Firing up the AC

[greg_s]

Now that the weather has hit the 90s here in the Philadelphia area, everyone is firing up their air conditioners. As a general rule, what should I be careful of when dealing with indoor orchids and an air conditioned environment?

[janet_a]

if your AC is as inefficient as mine, nothing. i look at it as increased air movement, which is generally good. if your AC is good at dehumidifying, just watch the watering and see how quickly the plants are drying out. you may want to move anything that's directly in the path of a vent out of the way, otherwise i wouldn't worry about it.

[Orchid_lady]

Maybe you should consider summering them, if thats possible with you. I have my den living outside, along with my phals living in an empty aquarium in a shady place. Temperatures in my location are high 80's and at night high
60's.

[greg_s]

Janet, the AC unit is new...so, it is efficient. The humidity level is something I am going to need to watch. I think I am going to try adopting a more complete misting routine to try and make up for it.

Orchid Lady, I am not sure what you mean by "summering them". With it being just the begining of June the nights here do get down into the 50s so I am thinking to hold off until it gets consistantly warmer at night.

[jerrymeola]

Greg
your night temperatures are fine for most orchids. If you want to put them out go ahead.

My shade-house is unprotected and the plants stay outside year round down into the low 30s.

I do not consider humidity as important as other people. A dry environment can damage flowers, but we are horribly dry here in Florida all winter, and it does not seem to hurt the plants.

Avoid direct air blowing on the plants, especially flowers,

[greg_s]

The humidity doesn't concern me too too much. (There is always misting and humidity trays.) The thing I think I will have to watch for moisture wise will be moisture absorbed by the potting medium. They seem to be drying out much more quickly. This might mean I will have to water them more often. I just placed some bamboo sqewers in the medium (as suggested in other threads) to monitor how much water the plants have available at any given time.

I have the plants away from direct air flow from the vents but if they do start to get affected...what should I watch for?

As a general rule, do the plants usually do better when kept outdoors?

[Orchid_lady]

Summering meaning to take them outside, to give them a summer vacation.

Plants do magnificantly outdoors. I couldn't believe the difference in them the first season I tried it. They nearly doubled in size, and some that had never bloomed started to get spikes. I give the catt family the most light, the dendrobiums a bit less, the oncidium family get early morning sun and then bright shade the rest of the day, and the phals, paph, and the rest of the low light plants are on my shaded back porch. I do keep them off the ground, either slipped into empty hanging baskets or on a plant shelf to keep them away from the creepy crawlies.

[roambb]

Does anyone have ideas for a good way to shade Phals outdoors if there is not a great natural spot in my yard?

I believe some people rig up shadehouses, that is, something to support shadecloth over the orchids. I don't know much about this, but you might want to start a separate post and ask what people use to make their shadehouses.