Dealing with Texas heat in a hobby greenhouse

[BettyE]

Well...All of you can move back North, if you find Texas unsuitable...Lets face it, no place is "perfect" for every orchid! Just a suggestion...BettyE

[No-Pro-mwa]

I think I'm stayin where I am. I'm trying to wrap my mind around how one can even stand to be in an 85 degree house. I'm thinking of starting the swamp cooler and it's only 73 right now in my house. Starting to get hot. It's 79 outside and I'm sweating.

I wouldn't last in the South.

[Island Girl]

Originally Posted by No-Pro-mwa

I think I'm stayin where I am. I'm trying to wrap my mind around how one can even stand to be in an 85 degree house. I'm thinking of starting the swamp cooler and it's only 73 right now in my house. Starting to get hot. It's 79 outside and I'm sweating.

I wouldn't last in the South.

^ nope, you sure wouldn't! (I mean no offense by this, btw )

Now, you can laugh at me! I am sitting on my porch, 81% Humidity, 95°F, wearing yoga pants, and a tank top, w/ a t-shirt on over it... I'm comfortable, a bit on the warm side, for sure, but comfortable... Now, when it gets down to 75° tonite (and, if the trend continues, 90% RH) I will be wearing jeans, the same tank top, and have to wear a long-sleeved (albeit thin) shirt on over that, otherwise, I'd be a little chilly.. We get a nice breeze at night here Hehe, I think 50°F is cold.... Any lower than that... And I wear long johns!! If u really want a laugh.... @ 40°, I'm wearing long-johns, jeans, a tank top, a wool sweater, and a windbreaker....

...Sorry, not tryin to hijack!

[No-Pro-mwa]

Well I really am not even going to laugh at you I'll give you one of these because I commend you for being able to take the heat. I just can't 95 I'm not well, I can go out but then I have to come in and stand in the swamp cooler air for a bit. And if the winds not blow en the I am not that cold unless it gets in the teens, 30 is a breeze unless there is a real cold wind then the wind chill can get me.

Long johns well I were them in the winter but not in the 50 or 40 unless like I say if we have a cold wind then wind chill will drop. It's 84 out now too hot for me if it never got over 75 I would be a happy girl. Oh and I'm wearing shorts flip flops and a tee shirt and at the moment sitting right in front of the swamp cooler and I'm not even cold

Ya sorry for the high jack

[JMLand]

Originally Posted by brn_thmbs

Hello from Boston. Talk to me in 6-8 mo...
Grew up down south & I don't miss the summers one bit! But man it's dark up here come January

Well this is my second summer here. Just my first with a greenhouse. I'll take the heat in the summer over the the winters in boston. I'm not saying Texas in my forever home. But definitely not where it is 20 degrees in the day time for more than a month lol.

[NYCorchidman]

A local grower just south of NYC manages to keep everything including miltoniopsis alive and blooming in their greenhouse where GH temperature gets up to 100 on some hot summer days.

They mainly do evaporation cooling by sprinkling water and running a few huge ceiling fans at all time.

They grow mainly cattleyas, but they also have lots of phal hybrids, intergenerics, cymbidiums, coelogynes, miltoniopsis, dendrobiums, ,,,,lots of varieties, cattleya being their main focus.

They do stay away from cool growing orchids.
Miltoniopsis they grow are bred for heat tolerance.

I visited their GH last year and boy, it was really hot and humid in there! lol but everything was thriving!

I wish you the best with your orchids.

[isurus79]

I think your swamp cooler will work just fine. Maybe crank up the air movement on hot days but 85 degrees is pretty good for orchids. Its really the cool off at night that matters. You can have 100 degree days (which happens a lot here in Texas!) but if it cools off by 20 degrees at nigh, your plants will be fine.

[Orchidflowerchild]

Originally Posted by JMLand

UHG Tell me about it. I'm a transplant from Boston MA. I honestly think dealing with the extreme cold might be easier. I can forget about my TRUE orchid loves. Draculas and other pleurothallids. I would grow inside but the house stays at a constant 85 in the summer and about 79 winter. All of it dry as a bone. I just dont have the patience to build a proper terrarium for them right now

In high school, I built a cold wardian case around a window unit air conditioner and grew the entire subsection coccinea of the genus Masdevallia. In Houston, TX. When the power went out with rolling blackouts, one summer, i was misting the damn things with ice water all day.

I even packed them in ice chests with dry ice in the bottom and a layer of cardboard between them, once, because the power was out for days after a tropical storm. Heh. Tropical storm Allison.

The things we do....

-Ceci

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[RJSquirrel]

ya the cooling off at night is most important when its so hot during the day. They need at least the 20 degree spread to get proper rest they need.
I mist my plants during the day twice a day at least and sometimes 3 if I have the time. Thats an instant 5 to 6 degree drop that last for a few hours. I have a brick floor in my greenhouse I keep soaked down and it seems to help some too. 3 fans and 70% shaded and Im still pushing 100 and have been since before summer actually started. Its just going to get hotter and drier.
By the end of august you should start to see tumbleweeds blowing by your house rolling down the street

[fotofashion]

Of course, there IS another solution.....Put them outdoors under a tree that gives you light shade. That is what I do each late spring. I have around 250+ plants in mostly the Catt. varieties + some Dends. and Vandas. Durn things are all over the place. I have a 14X16 GH where they suffer through the winter (I need a larger GH), but there is no way I would make them suffer through the summer here in the GH. It gets 120 in there sometimes and I have a fan running 24/7 and a shutter setup.
Beverly A.