An Introduction to the Forum

[rtbaum]

I am somewhat a noob to Phal culture. My wife works at an assisted care facility. It seems that relatives will bring their loved ones orchids to brighten up their rooms. Once they have flowered, they are discarded. My wife intercepts them and brings them home to my care. I have learned enough that I immediately remove them from the "pots of death", repot them in proper media, and watch them recover over humidity tray. I've lost a few, but most have recovered nicely. It seems that my south window receives just the right amount of filtered light for them to flourish. I know south windows are bad, but in my case the heavy tree cover allows them at most 2 hours of sun. I have somewhere in the vicinity of 20 fairly healthy phals now.

I now enter a new phase in my life. My brother is facing stage 4 lymphoma and I have relocated to Davenport Iowa to help him. In an attempt to brighten up his environment, I brought 4 of my plants down with me. They are now in his room....again in a south window and are showing some stress from the relocation. The one that was in bloom, has suffered bud blast. I'm not terribly concerned, as I am confident that is a temporary setback.

Now it gets interesting, my brother is/has been a long time herp-freak. The animals have been relocated to home where they can properly cared for..and I have access to many uninhabited tanks. Everything from 12"x12" to 36"x36" exoterras to 110 gal long tanks. I am thinking that I will rehab the orchids in one or more tanks. I have access to his old lighting fixtures, misters, foggers. I will likely need to pick up a few computer fans and I should be good to go. I feel like a kid in candy-land.

Any advice going forward? I do plan on removing them from pots and mounting them on slabs or old decor from the herps.