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

J Fortuna wrote:
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.


Congratulations! It is exciting to have that many things going on at
the same time. Now I need to you to come over to my house and work your
magic here!

Rob


--
Rob's Rules: http://littlefrogfarm.com
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 obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit

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
|
|

Where are u located that your getting high humidity?

I am in the Washington DC area, where it has been quite rainy recently.

In addition, I live in a ground floor condo that is against a hill and has
unusually high humidity (I think). The environmental conditions in this
condo are quite different than in the apartment that we used to live in
befo in the summer it was not nearly as hot and therefore there was much
less need for air conditioning except to keep the humidity at bay, and we
expect that in the winter this place will probably require less heating than
our previous place did -- which is good since unlike in the previous place
the utilities are our responsibility. The two bathrooms which are against
the hill and thus have no windows have conditions that are similar enough to
a cave that we've actually got cave crickets (also called camel crickets)
there -- we will probably need to contact pest control about them someday.

In addition, the window space where the orchids are, where the humidity
meter is, this window has quite a few orchids in very close proximity, which
raises humidity there. It is the kind of window with a window niche that has
walls on two sides, and over night we close wooden shutters that effectively
enclose the orchid area from all sides (window on one side, walls on two
sides, wooden shutters on remaining side). So I think the micro-climate in
this window is more humid than in the rest of the condo because of all
that -- I have not measured the humidity elsewhere yet to compare, but I
think that is so.

As mentioned in my previous email, we have not turned on the heating yet,
and I expect that once we do the humidity will go down drastically, but for
now the orchids are enjoying it.

Joanna

wrote in message
ups.com...
Where are u located that your getting high humidity?

Congratulations. You have every right to be excited. I guess we'll be seeing a
few photos in due course?

On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 14:53:53 GMT, "J Fortuna"
wrote:

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

Dave Gillingham
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To email me remove the .private from my email address.

I have you beat--90% of my orchids are in spike or bloom. They always
do it this time of year. I think coming inside after spending the
summer on the wall under the ornamental grass just naturally gets them
going. Not in bloom, I have a couple of tiny dendrobiums that just
don't seem to be big enough yet and a Zygopetalum mackayi that's only
bloomed once for me. I have no idea what to do to inspire it.

Congratulations, drizzt!

Do some of your orchids rebloom for you in the spring-time as well, or is
this your main season?

How many do you have? I tried to calculate from your post: 90% in spike or
bloom, only 3 inactive, so if 3 is 10%, do you have 30? :-)

Joanna

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have you beat--90% of my orchids are in spike or bloom. They always
do it this time of year. I think coming inside after spending the
summer on the wall under the ornamental grass just naturally gets them
going. Not in bloom, I have a couple of tiny dendrobiums that just
don't seem to be big enough yet and a Zygopetalum mackayi that's only
bloomed once for me. I have no idea what to do to inspire it.