S/H and the outdoors...

[orchidjunky]

Ok i have a weird dilemna...

Moved into a new apartment which faces south but the only sunlight I get is blocked by an above balcony belonging to my neighbor on the 2nd floor. The sun that actually does make it to my apartment is confined to my outside patio area....

I have a collection ranging from phals to paphs to oncs to dens to catts....

My dilemna is.. since I have limited sun exposure inside my apartment through the windows.. I am now forced to put these orchids outside in order to access light..... only the thing is... it's now approcaching october and november... when temps cool down.... Right now (september) my area is experiencing 80s and 90s but I know as we get closer n closer to october these temps will drop down...

I guess my question is what should I do... given my situation??

a) Put my orchids outside in the meantime till it gets cold? Then bring inside?

b) Put my higher light orchids (dens, oncs) outside? and keep phals and paphs inside?

c) Just keep all of them inside and wait till next spring to even consider putting these plants outside?

d) other idea..

I'm avoiding buying lights and all that stuff due to limited apartment space and also budget reasons...

Any input would be greatly appreciated!!!

[kid a]

Hmmm... Well, the first thing is where do you live? If you go to the upper right corner and click on User cp you ca update your profile info there. This helps to include where you live that way other growers that can identify with your are can offer the best advice. Different places have different growing habits.

Other than that my first thought was to but lights. I can understand the tight budget and no space thing, beleive me, lol! Single mother, college student, blah blah blah, live with my grandam, share rom with my three year old, blah bah blah, lol! This is my setup, well most of it Anyways. The rest are ontop of my son's dresser and by the frog tank using the light tht shines out of that and ontop of the piano under 12 inch single bulb fixture with full spectrum. ( It was cheap at walmart) I have to utilized the top of our dressers well, lol. This is an old picture, i have 32 plants crammed in my room now, lol.
Those are desk lamps with 14w compact florescent bulbs, the swirly kind. They aren't very expensive an will last a long time and use little energy. other than get a great big mirror and put it on you balcony,lol. Seriously though, keep an eye out at garage sales for used florescent fixtures, you hang them from the ceiling easily over a dresser or table or even mount them under a cabinet if you have a bar in the kitchen. I hope that helps.

[orchidjunky]

Originally Posted by kid a

Hmmm... Well, the first thing is where do you live? If you go to the upper right corner and click on User cp you ca update your profile info there. This helps to include where you live that way other growers that can identify with your are can offer the best advice. Different places have different growing habits.

Other than that my first thought was to but lights. I can understand the tight budget and no space thing, beleive me, lol! Single mother, college student, blah blah blah, live with my grandam, share rom with my three year old, blah bah blah, lol! This is my setup, well most of it Anyways. The rest are ontop of my son's dresser and by the frog tank using the light tht shines out of that and ontop of the piano under 12 inch single bulb fixture with full spectrum. ( It was cheap at walmart) I have to utilized the top of our dressers well, lol. This is an old picture, i have 32 plants crammed in my room now, lol.
Those are desk lamps with 14w compact florescent bulbs, the swirly kind. They aren't very expensive an will last a long time and use little energy. other than get a great big mirror and put it on you balcony,lol. Seriously though, keep an eye out at garage sales for used florescent fixtures, you hang them from the ceiling easily over a dresser or table or even mount them under a cabinet if you have a bar in the kitchen. I hope that helps.

K well I live in SJ california in the bay area... it's one of those borderline places where the whether CAN drop really cold during the winter months.... and I know that it's not good to have the s/h in cold weather cause the actual temperature of the inside reservoir can be 10 degrees lower than the outside temp.... my collection is quite varied and i was debating to put my dends, catts and oncs outside... leave the phals, paphs and masdies in?? I do have some cheap plug in fluroescent fixtures... im just waiting to see my first electric bill to see how much i use now and then compare it with actully having lights.. i figure the lights will be handy when it's winter

[Hummer344]

I am going to assume that you live in San Jose, Ca.(SJ). Since you get little direct sun you can leave all your orchids outside until late Oct or early Nov. Your phals will respond to the drop in temp and give you better winter/spring spikes. After the first week in Nov it will be to cold for most things except cyms to stay outside. If you have cymbidiums you can leave them outside all winter long, only covering them if the temps dip below 35. All of my orchids are outside under a trellis and shade cloth right now. I will bring them in as stated above.
Hope that helps