K Barrett ) wrote:
: Are you growing in a greenhouse or a windowsill? IMHO any mounted plant
: needs lots of ambient humidity in addition to daily watering in order to
: thrive. In a house you can't do that easily. So I'd take it off the
: mount and put it in a plastic pot in sphagnum moss.

You raise a subject near and dear to my heart. I keep my orchids exclusively
in a windowsill environment and have subsequently become very interested in
this issue. If I can keep some mounted orchids my growing space expands
significantly (i.e. the sill is already full!). But, I live in central
California where it's hot in the summer and the humidity isn't typically very
high. So, two years ago I started an experiment and bought a Den. thrysiflorum
at a local show. It is potted in a 2" plastic basket with *no* media, just
the basket, the plant, and the hanger. The first year, it grew a new cane.
The second year, it bloomed and grew 2 new canes. It is now starting its
3rd year, resting and will hopefully bloom soon. When active I don't typically
water it every day and I don't anything particularly special about raising
humidity other occasionally misting the general area (it's tile). Would it
grow better in a greenhouse? I presume so but since I don't have a greenhouse
I don't have any first hand experience there. But, more importantly can you
grow and re-bloom a mounted orchid indoors without lots of special attention?
My one experiment says the answer is yes (at least for this particular
species). I will be adding some sphagnum around the roots this year to keep
the roots moister for a longer period of time to see how that improves things.

Based on that prior success in August I bought one of Andy's orchids on a
stick, a Den. hercoglossum. So far it's grown a new cane but won't know if
it will re-bloom until this summer. Very recently I bought another of Andy's
orchids on stick (an Encyclia adenocaula) and a Vanda in a 4" plastic basket.
The Vanda is of particular interest to me as I have another Vanda that has
been potted in bark for the 15 years I've had it and it's getting a bit big
for the window sill. Getting it into a basket would open up some sill space
and give it some breathing room. One of things I want to do is buy a humidity
meter like the one sold by Radio Shack (which BTW I found out about on K
Barret's web site, thanks K!) so I can see what the humidity really is in my
house in general and on the window sill. Anyway, the experiments continue
(and hopefully with the same amount of success I've had so far!).

Dave