# Question for windowsill growers



## Clark (Nov 19, 2014)

It is cold early this year, and my energy meter is spinning faster than normal.

What do set your heat thermostat at?

My wife sets it at 65F. for daytime, and 64F. for nighttime.
We have hot water baseboard type heat. 

My collection has slowed down since bringing them inside a month ago, but no bud blast yet.

Thanks.


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## Bob in Albany N.Y. (Nov 19, 2014)

When I grew inside we did 70 during the day and 60 at night.


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## DoreenVDT (Nov 19, 2014)

Clark said:


> It is cold early this year, and my energy meter is spinning faster than normal...
> My wife sets it at 65F. for daytime, and 64F. for nighttime...



Our house temperature is set at 68F for day and 62F at night, we have a natural gas forced-air heating system. The windowsill growing area in the house is in my formal living and dining room area. There the temperatures tend to be 2 to 4 degrees cooler than the rest of the house.

Presently I have two multi-floras in bud on the windowsills, no sign of bud blast there.

My husband Piet commented when he opened our last natural gas bill that we used less this year when compared to the same period last year. No surprise there, our temperatures were 10 degrees warmer than normal that period. This billing period we have had 10 days where the night temperatures were near or below freezing. Our gas bill isn't going to be as user-friendly for this period as for the last!


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## troy (Nov 19, 2014)

This will help get a humidifier or desktop waterfall or both set it next to yur plants my day temp is 68 -70 my night temp is 54 - 58 farenheit my humidity is always 70 °/.


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## Linus_Cello (Nov 19, 2014)

I leave my plants outdoors if it stays above 50 F. I have lots of my plants in the "sun room" that get around 55 at night. Main house has thermostat set at 65.


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## Clark (Nov 19, 2014)

Thanks Troy. I did that a few years ago. Got mold around the lower perimeters of the glass windows and sliding door.
No, I didn't have fans going. The blinds would block the breeze anyways.
By mid-Feb, the humidity will be 20-25% within our living area.









Didn't mean to be rude. Come on in!
This is our area.
The windows face south, the sliding door west.

















If anybody is stopping by, Miller Lite is fine.

Thank you for your replies.


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## troy (Nov 19, 2014)

No problems


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## troy (Nov 19, 2014)

There is 4 fans in there


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## Clark (Nov 19, 2014)

My neighbors love to peek in.
And we have a corner lot, so blinds stay not so open.:ninja:


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## NYEric (Nov 19, 2014)

Hmmmm, the "D" in the emoticom won't stay capitalized. !?!
85! :d


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## eOrchids (Nov 19, 2014)

Nice to see your setup, Clark! 

I have my thermostat at 70'F (home) or 60'F (away) during the day and 60"F at night.


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## Justin (Nov 19, 2014)

we keep ours at 71 degrees but the plants are by the windows so they are cooler. humidty gets down to 30% in the winter but later in the winter i will run a humidifier by the plants for a couple hours a day...enough to give them some relief without damaging the house.


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## ALToronto (Nov 19, 2014)

My windowsill area is in the living room, and it develops its own microclimate. Humidity struggles to stay at 60%, it gets down to 40 on sunny days. Temp can get up to 25 degrees in the sun, even though the house thermostat is programmed to drop to 18 between 9 am and 3:30 pm. Because the windows are large, the temp in the windowsill can drop to 14-15 overnight (which my phals really don't enjoy, but I don't have much choice). The paphs and phrags don't mind at all, they're all growing.


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## Camellkc (Nov 19, 2014)

If you have good memory, I have posted my windowsill growing area here some times ago. I only use humidifier to maintain the humidity, but it could still get down to 30% in winter sunny days. As for the temperature, it depends on the seasons. It could get more than 34 degree C in summer days and lower than 5 degree C in winter nights

It is primitive but works for my mutiforals.


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## Clark (Nov 20, 2014)

Thanks!


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## MaryPientka (Nov 20, 2014)

Your plants are fantastic! From mid-November to mid-April, my thermostat is set at 68 (electric heat), window sill temperatures can reach mid-70s on a sunny day. Night time temperatures in the low-60s. I aim at humidity ~50-70%, using cool mist humidifiers, but I do not humidify at night.


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## Paphluvr (Nov 20, 2014)

All my plants are currently being grown on bakers racks set at SW facing windows, two in living room and one at door wall in dining room. Thermostat is set to 68-70 deg F days and 58 deg F nights. I augment winter humidity with a room humifier in the winter but can't give you an exact figure of what it's maintained at. Obviously, to a certain extent, the higher the better.

At present I have fourteen Paphs or Phrags in bloom or spike, plus four plants of various other genera.


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## NYEric (Nov 20, 2014)

Paphluvr said:


> At present I have fourteen Paphs or Phrags in bloom or spike, plus four plants of various other genera.


Nice, thanks for the photos!


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## Clark (Nov 21, 2014)

Thanks Mary!
The first photo is the most fantastic. All those orchids are ready to pop, and they all came from fellow STers!
I'm not going to BS you Mary, my only Paph. is Pinocchio. Got it from the neighbor. Should be fun this year, at least four spikes!!!
Only two are species(same). Got half a plug tray in Jan 2011. Three spikes on two plants.
The five plants were acquired three different ways: auction, swap, and purchase. Fun, fun, fun!
Have a great weekend!


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## Clark (Nov 21, 2014)

We are going to try 60F. at night. I have my doubts.
The trade off is 67F. for the day. I was negotiating for 69F.
It is what it is.


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## cnycharles (Nov 21, 2014)

if you get a heat mat to put underneath, or find way to warm plant spot then you don't have to heat rest of apt/house as much


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## Clark (Nov 21, 2014)

I was shopping them about an hour before I started this thread.
The clay pots fell like ice in the morning.


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## ALToronto (Nov 22, 2014)

Good sources of small heating pads are drug stores and pet stores. But you'll have to really raise your humidity and water even more than you do in the summer.

But I don't heat my plants. I tried a small heating pad for some semi hydro plants a couple of winters ago, and I found I couldn't keep them wet enough even watering every day. And they didn't grow any better. So except for semi hydro dwellers, my plants are kept a little drier in the winter. So they don't grow as much for 4 months of the year - so what? They stay healthy, and they don't get confused about seasons.


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## Clark (Nov 22, 2014)

ALToronto said:


> So they don't grow as much for 4 months of the year - so what?



I'm fine with this part. All good.


Bud blast. Bud blast is my concern.
At this point I'm looking forward to some decent displays. On the flip side, we would like to keep our utility bills... well, you know.

Thanks for the tips Al. I never thought of the drug stores. Didn't think the evaporation rate was so rapid either.


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