Holiday contraptions
 

I am going on a little vacation during 4 days. I know 4 days are few days, and that my plants could be without supervision (I suspect nothing would have happened to the vandas either if they spent 4 days without watering) but I consider this practice for the future winter holidays (2 weeks).

I prepared my vandas this way, with a microfiber wick (cut from a mop) linking them to a bowl of water (the Vanda denisoniana on the left had very long roots, so I placed the tips of a branch in the water, no microfiber):

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...205_114642.jpg

Then with the inestimable help of my techie boyfriend, we made this small surveillance device with a Raspberry Pi 0W and a camera:

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...205_145011.jpg

The plants are strategically placed so I can see the water gauges of the self-watering pots and the temp/RH sensor (you probably can't see that last one in the pic because the sun was hitting it at the moment I took the picture):

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...205-144532.png

Thoughts? Constructive criticism? Any more ideas?

Well, I am happy to report that everything went okay. The Vanda denisioniana even grew a root into the water reservoir.

How many times a day did you check on them? LOL

Too many not to be embarrassing to admit...

I think I will try something like this! I'm going to be gone longer than 4 days, and while the other half will stay behind there is a decided lack of commitment to watering the orchids. The ones in SH should be easy enough (don't let the reservoir dry out), I'm more concerned about the neofinetias and everyone in bark or other mixtures. I have one tiny vanda and it has not taken kindly to having even the tip of one root in water.

I think the water bowls/tanks/tuppers and the thread of microfiber wrapped loosely around a few roots and linking them with the water reservoir worked great.

I used several microfiber threads tied together to make them longer (make sure they stay deep into the water). I cut them from a clean mop I bought for this sole purpose.

It worked for me even with mounted orchids. Just put them horizontally on a surface (a tray, ideally) and put the microfiber in place.

EDIT: ALSO my BF just bought me a Xiaomi camera to look at my orchids when I'm not home. This one is so, so much better than the Raspberry Pi contraption! It has night mode, can move around for a greater range of vision and also has a speaker! ....I can talk to my plants when I'm on vacation QnQ

I'm going to pass on the camera because sometimes it's better to NOT know what's going on...I currently have one mounted bulbo where I'm using long strands of spagnum moss to wick from a bowl. Previously I tried strips of wicking fabrics (which I have for african violets). I thought the fabric would be better than the moss, but it didn't work at all...the water only traveled 2 inches and then dripped.

We must be using different clothes then. I wouldn't trust a brittle moss strand.

Spaghnum moss isn't brittle when it is wet, and it wicks pretty well, I found, but it can be messy.

I found a microfiber mop head and added a few wicks. Each strand is about 1 cm, so maybe thicker than what you have? These are wicking A LOT of water. They moved a cup of water to the plants in a few hours. That might be too much. I have a few days to keep an eye on this and see if it will work, otherwise I'll play with it again later.

Mines are just as thick, hehe. Maybe try to put the plants higher than the water reservoir? That way the water will have to "climb" up though sheer force of capilarity instead of just dripping down. I have found that this way the water wicks slower.