Terrarium on balcony?

[fluffylily]

I am building a 60x45x60 cm Exo-terra this weekend and was going to put the terrarium in the office room until I thought about how I will drop the temperatures at night during winter season. I live in Switzerland so I am fortunate to have very pleasant weather in summer and very cold weather in winter. I was going to open a window in the winter and hope that the lights not being on would lower the temps in the terrarium enough to induce flowering, but I think it is a bad idea to spend so much energy to heat up our room again. My husband suggested putting it on the balcony, and I thought about the positives and negatives of putting this on the balcony.

Positives:
It will get extra light from the sun (west facing balcony) in addition to top lights. Or I can just not have lights on the top. The pump is loud and will be outside where it will not bother us. It will easily have day-night temp differences.

Negatives:
Will be outside and I will have to brave the cold when I want to enjoy my orchids during winter. It might have too much light during sunset (currently, my phals are getting sun-burned out there so I need to pull some shades down everyday). It might heat up too much and I need to get more fans (currently have two). Need to get a heater for winter time.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

[flhiker]

Great! I don't know anything about exo-terras but I would be concerned about heat inside the case when the sun hits it. being inclosed it will get hotter in their, then outsid the case. Just my thought. Good luck and keep us informed

[Becca]

Hi! My thought is how cold is cold during the winter? What orchids are you planning on putting in it? Cool growers, intermediate growers, or hot growers? I have my orchidarum in the basement, the lights so far heat things up enough during the day to cause about a 10 degree temp difference at night, but other then that my temps are pretty consistent year round and I haven't had any problems with orchids blooming!

Edited to add: Sorry, just saw that part about needing to get a heater for the winter!

[fluffylily]

I was planning to put mostly intermediate to warm growers in there. My husband justified it by saying that it would cost less to heat a terrarium instead of opening a window to cool the whole office room and then heating it again. If there is a 10 degree difference, then that sounds like good news. Maybe I'll just turn down the heaters in winter for the office room. We have floor heating and I think that we can lower that separately from the rest of the house. I plan to put the following:

1. Neofinetia falcata mounted on lava rock
2. Sedirea japonica
3. Haraella odorata
4. Aerangis articulata
5. Psychopsis mendenhall (very small seedling and will take out when it gets larger)
6. Encyclia radiata (also very small seedling, can I keep this in there or will it grow too big for the terrarium?)
7. Bulbophylum putidum
8. Nanodes schlechterianum
9. No ID Paph on bottom??

Any comments would be appreciated! Thanks.

[kavanaru]

Hi Fluffy, where are you in CH? I agree with Becca and Dave regarding the high Temps in Summer and the very low in Winter. I do not have a terrarium, but a balcony that I can close in winter (sort of a "Wintergarten") It is not heated, and n winter it goes down to 4-5°C, which is really too cold for the intermediate and warm growers. On the other side, if I leave it closed in Summer, temps can go up to 35°C which is a bit to hot! What I normally do, is bringing all my orchids, but those needing cold winter, in the appartment during winter and then bring them all on the balcony, which I keep open all the time in summer, this way I ensure a stable winter period (I keep my Apartment at around 18C, and a good Temp difference during summer time (it really cools down during the night)

You shouls consider these factors when placing a terrarium outside. The volume is smaller, so the temp changes will be more dramatic!

As per my Paphs, I keep them in my office room, near the window. I keep the window slightly open the whole year (I mean "gekippt") ensuring cooler temps next to it. Indeed is my office a little bit cold in winter (I do not use the heating system in it!), but stil on an acceptable level. And thi shas no much impact on my heating system bill

[fluffylily]

Hi Kavanaru, wow I didn't know there were others from CH on this forum! I am originally from California (near Santa Barbara) and then just moved here last year to Baden but work in Basel. I think that the temp differences will be too drastic like you said on the balcony, it is an open one, not a winter garden type. The other option is to put it in the basement, or what we call here the "Keller", and then go visit it everyday but then I won't get to enjoy it as much. Maybe I can just slightly open the window in the office during winter to keep it cooler and not heat the room as much. It seems like here in the winter all buildings are heated a lot and it becomes hard to live in! Thanks!

A bit off topic, can you recommend some good places to buy orchids? I ordered some from Luzerner Garten and have been to two others in Sirnach. I found it easier to just order things online since I don't have a car and it takes a long time to get to these places since they are very far out in the country side!

[kavanaru]

actually in CH, teh best place I have found to buy orchids is indeed Luzerner Garten. They have a web-shop ★ Orchideenshop Luzerner Garten ★ (so far I know the only web shop for orchids in CH!) which was initiated, I think one month ago orso... if you want a plant which is not listed, you can send an e-mail and they will look for you if they have it (they have a great collection which is not yet online!). I normally used to buy from Germany: Schwerter Orchideenzucht - Orchideen und Orchideenzubehör - Online-Shop , Orchideen Zentrum Wichmann - Zucht, Verkauf und Versand von Orchideen und Zubehör , or I just wait for the Shows (there is one coming in August at Luzerner Garten, and one in October in Locarno!

I used to buy from Großräschener Orchideen in the past, but they do not deliver to CH and in the last order were mostly crappy plants (when I complain, it was ignored, and when I placed feedback on their website, they just deleted the not that good ones!)


as for the buildings... yeah... some people heat their appartment so much that you have the feeling you in the middle of the Sahara (but with less light ) However, that also has a good point: Buildings are so well insulated, that in my two winters in Basel I have needed to use the heating system at alL (and you already read what my temps in the apartment are )

[bazza]

Originally Posted by fluffylily

I was planning to put mostly intermediate to warm growers in there. My husband justified it by saying that it would cost less to heat a terrarium instead of opening a window to cool the whole office room and then heating it again. If there is a 10 degree difference, then that sounds like good news. Maybe I'll just turn down the heaters in winter for the office room. We have floor heating and I think that we can lower that separately from the rest of the house. I plan to put the following:

1. Neofinetia falcata mounted on lava rock
2. Sedirea japonica
3. Haraella odorata
4. Aerangis articulata
5. Psychopsis mendenhall (very small seedling and will take out when it gets larger)
6. Encyclia radiata (also very small seedling, can I keep this in there or will it grow too big for the terrarium?)
7. Bulbophylum putidum
8. Nanodes schlechterianum
9. No ID Paph on bottom??

Any comments would be appreciated! Thanks.

as a suggestion you could use a Thermoelectric (Peltier) Module in your terrarium to produce cooling. Low voltage and Low wattage 12volts (extremely cheap to run) (you can even reverse them to produce heating) hooked up to a very simple thermostat and timer which would give you a whole range of temperature drops controlled by yourself. That way you could keep your terrarium inside in a heated room and enjoy all year round. The same modules they use in insulated chests that you plug into car cigarette lighter to keep contents hot or cold. You could just get one of the chests (in New Zealand $50NZD on sale) remove the module and fan assembly -usually a one piece unit, add your thermostat and timer and then you would have a complete temperature controlled environment at very very low cost and running cost and exceptionally low noise. Don't get put off by the technology- like a lot of things in this life a lot simpler than what it appears. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.