So who's put their plants out already?
 

:waving

Who among us have put their chids out for the summer? And have you seen any results?

Last week I put most of my chids out, except for several in bloom or spike. It rained that night and the next day, since then it's been on and off hot and muggy. Of course I feel good that they're enjoying higher humidity levels and more air circulation. Getting a light meter soon - since reading that thread - and will see just how placement may change for some but for now they're lining one side of my deck with some hanging.

It's pretty early yet to report any serious results but I can honestly say that I have seen some. For starters my Bllra. Tahoma Glacier 'Green's' new growth has grown some since last week. I discovered yesterday my Promenaea 'Ben Berliner' is starting a spike (silvana is still inside b/c I discovered a spike, longer than Ben). Others are also showing more growth - like my Wilsonara - though no other new spikes.

I'm excited though it's supposed to rain for several days this weekend and a couple of nights it will drop to 41...this makes me wonder if I should haul everybody back in...

How's your outdoor living going?

Hi Lotis

I live in north Georgia, and have had mine out since late March. We had a long stretch of wet weather last month, and I had a couple plants with leaf problems because of the constant rain, but mostly things are growing well and producing new growth.

I have only one plant that I can link new blooms to the change in conditions - Restrepia brachypus. It always blooms after it is moved outdoors into cooler conditions.

I would not worry too much about your drop to 41 F temperatures as long as the drop is short-lived and they are not wet. You can always toss an old sheet or blanket over them, assuming you don't have too many.

I should have most of them out by mid-May. Some have been out since last week - mainly zygo hybrids and a paph or 2. The ones in the photo are on a North-facing porch, luckily getting some late afternoon sun and reflective light.
So much easier to water and spray. I feel like I'm on vacation already ! My zygo triste didn't seem to mind temps in the upper 30's for a while.
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The rest ( catts, catasetum ) are going into more sunnier spots - hanging from trees...

Not me, not even the Cym. Our forecast low for tonight is -3 C :(

Some of them, but... probably too much stuff at once, because my vanilla and Phrag (and one cactus) ended up with massive sunburn (and I'm usually really careful to not let stuff get sunburned). My Phrag has since started a new leaf in one of the fans, though.

My Orchids are still waiting for warmer temps outside. Maybe next week...

Most of mine are mounted so I just have to hang them in a tree.

Pics will follow :-)

Just put the Cats and Stanhopea out this week, most of the rest have been out a month or so. Not counting the temperate species.

My catts went out, but not until Sunday. They've been able to stay out all week, and we've been able to have the windows open in the house. Ahhhh. Thank goodness. I was going a little crazy waiting for it to warm up. It takes so long here.

Just put mine out yesterday. First solid week of 80's here in Tidewater VA.

I had my Phals out in March to entice some bloom spikes, I have brought them back in and now all the Catts and Dens are outside playing- they all had new growth from the warm up at the window, and that growth is continuing. Hoping that they will really flourish. Hoping that our summer doesn't see too much 100F days as all this week it has been in the 80's already. I am switching to afternoon watering however, just can't get it done in the mornings before work since they are all over the house.

I moved all my plants out over the past few weeks. If the temperatures drop, I will bring in the Piper Nigrum, Theobroma cacao and vanilla, cover the rest with plastic and, like someone else said, they should be fine if the temperatures are only low for a few hours. I've left orchids outside even in the upper 30's, covered with a thick, clear plastic dropcloth (weighted down so that they are protected from cold drafts) and they have been fine.

I also put mine out in the last few days. I am watching them closely as its gone from the low 40s to 85 the last few days. What a Spring this has been.

This year I moved everything off the front porch and moved it to the back of the house where it is a bit more sunny. Most of my orchids are seedlings I deflasked last June and July so they will be a year old soon.

I had brought mine out about four weeks ago, nights in the 50's, but suddenly it dropped to upper 30's and I hauled them all back in. It can get very cold at night here in the desert, even with temps in the 80's during the day. But I put them back out today, now the worry is the sun. I am going to have them under double shade cloth to see how that works.

I had put mines out since early april and the lowest it got i think is 37F. I have mostly vandas outside and all of them seemed ok with the cold except the sanderiana which showed signs of stress since it is a hot grower. I thought they would sulk buy they did surprisingly well!!

I also put about 20 of my orchids outside in early March. We had low 40s in March and a few high 30s. I have Vanda seedlings, mature Vandas, phalaenopsis, oncidiums, and my new Blitella outside. I was shocked how well all my plants are doing with such temp ranges. It is now almost 90 during the day getting into May and 60s at night. More watering b/c it hasn't rained and its getting warm. I am not going to baby them, just leave them out and water.
I did notice today my phal den and oncidium have some sunburn, it was a very warm sunny day. I didn't get sunburn in the cooler temps even when the sun was out.

