Hi to all the fellow newbies!!

[wickidgrrl]

Hey everyone, just wanted to send a hello from sunny florida to you all. I'm looking forward to learning alot from our happy little community. Big grouphug!!

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Welcome. It seems we have quite a few floridians on this forum, so, should get good info. Me, I'm from about 6000' in arid Arizona, so can't help with all those questions about long rainy spells, etc. Cynthia, Prescott, AZ

[arleneg]

Welcome, wickidgrrl. I agree with Cynthia. However, I'm from the central valley area of California where we get dry, hot summers and cold winters, and learning how to keep my orchids healthy and alive in those conditions.

[desertgal]

Welcome wickidgirl. I live in the southern California desert and learning to grow orchids indoors in a very low humidity environment.

[arleneg]

desertgal...I've been meaning to ask you since you and I live in similar environments. What's your average humidity indoors? Are your orchids in the bathroom or kitchen, etc.? What do you do/use to increase humidity where your orchids are? Do you have catts, phals and paphs that are blooming?

I hope you don't mind me asking so much...just wanted to see what would make a difference for my catts, phals and paph to bloom. I've been successful with oncidiums and dendrobiums.

[desertgal]

Hi Arlene....I grow in room that is connected to my kitchen in front of a large northern exposure window. I do not know what the humidity is. I use large saucers, put glass stones on the bottom, fill them with water and then set the pots on top so that are not in the water. I am going to purchase a small humidifier because it will get really dry when the heat pump comes on. I only have one phal in bloom at this time. The rest are resting and getting new growth. Phals have to have a 15 to 20 degree drop in temperature for at least a month before they will spike again. I will start carrying them outside in the evening in about a week and bring them back in each morning. My house doesn't get cooled down at night enough to accomplish this inside. Since it can take 3 months for a spike to develop I will have blooms in the spring. I just got my first paph so have no experience with getting it to rebloom. The first catt I had I killed by overwatering. Someone gave me another one as a gift and I am hoping to have more luck with it. I do have dendrobiums, oncidiums and some intergenerics. I take them all to the kitchen sink to water them.

Katie

[arleneg]

desertgal,

I, too, have my pots of orchids on top of saucers with glass stones or gravel. A few months ago, I bought two hygrometers and have placed one in each bathroom where most my orchids are. Since weather is changing, humidity has been in the 35%-45% range.

Somewhere, I read that phals need at least a 10-degree temp change to initiate spiking. The last couple months, I've been able to achieve that temp difference in the bathroom where my phals are and, yet, no spiking. I'll try what you've been doing -- taking them outside in the evening and bring them back in during the day.

[flaorchidfan]

welcome to the forum. how long have you been into orchids? i also live in central florida so hopefully i can bounce some questions off you and share info. everybody is great here and a wealth of information.