Phalaenopsis lobbii var flavilabia

[estación seca]

Put your plants into a tunnel of plastic sheeting, and pump the humidified air in one end. It will blow out the other. This will actually raise your humidity. Pebble trays do nothing whatsoever to raise humidity.

[D_novice]

Ha! My life has been taken over by orchids already. You suggest I build a mini-greenhouse in my window, attached to a humidifier? It's simpler to just admit defeat and stick with the plants for which I can provide the correct conditions. Or, I should rent greenhouse space.

Interestingly, AOS care sheets suggest trays with water and pebbles - at least for Catts, in order to raise humidity. If the plants are all next to each other, that is also said to raise humidity. One difference for mounted vs potted plants is they are hanging in the air, they don't sit on the trays; and the bark in the pots also evaporates some moisture.

I've had success with certain Phals, if I can now just get a handle on the bud blast. Which, according to the AOS, has about 12 different causes.

[estación seca]

That is it - grow what you can simply, or make adjustments to grow what you want. I'm never going to have Masdevallias living on my dinner table centerpiece.

People have been repeating the "humidity trays" nonsense every since somebody first dreamed it up, and foisted it onto people without measuring what actually (doesn't) happen when you use them.

"Humidity Trays" Do Not Work.

They do keep water off the furniture or windowsill.

"Humidity trays" are a waste of money. Worse, trying this nonsense keeps people from using things that actually work, like humidifiers, or filling their growing area with moisture-loving plants.

The AOS has a lot of very useful information, and a lot of very incorrect, old, and outdated information. Just like the Internet. Within the lifetime of some living AOS members, a few older physicians still recommended smoking to help asthmatics.

[jkofferdahl]

Wait. Are you telling me that my pipe smoking isn't beneficial to my asthma? Geez, what'll they ruin next.

I use "humidity" trays but agree with ES about their contribution to humidity. Instead, I use them as drip trays when I spray my plants. They're really good for that. Yes, the water in them evaporates and I rarely have to empty them, but the effect of the evaporate on the overall area humidity isn't significant. You'll get more benefit from lightly misting the plants a few times a day.

Here in Georgia we typically have a fairly high humidity, but my plants are inside (it still gets cold here) and I run the furnace, which sucks moisture from the air. One day recently, the outside humidity was over 70% while in my orchid room it dropped under 30% (i let it drop to see the natural level inside). So during the day I run a humidifier - a small, cool air ultrasonic - and keep the humidity between 65-70%, then let it drop at night (it gets to about 40-45%).

In this humidity level my mounted miniature Phals are thriving. The roots are plump, some are growing leaves and others are spiking or in bloom.

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[D_novice]

unfortunately I don't have an orchid room. They live where I have the windows and the space and where they only partially interfere with living in the house

I'm not sure how comfortable it would be humidify the whole house to 65-70%, 16 hours/day.

Putting a humidifier in the area where the Phals are struggling hasn't made a difference so far, maybe I started after the point of no return.

[jkofferdahl]

Well, I'm the only person living in a pretty large house owned by three big dogs. The dogs don't seem to care what I put where just as long as I put food in their bowls so I've dedicated my smallest room to orchids. I have two four-bulb, four-foot T5s. Several fans keep the air moving, and the humidifier keeps the plants comfy. A West window gives the big Phals a nice evening boost. There's also an east-facing greenhouse window in my kitchen where numerous Phals reside quite happily. I also use a humidifier next to this window, and again run several small fans to keep the air fluffy.

I hope your Phals aren't "past the point of no return"! If you haven't yet, please show us some pics and maybe someone will have some ideas to help.

[D_novice]

I'm getting rid of the mounted ones and a couple that I unmounted. Going to give them away at my next local orchid society meeting. That will still leave me with 20 of them, all in pots, that I hope to stay with. Beginning to doubt species will work for me, but I do have a giganteum I'm not giving up on, and I have a corningiana x sib from Peter that threw a spike earlier this winter but like everything else is holding steady. Mostly, my hybrids have done a bit better. Now that spring is here I'm hoping things will take off.

I have five little terrarium hobby hygrometers on order, I am going to put this all to the test.

If you are still buying plant and haven't done so already, check out Louisiana Orchid Connection. John Nelson has great plants at good prices.

Thanks for the input, I'm looking forward to fooling around with this. If the Phals don't benefit from it, my Paphs and Catts will when they come back indoors in 7 months