Vacation advice for a Vanda Basket
 

Hello all!

I'm going to be out of town for about 8 days soon and while most of my orchids will be fine (but a bit thirsty) if I give them a good watering the day I leave, I have a Vanda in a basket that lives in the backyard and needs daily watering, twice daily on really hot days. I can bring him in and put him under the lights to protect from the heat, but he still just loses a lot of water out of the basket.

Does anyone have any good tips for Vandas in baskets that need to go for a while without watering? I was thinking of maybe lightly packing the basket in some moss in a bigger pot and giving that a good soak before I head out.

Advice appreciated!

If it's outdoors, why not use a lawn sprinkler with a timer to water it for you? All of my plants are out on my deck all summer, and that's what I do when I leave for an extended time.

Unfortunately, I live in a condo complex and I don't have control of the sprinklers. They only come on twice a week! I'm definitely looking into getting a timer to hook up to my hose though.

Is there anybody who can help you? If it's kept inside in a bright window and somebody puts it under the shower or the sink spray for a minute each day it will be fine.

Before I moved to my current house, I lived in a condo. Here's the rig that I created for getting my Vandas through the winter. In the spare-bathroom shower I rigged a "sprinkler" system over the plants, with a submersible pump in a 5-gallon bucket (which held enough water for a week), and a timer that would turn on the pump for a few minutes on my selected days. I also included a big metal-halide light since they lived in that environment for several months. If you are just covering a vacation, don't worry about getting the light just right, it isn't all that long. A suitable timer might take a little searching but the other parts of the "sprinkler system" are simple.

http://orchidcentral.org/GrowingAreas/Vandacity.jpg