For beginners who worry too much
"Survive now for Summer will be here soon" is my motto.
This ultra high tech grow space uses a fan blowing across the floor to keep the temps next to the window from freezing the plants. It also helps maintain super low "pet the cat and see sparks" humidity around the plants. Temps are probably in the 55-60F range much of the time since the room temp is set at 65F.
The light source is an E-SE facing sliding glass door with white backed curtain - I pray for snow because it boosts the light-LOL. My "First bloom magic" thread shows the white back of the curtain up close - not special. The light bleed picture shows how efficient the reluctance/transmittance is. White backgrounds often let a lot of light through to be absorbed by the underlying material (such as sheet rock), so aluminum foil (75%-80%) can equal or better it. Mylar and white reflective grow room plastic made for the task are better at 90-95% reluctance.
The lower tote on the chair has many newly repotted minicatt seedlings in 2" pots. I dry the plants and pots in front of a fan after watering once per 5-7 days, and the plexiglass covering is not normally complete so I do not think the humidity gets high in the box as a rule, but air movement is low. The upper tote is open. It also has several small seedlings.
I had root tip growth and new leads popping up in early January as soon as the days started getting longer.
Good light is my first priority, and as long as the plants have decent looking pbulbs I don't worry about humidity. Low winter temps, low winter humidity and decent to high light have been my growing conditions in a Southern California apartment (~100 orchids), a Long Island NY greenhouse (~1,000 Orchids), and an Ohio house (~50 orchids).
Note that I do not grow delicate cloud forest type orchids, but hopefully, if you are a beginner, neither do you.
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