S/H Plants - When to Bring Indoors?

[Snowden]

Hey all! It's been a while since I last posted - life has been busy!

All of my plants converted to S/H have been doing great - new roots, growths, spikes, blooms, etc. (except for one mtssa that has bloomed twice, but has had some issues - more on that later in a different post) All in all, I'm very pleased so far.

My question is this: Everyone is still outside. Tonight's temps will fall into the upper 40's and tomorrow will be cool - 69 or so. After tomorrow, temps will rise slightly to mid 70's during the day, mid 50's at night. In the past when using traditional mediums, I didn't worry too much about the occasional dip in temps , but I believe I read somewhere that too cool a temperature is detrimental to plants in S/H - particularly warm growers such as phals.

Am I worrying too much or should I consider bringing them in? I'm most concerned about the phals and paphs.

[Dorothy]

[Ray]

With the exception of cymbidiums, I never let ANY of my plants (S/H or otherwise) see a temperature below 50°F.

My phals in S/H never see below 60°, and some (bellina, for example) don't seem to like it that low.

[Snowden]

Thanks, Ray.

I left them out last night. As I type, the temp is 45F. I'm just waiting on my coffee so I can go out and inspect them.

I think it's time to plan the great orchid migration indoors.

[Ray]

Keep a close eye on them. Stress from over-cooling may not be immediately apparent.

[Snowden]

I brought everyone (except the cymbidiums) in yesterday afternoon. It took three hours to lug them all in.

I live in downtown Lambertville and am surrounded by buildings. My backyard is all hardscape - a dark colored gravel - so I believe that the actual temperature was, at least, 5 degrees warmer than what my google sidebar was telling me. I hope so, at any rate.

They all look fine so far, but I'll keep an eye on them. And when I get the chance, I'll take some pictures. A lot of the S/H plants have some really amazing root growth.

[Dollgoldii]

All other issues aside, bringing plants indoor deprive them of their daily fluctuation in temperature and extended period of light, both are very crucial for flowering. This is why I built my 'homemade' G/H two years ago. Minimum temperature is set at 50 degrees. My plants, especially the phals, seem to love it. A few flowered for me; I guess I must have done something right for them. BTW, I started S/H only a few months ago. Experimenting with some cattleya seedlings and a few dying plants. They seem to be doing very well.