One toe into the water - First terrarium

[Paul Mc]

I know Ray at FirstRays used to carry good ones, but you might also check Amazon to see what they have.

If the media is staying soggy ad not drying then that would be an issue you need to address. Both orchids should dry out before the next watering. Perhaps by either increasing the fan size or moving the plant(s) closer to the draft of the fan would help? I had to move my fan in my terrarium because it dried things out way too much.

[ATXOrchids]

Thanks again. Moving the Oncidium up near the light will also bring it much closer to the fan. I think I'll see a big change in light and moisture retention just doing that.

[stonedragonfarms]

It looks like you are well on your way to becoming an orchid addict like the rest of us; keep up the good work!
I agree with the others that your oncidium is too wet and under too low of light; I wonder if you'd be willing to unpot it and mount it being as you are growing in a terrarium environment; it would dry quickly, but the relative humidity would work to its advantage; you'd also be able to hang it nearer to your cpu fan...
As for a light meter, if you art iOS enabled, you might try the whitegoods app; it's not too bad for a "cheap-o" light meter (it's free).
A couple of other thoughts:
a. do you know how much air your cpu fan is moving? I use Scythe high-flow fans in my viv to keep things moving (55g as well)
b. do you have some way to drain the bottom of your tank? if you are worried about mold I'd look into putting in an egg crate plastic bottom to elevate your plants/pots and then either siphon the water from the bottom of the tank or see about having a drain hole drilled (then just set a bucket under the hole and voila!)
c. are you removing plants and watering them or watering them in situ?
One last question--hopefully someone else will chime in on this as well, but have you ever tried growing your oncidium outdoors? Aside from your relatively cool winter, I'd wager it would do quite well in Austin given a bit of shade and daily water(with a very free-draining media); Gower Ramsey and most of the oncidium hybrids did very well in my cold cymbidium house...
Keep us posted,
Adam

[ATXOrchids]

And here I had a light meter on my iPhone the whole time! That's perfect to get a rough estimate of what my LED light is putting out.

As far as putting the Oncidium outside, I see there is another member who does that right here in Austin. But the summer heat is brutal here and I know that I'll neglect it and lose it. Plus I just love the terrarium. The mounting is def. something I've thought about. How do you go about feeding a mounted orchid?

I'm using just a regular muffin fan from Best Buy and thought about putting another one in there. I'll look into the higher flow ones for sure. About the drainage, nothing is sitting in the watery substrate, so that's good. I don't want to put a hole in the tank, although I saw the cool mod that someone had done in another post. I'll be putting in some crating and styrofoam to build up the base, once I get both orchids off of life support To remove the extra water, I've got my trusty turkey baster.

For watering and feeding, I have been doing a mix of inside and outside terrarium watering, but am open to suggestions.

Patrick

[ATXOrchids]

Okay so I downloaded Whitegoods light meter for my phone and checked on my LED output...so sad! it's only about 110 foot candles. How on earth is that Phal even growing? Maybe the window light is helping....so this weekend I'll be putting together a 2-3 bulb CFL system to get something around 2000 foot candles down onto the Oncidium and beyond.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by ATXOrchids

Okay so I downloaded Whitegoods light meter for my phone and checked on my LED output...so sad! it's only about 110 foot candles. How on earth is that Phal even growing? Maybe the window light is helping....so this weekend I'll be putting together a 2-3 bulb CFL system to get something around 2000 foot candles down onto the Oncidium and beyond.

While 110fc is pretty low (really low!! lol), remember that when growing inside and under lights, orchids do not require as much light intensity as cited for orchids growing outside in the wild. Remember that in the wild they have differing intensity of light as the sun passes overhead, not to mention clouds and where they are situated on the tree/rock compared to shadows of large objects. Basically, a plant growing under lights will get the same intensity of sun from "sun up" to "sun down," while light intensities quoted in books are usually taken at noon on a sunny day with no shade! Orchids grown under lights require much less light than their wild growing cousins, so don't overshoot on the bright side and burden your plants.

I actually learned this from experience now that I am growing many plants inside under lights. My minis were sulking until I took a bulb out of my fixture after hearing a great talk from Alan Koch in November at our local orchid society (which you should join! lol).

[ATXOrchids]

Very good to know. Thank you. I'll take it easy and use some common sense on the lighting.

[stonedragonfarms]

I'm with Steve on not overdoing it with light; I'd suggest that you find out the average fc requirements of phals and oncidiums and then take an average of the two and shoot for this. How far from the top of your terrarium to the floor? If you're using a 55g tank on its end it would be about 4', plus your light is going through 3/16" of glass... Optimum fc measurements will be within 18" of the lights (unless you are using HPS, MH or their ilk); have you measured fc just under the lights at the top of your terrarium?

[ATXOrchids]

I checked on the light requirements yesterday, 1500-2000 for Phal and 2000 minimum for the Oncidium. This is a vertical tank to begin with, and the light is going through 3/16" plexiglass. I pulled the LED array off and measured in several positions with no obstructions, but even within inches it's really weak. I'm sure that a couple 120w equivalent CFLs will be quite a lot of light and I'll be measuring as I make decisions on things. And I'll post updates for feedback. The tank is about 3' tall and right now both orchids are sitting about 10" off the bottom. The plan is to find the right height for them once the lighting is good, and then make the terrarium look nice.

Patrick

[The Orchid Boy]

I had T8 lights for my phals for a while and had them within 3" of the tubes and they got around 500fc-550fc and my phals and paphs bloomed and did great. So with artficial lights I think you can have the fc about half of what they would require.