Wow!

Good growing Joanna!

Claude

"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:5eq9f.32$0d.17@trnddc08...
| For a few weeks already I have been watching like a hawk for new spikes,
| knowing that I was very close to the halfway point, and today it has been
| reached:
|
| As of today, over half of my orchids (24 out of 47) are either in bloom,
in
| bud, or in spike! I am counting as in spike only those orchids that either
| have initiated a new spike (and where there is no doubt in my mind that it
| is a spike) or that are showing new activity on an old spike, but not ones
| that have a green old spike that is not currently active.
|
| Furthermore of the 24 orchids currently in bloom/bud/spike in my condo
only
| 5 were bought recently enough so that their activity is not due to the
| conditions at my place. So I guess my orchids really love the new condo
| where I moved in the beginning of August. :-) Mostly the humidity in this
| place is naturally quite high. We have not turned on the heating yet, so
| that will bring the humidity down of course, but the humidity in one of my
| two growing areas currently fluctuates between 63-90%. As a result I am
now
| watering the orchids much less frequently than before, since they rarely
| approach dry. I may have to repot more of my orchids into clay pots, since
| some of the watering schedules are becoming ridiculously long, like a
month
| between waterings -- and occasionally I have noticed a bit of mold on moss
| or a bit of rot on leaf (which I have been meticulously cutting out), but
| these problems have so far been occasional only. Since we have not turned
| the heat on yet, and the nights have been cool in the Washington DC area,
| the temperature in the window, where many of my orchids live, has been min
| 56 and max 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which has caused all this spiking.
|
| It's an exciting time here.
|
| Joanna
|
|