Advice on Chiloschista in a terrarium
 

Hi, folks! :waving

Not 100% sure if this is a terrarium question or a Chiloschista question...

We went to Longwood Gardens last week, where we found a Chiloschista parishii 'Kanachanaburi' and a Chiloschista viridiflava var. Ratchaburi for 60% off. And woot! - they were mine. (Had been looking at them a couple weeks back so it was only about an 80% blind purchase. :-D)

They're currently sharing a glass cylinder with a Leptotes bicolor (which likely will hate the increased humidity pretty soon). There is a layer of rocks and a layer of live sphagnum on the bottom. I've been misting them 2x / day, and soaking with the other orchids once a week. There are some bends in the roots, and maybe a little bit of shock, but the roots are still very green overall.

However - not sure yet that humidity isn't a problem now, and it definitely will be once we start going into winter.

Now, the terrarium part: I've had an Exoterra for about 18 months; overall that's been going well for the 13 orchids, 1 butterwort, and container of live sphagnum in it. It, however, is just eggshell crate, with a mister, a light, and a fan.

I'd like to put the Chiloschistas in a planted terrarium. Am considering a Biorb (it will be the fastest thing to set up and get the high humidity under control), but there are a few things I'm not getting.

• My understanding is that Chiloschista like to be humid but also like to dry out between misting. How would that happen in 80-90% humidity?

• Can I put them into a tank by themselves and keep the humidity at the correct level? (Just had a problem with that with different miniatures in a glass globe.)

• Would a Maxillaria schunkeana tolerate the same environment? I have heard so many conflicting things about their culture I'm about to give up and play it by ear - though it's doing okay in what might be a bit too much sunlight.

Fingers crossed that someone can give provide some help and input. These are initial thoughts; I'm not wedded to anything beyond keeping the orchids healthy. I'm learning a lot, and I also don't want to kill any (more) orchids!

The chiloschista I have grown were all mounted on ~1” diameter sticks. There were watered at least twice a day via a Mist King system inside a saturated-humidity chamber.

The 2 I have are mounted on a hard, plastic perforated plaque. Got them hanging under growlights and I spray them down about twice per day. Blooms are done but new roots are forming.

Thanks for the input, Ray. That sounds like what I've been thinking of - but I'm not finding much in Google about saturated-humidity chambers for plants. Can you say a little more about what makes it saturated? Is it something that can be replicated in any terrarium?

Thanks, DeaC! One of mine is on a perforated plaque; the other is on a grooved plastic plaque (which it's grown into quite well). No grow lights so far. I'm spraying them by hand twice a day, but definitely not sure it's enough.

That was simply my way of stating the it was as close to 100% humidity as possible.

Mine was my “orchid nursery”, which was a 6’x3’ ebb and flow tray to which I had added foil-faced insulating foam walls and top, making it 3’ tall. One long face carried full-length sliding glass doors.

It contained LED lighting, there were seedling heat mats under the top sheet of non-woven polyester mats (think floor scrubber pads) I used as the floor, the tray created a standing 1” reservoir under the mats, and there were a couple of small muffin fans used to provide air circulation.

A Mist King system fogged the entire chamber for two minutes at 5 am, and for 30 seconds twice more each day.