Watering vandas in colder temp winters?

[Lucinda Brown]

Hi everybody, I'm building a greenhouse right now to move all my vandas and cattleyas into for winter. It will have propane heat, misting system under benches, extra lighting if needed. My question is how often to water vandas in a greenhouse setting in cold climate, shorter winter days? I live in Oklahoma and the winter cold and wind can be nasty at times. They've done great for me through the spring and summer hanging outside, sometimes getting watered a couple times a day because of Ok's extremely hot humid summers. But this will be my first winter with them in a greenhouse instead of our sunroom. My collection of orchids is now too vast for the sunroom to accomadate all this winter.Comments anyone?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I think you will be surprised how warm and cozy it will be on sunny days in winter. I think it will be OK to mist and water in the mornings on sunny days, just so long as the leaves are dry by the time the temp starts to fall. But probably not a good idea on cold overcaste or stormy days. It is always a bit difficult to project the conditions for a very different climate that we old timers are used to. I am a west coaster, now in high altitude Arizona, so I've seen the difference in my now 13F lows, where I used to just have occasional frosts, but I assume that your temps go a lot lower than that. I grow Vandas in pots, so they are less dependent on misting or frequent watering, tho their pots get sucked dry pretty fast in warm weather. Cynthia

[Luci]

Hi Lucinda....I live in Oklahoma too. A little town called Harrah. Cynthia is right, your Vandas should be fine in the greenhouse. My only concern might be the propane gas. Cynthia should know if the fumes would harm your orchids.
I know it bothers me to the point I can't use it...built our retirement home all electric.

Cynthia--I lived in Arizona for 3 yrs. But wasn't in the high altitude like you are, we lived in Kingman. I loved the mild seasons but hated the No Humidity!!

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I heat my greenhouse (GH) with electricity but have a propane backup which is vented. I don't think I would recommend an unvented heater ever for a GH, no matter what fuel was used, as any incomplete combustion can ruin flowers and I expect some of the more sensitive species might also be harmed.

Luci, I go to Phoenix twice a month for Orchid Society meetings and during summer I can hardly stand it, sometimes to 120F. Can't leave the plants in the car while getting diner before the meeting. I don't call that mild.

Cynthia

[Luci]

Cynthia,
I can't imagine why you wouldn't call that mild

Actually I meant the winters...sorry about that. Yes the summers are hot,hot,hot! At least there isn't much humidity where in OK, if we had 120 degree with this humidity you couldn't breath.

Did you know about the Phal tag--written like it was. I know on the Leopard Prince they made so many clones they started numbering them...could that be what this is with the Bro. Sophia?

Thanks

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Don't know about numbering, but to rename a clone is in essance stepping on someone elses territory. I think there are a few cases of multiple names on the same clone, but I don't think these cases are a clear renaming out of the blue. Some people have plants and are not aware of the clone name on the tag, as someone I saw who thought the clone name was a varietal name and then proceeded to add their own clone name and started spreading divisions around with this perverted name, and another case where the clone creator and maker of thousands of plants failed to put a clone name on, so several of the commercial importers each added their own clone name. One even gave the clone a whole new unregistered grex name (Sophia is a grex name), where the clone already had a perfectly ligitamate registered grex name. Cynthia

[Lucinda Brown]

Thank you, Cynthia and Luci, my hubby is from Harrah,basically, Peter Brown, do you know of him? I appreciate the help. Thanks again!

[Luci]

Cynthia,
I emailed the man that owns Pine Ridge Orchids per your suggestion and he said that a cloning company added the name 'Sea Jewel' to the ones they sell and refuse to take the name off and put the real name on it, which is: Brother Sophia 'Pine Ridge #1' So, the tag mystery is solved!

Thanks for your help



Lucinda,
I don't know the name but my sons might know him...they have grown up here, married and bought homes and never will leave!! My husband and I have traveled for 15yrs. and only came home to retire because all the children are here and we already owned land here. Would love to have retired in either Arizona or New Mexico...but!

Cynthis knows more than me but everyone is glad to help when they can. I for one am glad I joined this forum.