I have everything outside now except my most warm loving guys and I only have a few of those. It's been mostly in the 50F - 60F at night with the one occasional night in the high 40F. So I haven't been too worried about the cold.

We haven't had rain in a while and the humidity is low, so I have had to watch and water a bit more than usual, especially for my mounts

Sounds like the fun has begun for so many! Not sure if I can credit them being outdoors but my Propescapetalum Pop Glicky has finally started a new growth, this is several weeks after I repotted and discovered a very unhappy plant and it seemed to have been two plants together...either that or the root loss enabled a pbulb and young growth to 'fall off'. The bigger of the two (in bloom/bud when I got it) is the one with a new growth.

Thanks for the advice on the cold. I've got quite a few plants but probably can find something to cover them up with...however things should be good for the weekend at least except for a good 3-4 days of rain/storms. Do you guys let your plants get rained on for several days in a row? I'm not seeing adverse effects from getting a couple days in a row to start but hmm...

My Zygo triste is in the outdoor group as well. In fact only Zglm. Rhein 'Moonlight' & Zns. Roquebrune & Prom. silvana (of my Zygo alliance) are still inside and b/c they're in spike/bloom. There's another leaf browning on the triste, oddly only the top half of the leaf browns (have yet to cut the latest) and then all seems to be fine after I cut it.

Very interesting how many of you have your plants out in the cooler 40s and they're doing well, that's very encouraging and a testament to how much they can endure. I put a Butterwort out too btw and it has SO MANY more bugs on it! ;) It's quite rewarding to have them outside, the nerd in me is very excited to watch them grow and thrive out there. My back deck is like a little tropical oasis. :D

I was going to put some orchids out but it's supposed to snow on Sunday and the night time low predicted for that night is 30 :(

I have had mine out since the beginning of the month. All but the phals. I am quite concerned about potential crown rot now that I have these going, so they are strictly indoors plants.

Last year I over did the sun on my large cattleyas. I am hoping to get the plants started again. In the summer I will need to invest in a good shade cloth. Right now they are under a tree.

We are in the monsoon season here. Rains hard and constant for a few days and then no more rain. Good time to flush the salts out of the pots.

This summer also, my first paphs. I am thinking they might have to stay with the phals.

Got all of mine out last weekend. We went from winter straight to summer temps here this year.

And don't forget this is prime growing time for your orchids, so increase your fertilizer accordingly! I find that mine respond well to a small increase in fertilizer starting in April and continuing through August or even September if it stays warm.

I took several high light plants out like vanda, oncidium, cattleya, max ten, even the bulbophyllums. They are under a 40% shade cloth at the moment. Once my 70% cloth arrives in the mail, the low light plants will go out too.

After 7 months of careful watering indoors, it is a pleasure to spray them all with the hose every afternoon :)

I'm using these fertiliser baskets I got on e-bay for the first time. Normally I sprinkle a layer of dynagro extended release fertiliser around each plant when they go outdoors. I like these baskets better as its easier to monitor usage and the granules won't splash away.
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Here in Spain, the cymbidiums have been out forever, and I had to get the phals out before the light levels fried them in the greenhouse.

Just in time to catch a freak hailstorm which left them all looking like smallpox victims.

Imagine my joy!

OH NO! I hope that they are OK!

Oh they will survive thanks, but they really look as tho they have had smallpox. NOT a good look.

Bil I'm sorry to hear that! By the way I used to live in Madrid; it sounds very strange for there to be hail in Spain! Maybe the little 'granizo' but nothing damaging!

Oh this was a freak storm. !/2 an hour trapped in the greenhouse, almost deafened by the hail. When it was over, and the ground was drying, I could go down to the bottom of the garden where the water drains out, and scoop up a big bucket of hailstones still there an hour later.

Gosh hail! That's no fun. :/ Glad you're not too worried about them.

Thanks Carrie. I know last year I wasn't so awesome about feeding b/c I basically got lazy, as Cambria has stated it's quite nice to just head out with the hose. I quite like the idea of slow-release fert or those little baskets Orchidsarefun has shared. Otherwise I have one of those contraptions you hook onto the end of the hose and set it for the amount of fert concentration you want. I've never used one before, on anything, does anyone else use one of these type of things?

Today we're getting a bit of on and off again rain so I took all but the Phals (well one Phal is out on its side, has been) out so they'd get rained on, even those in spike/flower (ok not Prom. silvana b/c this is my first spike with it and I'm nervous...though Ben Berliner is still out there...lol). I think once i get past these first few weeks I'll get over the anxiety.

