Simple Dynamics

I've been raising hobby orchids for probably 30 years and have had a home greenhouse for the past six years. I have several questions that I would like to ask other hobbies t concerning practical ways of doing things.

First, what type of marker do you find works best for labeling specimens. I normally use a pencil since this remains readable but if you have found something darker that works equally well, I'd love to know about it.

Second, I have ended up with a lot of small plants through Ebay purchases. What have you found as good ways of protecting and nurturing small plants?

Third, In your home greenhouses, what types of home rigged watering systems have you come up with that actually do a good job?

Thanks, bob

Hi Bob, I think you asked some great questions and hope that others will respond. I would love to hear what works for the "regulars" who check in here. We've been growing orchids for about the same amount of time, yet there are so many basics that can be learned from fellow enthusiasts. I'll give you my best shot...

I use Sharpies (extra fine point). Someone gifted me with a miniblind that, cut up, will provide a lifetime of tags. I used to be fancy and still have all kinds of tags from pro suppliers, but am winnowing down.

I keep smaller plants either indoors, in my orchid room, (photo below) or under our steep overhangs. Although they may flower earlier while young with more direct exposure, I'd rather not risk some of the other problems. So, I keep them in a controlled environment until I think they can handle the great outdoors.

I had a good sized, attached greenhouse years ago, but have scaled down considerably. I designed a place to grow orchids and other plants in our current house. It is diagonally attached to our family room, so gets all four angles of light. I can stand at my kitchen sink and look into it from 25" away. The floor is Tenn. orchard stone, there is a water spigot with a controlled sprayer, mister, a ceiling fan that runs 24/7 and a ventilating skylight. It's two stories of low E glass that does not seem to impact growth or bloom. I've found the ventilation unnecessary, but the light a must. This is a compromise between my former "full on" orchid obsession greenhouse and a current lifestyle.

Hope this helps,
Laurel

I don't have a greenhouse but my office (south and some west sun) works as one in winter. I put linoleum under wire shelves with plastic tubs on top of the linoleum and spray or mist daily with a hand sprayer or a hose from the bathroom sink. I also have a backpack sprayer for rain water. In summer they all go on shelves on the north side of a small barn.

I am using a marker from Charley's greenhouse supply, it won't fade with time. ( Charley's garden marker)

I don't do anything special for smaller plants, I do group them according to light and watering requirements, keeping similar Orchids together.

I grow during the cold month in a glass greenhouse (Florian greenhouses, the Geneva type). It is built on top of the garage and is part of the house. I walk in through an upstairs room. On sunny Winter days the circulating warm air helps heat the house.
All my plants spend the Summer outside, the Orchids and a few others are enclosed in a 30 x 10 x 10 feet cage to keep Squirrels and Rabbits etc out. Our deck holds most of the Epiphyllums and other Cacti & Succulents.

I have an excellent watering system, thanks to my DH. We collect the rain water off the greenhouse roof, it is directed into the garage into containers, capacity ca. 250 Gallons. I have the option of pressuring the tanks in the garage for watering outside ( he put me a faucet into the garage wall towards the backyard) OR during the indoor season with the help of a vacuum pump fill up a large stationary container upstairs in the house, use another compressor there to spray rainwater into the greenhouse. (attached hose with watering wand) It is all a real pleasure to use

Coming back to the small plants, rainwater helps tremendously in keeping little gems happy. The rest of the plants don't complain either. No water spots, no clogged up stomata....

I don't have a green house either, but a spa/sun room which was built as an addition off our family room. All the windows slide open in both directions, two of the 5 skylights open, and it has a sliding door out onto a small patio. We had radiant floor heating put in and the floor is ceramic tile. Half of the lower level has no heat (that's where the spa sits - but it isn't operating now) and there are little
micro climates so I can grow a multitude of plants. The room has its own thermostat so I can control when and how much heat to supply during the winter. My plants survive on whatever light they can get in there. Wish I could have grow lights to supplement, but I'm lucky hubby hasn't thrown a fit with what's in there right now! Things will get dicey this year with heating costs going nowhere but up. I open the French doors once the sun room is heated, and allow the warm, moist air into the family room. Helps with the static electricity.

