Building an Over Sized Growing Chamber
 

I have space in my (Iowa old house cold basement) to build a 5'x6'x7' growing chamber for orchids. The basement is 50 to 60 degrees f. in winter.

Should I heat the area around the chamber or is inside only ok? The back and sides will be insulated. Only the front will have a plexiglass section for viewing.

How can I safely mix heat and humidity in the chamber?

I can ventilate to the outside of the house for humidity problems.

Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks for your thoughts.

I would not vent it to the outside of the house. I think you would loose too much heat. As far as heating goes if you use a small electric heater inside with a fan it could be connected to a thermistat set to the lowest exceptable temperature. Be sure to heat from the bottom since heat rises. The lights that you use will warm up the growing area during the day. You may need to use another thermistat to bring in cool air if it gets too hot.

About humidity, it might take care of itself. I would set the plants up in it first and monitor the humidity over about a week or two with a min-max humidity meter checked daily.

Your ideas sound workable. I likely would lose too much heat by venting to the outside. I'll do some experimenting. Thanks for the heads up.

You may find that lights and fans provide more than enough heat if ballasts and motors are inside the enclosure. A drop to 60F when the lights are off would be good for most orchids.

Don't forget to insulate the ceiling. I would suggest testing the area when you have it ready for a few days before putting orchids in.

Have you thought about raising cool growing orchids?

Gareth, I forgot to mention about where to bring in cool air if it gets too hot. You will want to do that from the top.

Pet shops have small heaters for reptiles, they sometimes look like a rock; maybe that could be used.

I think it's important to consider what type of orchids you plan to grow. This basement area may be ideal for cool growing orchids as it is with no heat at all. But, if you plan on growing warm to hot growing orchids it could be too cool. Lights will heat this area some but you will need to find out what the temperatures will be like without heat before determining what you need.

You will also want all electrical devices in this area to be on a groung fault circuit since water and high humidity will be involved.