Night Temps

[discgo]

Hello All -

I'm going out of town for the weekend and I just looked at the weekend weather. It's going to be unusually cold on Saturday night where I live in Frederick, MD. Low of 47! All my phals and paphs are outside, should I bring them in before I leave? The lows are normally in the low-60's and will return to that on Sunday night.

Will one night of 47 degree weather cause much harm?

Thanks and Cheers!

[mayres]

Nope - leave 'em out. We've already had a few nights like that here in Oregon - doesn't seem to phase them.

[discgo]

Thanks for the input, I was leaning towards leaving them out, just wanted some conformation.

For phals, I've read that cool night temps in the fall help get the spike started.

What is everyone's system for this? How low at night and for how long?

I was thinking about leaving them out until it drops below 50F on a regular basis.

For where I live, (Frederick, MD) that would be until the end of September. Sound good?

Thanks!

[mayres]

I'm a relative newbie myself so hopefully a real expert will respond - but from what I've learned in the past couple years that sounds good - I plan on doing the same.

Disgo, the reason you can leave them out when it drops to 47 is because the length of time the air is at that temperature is very brief, so it won't affect the orchids to any extent. However, when the nights start consistantly reaching 50-55, the length of time it's that low will increasingly be longer and longer. You're correct, the temp should not drop below that for phals. A couple of weeks, three's better, of cool nights should do the trick.

[atcrosby]

Don't the phals need that low temperature for a period of time in order for them to bloom the following year?

The phals need a 15 degree drop every night for two to three weeks in order to set spikes. They don't necessarily need to be as low as 50 degrees.

[jerrymeola]

Here in Florida I leave my Phals out all winter to a low of 36 last year.

However, I prefer nights to 45-55 for a month to set spikes.

Still all orchids will adapt to the conditions you give them if they are not too extreme from their desired levels. Mostly they just do not like heated air conditioned homes that never vary from 75.

[discgo]

Thanks for everyone's opinion on this, I'll give 'em 3 weeks or so at lows of 50 and see what I get!

Cheers!