I have two ceiling fans which run 24/7 to keep the air moving.


I don't have a watering system, although there is a faucet in the room - it has softened water (for the non-operational spa). Our well water is too hard to use on orchids anyway. So I have a sprayer I can use when needed, but prefer to use a trigger style mister or these bottles I've found at the Harmon (like a drugstore) near us. They are for coloring hair, but put out a small stream of water that I can direct right onto the potting medium and not into sensitive areas of some of the orchids. Takes a little while, but I break it up so the task isn't daunting. And it gives me the chance to inspect each plant as I do it. I have recently started collecting rainwater for the plants, and will ask a question at the end of my post. Before this, I always used distilled, which gets expensive.

I have only recently been putting more than a couple of my orchids outside for the summer. I have mostly sunny areas, but have found that I can hang some around the underside of the deck, but the space is limited. For the smaller ones, I keep them inside. All year, I group plants with similar growing needs together.

My tags are the plastic ones I can get at the box stores, but have found the Sharpies fade over time and are therefore useless. I use pencil if it will write on the plastic, but am looking for something that is better, too.

My sun room has a North, East and semi-Southern exposure, and is where all the tropicals are kept. My Western exposure is in the living room, and I keep the cacti and succulents that are non-tropicals there for the winter.

Now for my question: How can I store rainwater in the house for winter without growing algae? Someone suggested using Physan, but I'd like to know if this is safe and/or whether there is something else I can do. It gets bitterly cold here, so storing outside is not an option!

- Lynn

Lynn, why is algae an issue? Have you stored water before? We store water in 32 gal. covered garbage cans in the basement here at Maypop for water crises. No algae in the water ever.

I've been wary of using roof water on the orchids. I'd love to store water off the metal roof at Maypop, but have no orchids here. Bet they would love the spring-fed conditions though. Our Atlanta water is supposed to be, by the AOS standard, very orchid friendly.

I have/do use Physan for all the years I've grown orchids. It's been a sure cure for some and a quick death for others. Probably lost more Paphs that way than any other. Wish I'd kept more careful records like Fred. :)

Laurel

The rainwater I've collected this summer and held outdoors has developed algae. It may be less of an issue if kept in the basement when it's cooler. I do strain it through cheesecloth to remove any organic matter that gets into the collection pans. I won't use the water that drains off the roof since I don't trust the composition of the roofing shingles. I know that there is something that is used in aquariums to control algae, and wondered if it might be safe for plants if it's safe enough for fish. Can't use the well water - it's much too hard.

My paphs are less picky than the other orchids, and grow beautifully. Must be the right climate for them up here! Naturally, I love the more tropical orchids, ha ha!

- Lynn

Never had a problem with algae, and I don't think I would worry about it.
Right now the water is stored (as mentioned before in the garage) under exclusion of light, but the first year we did collect off the whole house/roof shingles into an open barrel (in the backyard) and I saw no problem watering the Orchids with that. I figured the roof was certainly very well "washed"? I also keep window screen netting over the open barrel, (which is still in use) and use that water occasionally for repotting or watering a random plant.

Thanks for all the info! I feel better about storing the water now. I don't know that I'd use the water off the architectural roofing shingles with whatever compounds they're composed from on the orchids, but it will certainly be fine for the other plants. Thanks again, everyone! - Lynn

Slate roof here and the water buckets are right under them. They fill fast! There has never been any algae problem but when I dunk the hanging orchids, I sometimes get tree fern etc. in the water. I eventually empty and clean the containers and start over.

Algae would certainly be helpful rather than hurtful in growing your orchids....I do worry about run-off of asphalt shingles on to my greenhouse and then into a watering system. In the long run, I doubt that it would be harmful.

I use venetian blind slats and pencil as markers and find that they remain readable for a much longer period than anything else I've tried. If I use sharpies, I realize I will need to re-mark the plants within a year or two due to a tendency to fade.