Good luck everyone!

Well, with fertiliser, I have taken to using Ray's low potassium fertiliser at very low levels every time I water

Our temperatures have been bouncing around a little too much the last few weeks to put anything outside yet. I've run some of my more hearty plants in and out on nice days, but nothing will be staying out for another week or three.
I don't yet know if I'll risk putting my orchid out, summers get insanely hot here and I'd be afraid of it burning or getting too dry too fast.

For fertilizing i use a 1 gallon spraying can you can also get a 2 gallon one. My vandas love it and they spike in no time!

I live in cocoa,florida and my plants are outside 24/7 All year around. If it gets cold enough, I'll either cover them with an old sheet or soemthing similar or put them in my garage.

Hey guys! So I did some checking up on the outside group today since I have in a couple of days (can you believe that!). To my wonderful surprise my Aganisia cyanea x self has a small spike! I can't say 100% for sure that it started after being put outside b/c it's on the underside of this horizontal new growth however it is rather small yet... I'm stoked (!) & now a bit nervous b/c I don't want anything to happen to it. ;)

Also new growth and fattening of pbulbs continues at I'd like to believe a faster rate since they've been out in this higher humidity (more rain today). A couple of times now I even take the [non-Phals] who are in spike/bloom from inside out just for the rain. Today I even included Prom. silvana who is in bud to get some rain, hopefully I won't be regretting this though I know it's risky I just think it would like a little rain. My Zns. Roquebrune, Zglm. Rhein Moonlight, Paph. Odette's Vision, Tolu. Buck Hollow x sib & Miltassia Shelob are also getting a rain shower today (the first & latter are in spike/bud while the rest are in bloom).

One of my mini Catts had a couple new leaves that hadn't 'opened', then being outside (assuming due to humidity) the leaves have opened. Several others are taking on more red & purple tints on their leaves and new growths. My Propetalums & Batemannia hybrid are also show a bit of increased growth in their younger growths. Vuyl. Melissa Brianne 'Dark Waters' is fattening up its newest pbulbs.

I can say with 100% certainty that my plants are happy outside. I will add however that I followed Ray's advice after re-upping my KelpMax supply and used KelpMax at 1 tbsp/gal with EVERY watering for about 2 weeks. That no doubt also had a positive influence on all my plants. Now I just have to get them some fertilizer but since it keeps raining I keep putting it off.

One downside is next week we've got several days of low 40s, even 30s at night in addition to more rain. I'm concerned that these circumstances will have negative effects on my quite positive results. My instinct is to haul the whole group in (sheesh) as I'm not sure covering them will make up for their being wet and cold as the day time temps will be in the 60s-70s. I don't think they're going to dry out enough in those temps...

Anywho I know this is quite long but perhaps it's also informative, I would love to hear how it's going for you all. :D

I put them in and out. It is spring in Lake Tahoe. One day it is 70 the next it is snowing. The weather is nice again so back out they go for the day time. In during the night it is still cold at night here but in a month they will be out full time.

My climate here is of extremes...in winter it reaches bellow the freezing point at night (and max temps of 8 to 10ºC) and in summer it goes as high as 35~40, sometimes 42 or 43ºC with a HR of 15 to 20%.
Just to get the idea, we are in the middle of May and today the temp was 33ºC and 24% HR.

In such conditions I have only a window frame of 2 months when the conditions are between these extremes so I don't want to go through the hussle of puting them out and then puting them in again.

So, the only ones that are out all year are cymbidiums...al the rest (phals, oncidiums, phaps, dens) are always in.

I took mine out about two weeks ago. The long-range forecast looked good.

Then this cold front came through and we're supposed to have lows in the 30's. So I hauled everyone back inside for a few days. Temps looks better later this week, so they'll go back out.

I usually have a few days even in the middle of the summer where the temp drops into the low 40's, so I haul most of them inside for a day or two.

We just had a night that hit 37'F. Some orchids/plants camped out inside while others were covered with plastic and left outside. When it warms up a little, I will put all the plants back outside. Hopefully, none of the plants/orchids left outside suffered. The forecast was actually predicting temperatures to be a little warmer.

Here in the Ohio Valley, temperatures swing wildly at this time of year, often accompanied by severe storms and even tornados. Luckily, temps have stayed above 10°C since the beginning of May with no severe weather, so everything is outside except my blooming Phals. I found out last year that their flowers were quickly eaten, stained, or otherwise damaged when taken outside, so I'll enjoy them indoors for now.

I put mine out but I ended up having to cover them with blankets last night! :((