After months of pent up demand, I've arranged a virtual tour of my plant
room. Unfortunately, not a lot of things in bloom. But remarkable
engineering... *grin*

http://www.msu.edu/~halgren/orchids/Growing_room.htm

Rob

--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit

Rob,

Very interesting. The first question that comes to mind is .... Why did
they build a basement room under your patio?

Have you considered putting Mylar on the walls to reflect the light?

It looks like you have a lot of plants squeezed in to that space. Time to
get rid of that patio and put the greenhouse in

Gene


"Rob Halgren" wrote in message
...
After months of pent up demand, I've arranged a virtual tour of my plant
room. Unfortunately, not a lot of things in bloom. But remarkable
engineering... *grin*

http://www.msu.edu/~halgren/orchids/Growing_room.htm

Rob

--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit

Rob Halgren wrote:
After months of pent up demand, I've arranged a virtual tour of my plant
room. Unfortunately, not a lot of things in bloom. But remarkable
engineering... *grin*

http://www.msu.edu/~halgren/orchids/Growing_room.htm

Rob


very nice tour. how do you allow for water dranage?

Karen

Gene Schurg wrote:

Rob,

Very interesting. The first question that comes to mind is .... Why did
they build a basement room under your patio?


I have no idea... There is an identical room built under the front
stoop. Would make a good place to store canned goods. Not a
particularly good root cellar though. Somebody thought it was a good
idea. It helped sell the house (to me). But I doubt it was planned as
a plant room. House was built in 1973. Actually they would make good
storm shelters.

Have you considered putting Mylar on the walls to reflect the light?


Yep. I've used mylar in the past, and find that it gets dirty too
fast and is hard to clean. I thought a good compromise was to use
semi-gloss white paint. It is quite reflective, and a heck of a lot
easier to clean. Probably not cheaper to use paint, actually.

It looks like you have a lot of plants squeezed in to that space. Time to
get rid of that patio and put the greenhouse in



If I put in a greenhouse I'd probably still grow some things in the
plant room. It would make an excellent place for cool growers and
pleurothallids. This is what I tell myself...

--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit

Karen wrote:



very nice tour. how do you allow for water dranage?

All of the 'benches' are wire bottom, so the water goes right
through. Water doesn't collect on the floor (much), because there is a
french drain around the outside of the room (and my entire basement).
It was there to begin with, so even better.
If you haven't heard of a french drain (I have no idea why it is
called that...), it is basically a drainage pipe around the perimeter
that leads to a sump pump (which pumps out to my lawn, actually). They
retrofit them into basements by jack-hammering out the perimeter of the
basement, digging a trench, and putting in drain tile. Then the trench
is filled with some gravel and a porous concrete floor is poured over
the top. It is a little more elaborate than that, but that is the basic
idea. The main purpose is to have a conduit for water that would
normally seep through the walls if your water table is high enough. Of
course if the pump goes out you are toast... The system is sold around
here as 'B-Dry'. Don't know how much it costs, but it is probably a
good investment.

Rob

--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit

"Rob Halgren" wrote in message
...
Gene Schurg wrote:
Have you considered putting Mylar on the walls to reflect the light?


Yep. I've used mylar in the past, and find that it gets dirty too
fast and is hard to clean. I thought a good compromise was to use
semi-gloss white paint. It is quite reflective, and a heck of a lot
easier to clean. Probably not cheaper to use paint, actually.

You might want to consider gluing styrofoam panels to the walls. The
reflectivity is much better than mylar. The down side is that it would
insulate the walls and possibly make the room warmer. My humidity room is
built into the basement using plastic to cover the outside and then
styrofoam glued to the inside. I heat it to 85 degrees in the day and let
it cool to 63 at night. The lights alone will heat it to 75, but many of my
plants wanted the added heat.

________________
Ken Woodward
Newton, MA
http://kwoodward.net