For watering, I use a lawn sprinkler hooked up in my greenhouse and a timer allowing it to run for five minutes in the A.M. each day. I have a gravel floor in my greenhouse and approximately 300 plants in my collection. This has worked well, thus far. The water is from local well and I warm it through a water heater to a tepid level.

I have just added a gas system for heating....I've used electricity in the past. After loosing a majority of my plants last winter, I decided to make the change. I hope that I will like this system. bob

Good luck, Bob. I like the idea of a water sprinkler-heck I like the idea of a GREENHOUSE for that matter!!

Boojum; My greenhouse is a 16'X24" homemade operation which is constructed out of double insulated metal frame windows from my local salvage company. The great thing for orchids is that I can open up all individual glass units by sliding them open for the window allowing the screens to let the air in. Two fans on the ceiling keep air movement going. I'm very proud of the results. bob

My biggest challenge for a GH is heating it-it gets 20 below here for some winters.

Kathy, DD learned to knit like crazy while at school up your way.lol That and drink lots of tea. She once stood in front of the student center and jumped up and down in the snow while we watched the campus webcam on line. I could not fathom how she could stand it, but she loved it.
L

I hear ya! We seldom get down to 20 degrees above here and I still loss most of my orchids last year. It is really disheartening to pull black frozen plants out of the pot and throw them away after frost has got them. I was able to save several hundred that are now showing some signs of making a comeback. I've also purchased another hundred and will wait several years before I see any bloom from them. bob

Gosh! Good for you to not get discouraged, Bob! What kind are the majority of your orchids?

And you are almost coastal Carolina, yes? We are colder than you in Atlanta and much colder than you in Cleveland, GA with an elevation of 1600 ft.. Imagine Kathy who is way up there in the frozen tundra. Does that describe it Kathy?
Laurel

NAW. It gets really really cold once in a while. It's all relative. Thirty degrees seems really balmy after below zero but it seems cold before that!

LOL, frozen tundra indeed. Nope, you've got to come up here to Canada for that. :)

By the way Laurel, LOVE your orchid room. It's beautiful.

Joanne

I built my own greenhouse by converting a parking shed that had a corrugated metal roof and open sides with a concrete floor. I replaced a portion of the metal roof with translucent fiberglass corrugated panels, boxed in two sides with plywood, and used old double-paned sliding glass door glass panels to box in the other two sides (the sides facing the sunlight). It works great. I'm planning to install a fan and possibly have a water panel in front of the fan to keep air moving and cool moisture present, but so far I just open the storm door I installed. I don't need to heat it in winter because our coldest temperatures here are about 28 F on a few nights. The solar heat from the day remains inside and it stays warm enough for the orchids.

I water with well water by hose (about once/day in summer, as little as once/week in winter). I often hook up a fertilizer bottle attachment to the hose so I can fertilize lightly each time I water.

Plant tags! Nothing works! I think I've tried everything to find something permanent, but everything fades eventually in our heat and humidity. I'm probably going to start using the metal foil type tags where you inscribe the metal with a stylus. Those seem to hold up here, but being an avid do-it-myself type, I want to buy the raw metal foil and make my own rather than pay the higher prices charged for the tags.

I have learned the importance of attaching the plant I.D. tag to the orchid rather than to the pot or just sticking the tag into the planting medium. My neighbors pit bulls got into my greenhouse one winter and turned a lot of the orchids over that were sitting on shelfs. I had very little idea which plant tag went with each orchid. Similar situations have occurred with friends that have had their orchids turned over and tossed about in wind storms and hurricanes. It is best to have the tag attached loosely to the orchid so that it stays with the plant should there be a catastrophe (major or minor).

Jeremy

Thanks, Jeremy. I hadn't thought about that eventuality. I am in the middle of hurricane alley here on the NC coast and I could easily be left trying to identify my plants. I raise mostly Cattleya orchids and Epies.
Most of the winter I can easily keep a 65 degree average but we will have 2 or 3 very cold spells when big time heat is needed. Traditionally I have used an electric heater for most nights but now have gas installed for the heavy duty usage. I, too, water with a fertilizer mix daily. bob

The pit bull mishap has fortunately been just about my only experience with plant I.D. tags being lost, but friends in south and central Florida during the spate of hurricanes in 2004 had their sun rooms blown apart and their orchids scattered across the yard or landing in the swimming pool, so best to be prepared.

