Orchidarium almost ready! Thoughts please!

[orchid lover]

to my teachers! . Well so far so good! I took me 2 days to not figure out how to post a thumbnail or whatever it's called, of my Orchidarium. Took my husband 30 mins to do. I wrote what he did all down as i want to try posting a pic of my newly bought phaph. Temps seem to fluctuate abit . Bring it down with fan that is outside the orchidarium. No fan inside. Humidity has gone up to 91 x 1, but i had misted a few hrs earlier. Went down later. By the way, i know the info is probably on this huge mega,site somewhere, but i have alot of different orchid books. I've been growing orchids under fluorstand stand x 10 yrs or so. THey range in levels in different orchid books. Now with Orchidarium, what is the nite temp range/day temp range. Plus humidity range Should the humidity always be between 50-70? My orchidarium is cool-intermediate, mostly cool. Well thats it for now, hope not too many requests

[Ross]

Originally Posted by orchid lover

to my teachers! . Well so far so good! I took me 2 days to not figure out how to post a thumbnail or whatever it's called. Took my husband 30 mins to do. I wrote what he did all down as i want to try posting a pic of my newly bought phaph. Temps seem to fluctuate abit . Bring it down with fan that is outside the orchidarium. No fan inside. Humidity has gone up to 91 x 1, but i had misted a few hrs earlier. Went down later. By the way, i know the info is probably on this huge mega,site somewhere, but i have alot of different orchid books. I've been growing orchids under fluorstand atend x 10 yrs or so. THey range in levels in different orchid books. Now with Orchidarium, what is the nite temp range/day temp range. Plus humidity range Should the humidity always be between 50-70? My orhidarium is cool-intermediate, mostly cool. Well thats it for now, hope not too many requests

Sherry, night temps should be lower than day temps in a perfect world. But what can you provide? The tank will slowly acclimate to your room temps. For instance, mine is in my basement since that is cooler in summer. Right now it is 78F (26C) in the basement, but the tank shows 85F (29C) because of the lights. At night, the tank will drop to the 70s. This is too hot, right now, for Draculas to bloom (and mine have quit for the summer) but Aerangis and Angraecum do just fine with these temps. There is only so much you can do. If you absolutely must grow a cool grower in a warm tank, then you must start reasearching cooling techniques. There has been a lot of discussion here on this board of all the creative techniques people use. So the short answer to your question is: get humidity as close to the range your intended orchids really desire. Get temps also close to their expected temp range. But in all, remember, most common orchids (there are exceptions) don't really require high humidity. They also don't really require a certain temperature range (with a few exceptions). However, just about every orchid genera requires a certain light range (thus the t5's) and may not bloom without things like high light, change from low to high, change from high to low, etc. These factors are descernable from the books you say you have. Usually, folks here can help with specific requirements, so if all this seems like Greek, then ask away. You are entering the twilight zone! Where nothing is as it seems, and there is a new challenge and reward around every corner. Nothing better than going through all this, having one of your choice orchids bloom after all the care you gave it and posting the pictures (of course ) Welcome to the dark side.

[orchid lover]

Thanks for the info. I do have a lot to learn and thankfully here i will have alot of help, even with the stupid questions. Maybe instead of the Vodka for the mold, i will just drink it while i tend to my orchidarium Bye for now