I have gotten material to use for mounts at the pet store before - other than that I hadn't looked around too much to see what could be used for orchids - good deal :)

cool! i have used terrarium backs for mounts, imo the plants LOVE them. i looked at the links, but i cant find hydroton or chc bricks or spagh or chc mats :\

Exo Terra Coco Husks Tropical Substrate - Substrate - Reptile - PetSmart
coco husks
Zoo Med Eco Earth Value Pack - Substrate - Reptile - PetSmart
coco fiber mats
Zoo Med HydroBalls Expanded Clay Terrarium Substrate - Reptile - Free Ship - PetSmart
hydroballs
Zoo Med New Zealand Sphagnum Moss Reptile Substrate - Sale - Reptile - PetSmart
new zealand sphagnum..this is the good long fiber moss here!!!

you know if this stuff is safe and clean for animals has to be worthy of a plant :) I still soak any coco husks I use no matter what until the water isnt salty

!!! thanks !!! i was wanting to try s/h!

I have too :) just didn't want to buy a small bag and pay for big bag shipping rates so having it close by makes a difference

cool - wouldn't have expected leca at the pet store - who knew?

[FONT="Palatino Linotype']All these materials are pretty standard for building vivariums, whos major component are plants. Thats how I started my orchid hobby, in a search for orchids that would grow in my vivariums.
Anyhow, a lot of times I find cheaper stuff in places other than pet stores because they tend to inflate their prices.
I do like to see what they sell and get ideas, what is good for tropical frogs is often very good for plants. hehe. [/FONT]

FYI, if I was going to get a fogger, I would probably just convert a cool-mist humidifier.


It would probably be cheaper, give you a unit that held more water and that was more effective at doing the job, and would probably operate more quietly

i cant find LECA anywhere around here. and i just wanted to try s/h with a phew plants, so maybe ill fork over the cash so i dont have to pay more for shipping than for the actually LECA

The zoo med hydroballs are very small grade...

I bough two packages to try and have not decided if I like them or not yet.I did order regular hydrotron this week also and am going to take most out of the zoomed stuff and most likely use it in humidity trays instead.I am going to keep a few in it for a while yet to see how they do in it though.

so you think the zoo med is too small to use for s/h

you could always try lava rock. Most big box stores, even walmart, carry the stuff, and it seems people do have some success with it

lava rock works to??!???!??! they have that at the lgc!!

I have no opinon yet on the zoo med I just put several chids in it last week since it was available and I was out of the kind I use...

I realy think its a bit to small but dont know how it is going to work yet.It will be great in humidity trays though so if it dosent work out for s/h it will get used for that.

It does shift around a bit too much I think and does not hold the plant is place as well but that may get better as new roots fill in....I was in a chronic overwaters crisis lol and needed to get a bucnh of new chids out of bark and into a medium that is more forgiving.

I find watering a bit difficult with the zoomed it gets washed out of the pots easy if it is just it in a pot and not s/h...and it also floats up too easy so far and lets the plant fall over when flushing in s

ohh, okay maybe il order some then. let me know how it works