Aquarium to overwinter Neofinetias?
 

Hello,
I recently have been bitten by the Neo bug and was trying to develop a way to view them in the winter. Let me explain. I live in NC, USA, zone 7b. Eight months out of the year I can grow outside and I overwinter my plants the other 4 months in a small hobby greenhouse. The problem is that my greenhouse is packed with plants in the winter and not the best for viewing minis. So I thought about converting an aquarium into a place for my Neos. for the winter. I don't have a big Neo collection (4 plants right now) so I think that a 10 gallon aquarium would work. The first question is how much lighting would be needed? Two T8s enough or possibly LEDs (never used LEDs before). I plan to water outside of the tank so the plants could sit on wet gravel or crating. Would I need to cover the tank to keep the humidity up perhaps using with a small computer fan for air exchange. Could also use a humidifier if need be but i thought that might be overkill. Please let me know your thoughts.

you don't need to keep the humidity up that much, Neos need a relatively dry winter in order to bloom well. Do not cover the tank, they need the air flow. I'm not sure about the lighting.

Let me ask this then... Mine is currently in bloom so do I give it drier now or when the blooms are finished?

Sorry for hijacking this thread, BTW!!!!

I'd definitely wait - but I'm no expert... hopefully others will chime in.

i agree with the others! you probably dont need a special tank setup or anything, you could probably just grow on a window sill if you have one! some people in japan keep their fukiran in their unheated garages all winter!

A windowsill would work but I have herbivorous cats so the terrarium would provide protection as well as the ablility to put it were I want it to go. Perhaps I'm over thinking it but seeing some of the examples on this site want me to make something that looks like more than a glass box with some plants in it.

Until you get that worked out, you could hang the Neo out of reach of your cat. I have some small orchids hanging fr curtain rods.

I have a neo falcata (6 years) it lives in my terrarium in front of a S window .. no extra fans or lights... It blooms every year with more and more spikes as it gets older.. I let it dry out completely after every watering all year round.. In fact I find roots grow better when I leave it drier more .. I water about every 10/12 days when spagh really crunchy (it's mounted on bark with a sphag cushion over the roots) I do water more when in spike /flowering.. but have noticed roots suffer a bit doing this in my conditions..
Although they soon re grow...
my motto in my conditions is to let dry out max before soaking max... although I do let it dry a bit after each big soak outside of my terrarium in a draght or not ... depends if there's a draught if window open.... (anything from 8h to 24h) ...It's a feeling thing... the ultimate being,
not to lose roots and make them grow.... sorry I can't be more specific. I just watch closely..

By the way I also have cats.... 3 of them One of them (due to his jaw) is incapable of eating grass by himself so we feed him every day with grass, the others go in the garden and eat themselves ... do you have a garden with grass? I would get a container and plant grass (kits available at all stores) also tell him off for trying to munch on your orchids! but offer him/her an alternative..

You don't have to put them in a terrarium and Neos are quite humidity tolerant. Lighting is still important and in the wild, have exposure to longer winter light hours than in the summer. I keep mine either just below, or right at Catt growing lighting requirements and lessen water in the winter. I too have Neos still in spike and flower. Just keep watering them as usual, and when they're done flowering, reduce the water for winter.

I switched to LED's a year ago but I used to grow mine with a 4 ft 4 tube T5 fixture. At first I had the fixture about 2 feet above the plants. Then I ended up putting reflective mylar around the grow rack to see if I could get better light coverage on each end. The mylar increased the light levels overall so I moved the fixture about 3 feet above the plants. I had the lights on for about 12 hrs/ day during the winter months and light levels measured 800 - 1000 fc.