Windowsill Section in "STYLES, SETUPS & ENCLOSURES"? - Page 2 - Orchid Board

hosshead · #11 02-07-2012, 08:49 PM

I feel like, during cold season,my windowsill orchids are more of what I have to chat about anyway.
Like, right now, my phals and phrags and a couple mormodes are what's blooming, they are all windowsill-ers here.
East. Either on the sill itself, or on a table that I've set there so I can watch outside birds and the beginnings of day while I drink my coffee.
A section would, indeed, be welcome, I can't really see why it's problematic.

jkrobins2 · #12 02-13-2012, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hosshead

A section would, indeed, be welcome, I can't really see why it's problematic.

I like that idea. After 35 years of having a small (20' x 12') intermediate (temperature) greenhouse, we have moved and are now limited to a large windowsill in the winter (outdoors for most plants in the summer). We are still making adjustments and going through a learning curve - even after three years.

gardengirl13 · #13 10-03-2012, 08:50 AM

I'd also love to see this. Yes it's not as big as the other set-ups are, but I'd really find it helpful still being a beginner even after over two years of doing this.

Finding the right window, the right exposure, watering needs, winter worries, hot summer worries, how to set-up your sill (shelf, counter, tables, etc...)

I think it would be helpful. I know this thread is older and maybe not getting much attention. Maybe if it's not popular enough could it be a sticky?

Rivka · #14 10-03-2012, 09:14 AM

yeah thanks for bumping this, ADmins, please please just make this, clearly there is a interest and a good group of folks that would find it helpful. I think we have made a pretty good case for this.

hosshead · #15 10-03-2012, 10:02 AM

Well, I'm just gonna reply here and pretend it's the Windowsill until a really real official section is created....

It's that time of year here, where the windowsill becomes quite full of "refugees" as plants get drug in from outside due to frost warnings....this weekend we will see a true freeze.

My kitchen sill is a handy place for those that I troop out each morning, and then back in at evening before the temps fall.

Getting ready to put everybody where they will live for the winter.

Right now, there's a stanhopea hanging there, in bloom, so my kitchen will smell like heaven for another 2 days.... a couple of encyclias and a miltonia with it's last flowers are there as well.

....intermittent bits of orchid bark can be found as a trail out the back door.........

gardengirl13 · #16 10-03-2012, 01:44 PM

I have a small shelf above my sink where the window is in my kitchen. There are currently 3 orchids there, with room for another. This is an east facing window. In the dining room which is joined to the kitchen and living room, has a south facing window and an east facing. I have a small bookcase in the south window where there are three more orchids. The new Den-phal which I believe will need more light then an east window, and my brsdm. and it's cutting. I'm trying to get him to bloom so I moved him back to this window. He's growing but no blooms in 2 years!

The living room has a huge west facing window, which houses my cactus and rosemary and living stones. I'm wondering about putting cat. there, but it gets HOT, plus the curtain is thick to keep the sun/and cold in winter out. The other windows have curtains that now stay open for the plants.

Crazy since we do not have the room for it, but I really want a shelving unit to put in the east dining room window. I'd like three shelves, one lower under the window for supplies, and the two higher ones about sill height and then about 24-30" higher for a two tiered growing area. Not sure if they even make such a thing.

In the bathroom we have an east facing window and next to it at a 90 angle on the south wall a nice large shelf. We have bamboo on one side and my paph laser on the other. It seems to be doing ok so far. He likes the humidity of the bathroom, so he needs less water. He bloomed in June so I have a while to wait to see if he blooms again. But his leaves look nice and there is some small new growth.

Rivka · #17 10-04-2012, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gardengirl13

.

Crazy since we do not have the room for it, but I really want a shelving unit to put in the east dining room window. I'd like three shelves, one lower under the window for supplies, and the two higher ones about sill height and then about 24-30" higher for a two tiered growing area. Not sure if they even make such a thing.
.

I have 2 intermetro shelves from the container store in my windows. The shelves are set up just like you describe. I like that I can set them right at sill level and make them look like they really belong. You have to be careful about smaller pot being unsteady on the metal grid, but otherwise it is great.

gardengirl13 · #18 10-04-2012, 09:02 AM

Hmmm. We don't have a container store around here, I wonder if bed bath and beyond would have something like that? We did at one point have these "utility" shelves that sound a little like what you're talking about.

My husband was looking through my wish list on orchids limited (please if anyone knows if they are good to deal with please let me know here or in a pm- I hear bad things about the CS of another company so I'm trying to avoid them and found OL) He said how are you going to deal with the humidity since our house is so dry. I said I plan on buying those cheap cookie sheets that a local kitchen store and buying some nice gravel and filling them with water. I assume doing this will prevent the smaller pots from being to wobbly??

hosshead · #19 10-04-2012, 09:55 AM

I tried the cookie sheets, found them to be too shallow for my needs.
I went with the flats trays,(those ones you get at the garden store when you buy flats of tomatoes,make sure they are the ones without drainage slots, and without the pots in there), filled the bottom 2 inches with river pebbles,(get them in the aquarium store or in the gravel section at Lowes), you can put over an inch of water in the bottom and river pebbles look nice when they are wet. And they are plenty big enough for a good number of plants.
The reason I put only an inch of water is the run off when I water the orchids.
For more narrow spaces, I use the drainage tray of rectangular flower boxes.

gardengirl13 · #20 10-04-2012, 10:28 AM

I was thinking of doing that too. The cookie sheets this store sells are not the "flat" kind they're professional and can get to about 1"+ deep! They're pretty good size and only about $5-10. Of course that size, maybe they're not cookie sheets, but they're some kind of baking sheets. ??

And yeah I plan on going to petsmart to get some cool colors for the gravel! Our fish tank is all natural but for this I'd like something fun!