Jeremy

I have not had the best of luck with collecting water from the roof. There certainly was the algae which showed up more in the vessels I used to water the plants than the 5 gallon white pails I used to catch the water. These pails always got washed each time as they were always black from the residue that settled out even though it was filtered through a heavy bath towel. One thing I noticed was the development of snails in orchids that had never been outside, not sure how they got there but can only guess they came in the rain water as eggs. Another problem that got out of hand for my plants growing under lights was bacterial brown rot. While I think the bacterial brown rot is around all the time the rain water seemed to be a catalyst for those plants not exposed to sun light. Black sooty mold as can be seen streaked on the roof was also a problem on the medium and the roots of some plants. Around here all the lighter colored roofs show this streaking after a few years. I go up every four or five years and spray it with Javex.

Some summers it can be 3 to 4 weeks between rains and then it might be only light shower which produces some rather ugly colored water with all the contaminants that have collected on the roof over this period. Sometimes there is just not enough rain to give the roof a good flush before collecting water. (Wow we are not having that problem this year more like 3 to 4 weeks of cloudy days and then a sprinkle of sun.)

I have replaced the (RC) system with a (RO) system, (RC) - roof collection, (RO) - reverse osmosis. I find the reverse osmosis water a much better source of quality water for my orchids/plants and a lot less work.

Ken

My roof is slate. It gets "scrubbed" from the heavy downpours this summer. Does that make a difference?

I was concerned about all the contaminants from the roof for many of the same reasons as you, Ken. We have gone for several weeks without any precipitation, and living on a busy county road creates lots of road 'dirt' that flushes off the roof during a storm. I have placed a number of smaller collection containers on the deck and then strain the water through cheesecloth into gallon jugs for easier handling. It may just be the heat from the summer months that creates my algae problem, but I try to use the oldest water first. It almost seems the rainwater stays better in the orchid medium than the distilled, and I don't have plants drying out (indoors) as quickly.

I know other gardeners who use "Painty" pens on rocks to mark their in-ground plants. I find the tips to be a bit thick for the tags on my orchids or any indoor plants. Maybe cutting old opaque water or juice containers would work, or finding plastic sheets at the crafts store to make tags wide enough to compensate for the size of the paint pen tips will work. Then again, the blind slats with a paint pen might work just as easily.
- Lynn

Kathy, I would say your slate roof is as good as it gets for collecting water. The only thing I can think of that would be as good would be glass on a greenhouse roof.

And yes they have been well flushed in the last few weeks.

I use a label maker to make labels which I stick to plant tags of any sort. At least I can read them and don't have to decipher what I wrote. Alas they fade too, the more light they get the quicker they fade. I am looking in a laser printer which I think would be much more stable.

Ken

Is it a p-touch?

Jeremy, your tagging sounds the best and safest. I've been known to have accidents myself where I've knocked over pots and confused tags. My dogs had a field day with pots of Cymbidiums a few years ago. Several varieties are similar enough that I'm not absolutely sure which is which.

Lynn, are you storing water in clear milk jugs or solid? Algae does not grow in the dark. If your storage jug are clear, try covering them with a black garbage bag.
L

Thanks Laurel. I have moved some of the jugs to the basement and will cycle through the oldest water first. I need a large container to keep down there and will check out the camping sections of the large stores to see if they have some of those collapsible, 5 gallon containers. - Lynn

I've been poring over every iota/byte of data on the Internet in regard to coffee grounds in the garden, for an article I'm writing for DG. I don't have a rain barrel, but might suggest an experiment for some of you that do. Add about a pound or more of used coffee grounds contained in old nylon panty hose (or similar mesh bag). The coffee grounds will turn the irrigation water into a mild fertilizer solution. Some scientific tests have shown coffee grounds will kill mosquito larvae (maybe more of a problem in my climate than yours) and I would be interested to see if the slight increase in acidity would stop the algae from growing. I don't think anyone has researched that angle.

Jeremy

It is a p-touch Kathy