hello from South Carolina

[Aaron888]

Hello, my name is Aaron, I grew a few orchids years ago in my late teens and early twenties (got into orchids from growing carnivorous plants) I had a very small green house that my parents allowed me to turn the back porch into. Grew a mixture of things for several years until one winter for some reason heating cost went thru the roof (I believe a natural disaster may have caused it but I don't remember) Anyway I didn't have the money to pay and so my parents made me get rid of the green house and I got out of growing the orchids but continued with the carnivorous plants because the majority of them I grow outside year round in this area. Anyway long story short I got back into growing orchids about a year ago and right now am growing under lights but have plans to build a greenhouse in the next one to two years. I grow a mixture of things but my favorites being the slipper orchids.

 

[LadySlipper]

Hello and welcome, Aaron. Glad to have you here.

It's good to hear that you're growing orchids again and good luck with your plan to build a new greenhouse.

 

[Ray]

Welcome, Aaron.

What part of SC?

 

[Markhamite]

Welcome!

 

[Aaron888]

Welcome, Aaron.

What part of SC?

I am in a small town called Pickens its near Table Rock State park

 

[Ray]

Ah yes. That's not too far from Clemson, isn't it?

I used to live in Georgetown and got up to that part of the state on a regular basis.

 

[Aaron888]

Ah yes. That's not too far from Clemson, isn't it?

I used to live in Georgetown and got up to that part of the state on a regular basis.

That's right Clemson is two towns over about 30 miles if even that. go from Pickens to Six Mile and then into Clemson.

 

[abax]

Welcome to ST from KY. What orchids are you growing now? I'm primarily a Phrag. grower and like
to drag growers into that orchid category whenever I can...even if it's kicking and screaming!

 

[Aaron888]

I grow several phalaenopsis, a few cattleya orchids, a lycaste, a miltoniopsis (just got it about a month ago and have never grown them before so don't know how I will do with it) a catasetum and the Paphs I have so far - I have a paph fairrieanum that is in bud right now that this will be its first blooming, a seedling paph. venustum that when I got it was a seedling about an inch and a half across and is now prob about 3 inches, Paph rothschidianum that is aprox 25 inch, a paph. delenatii seedling that is maybe 4 inches across (new to this var. so hope I do ok with it) Paph. delenatii X vietnamense seedling, paph stonei seedling that is about 12 -13 inch across, and last but def. not least a Paph. sanderianum that I got about 2 months ago that has a 10 1/4 inch leaf span - It is probably the one that I worry about the most because when I was younger I wanted one and never got to get one so I finally got this one and after getting it I heard that they were bad to just die for no apparent reason and now I am kind of paranoid over it (any advice would be greatly appreciated. It is in an extremely small pot for its size but I was warned by the same person that told me how easy they are to just wither away for no reason to not repot it unless I absolutely have to. Again any advice on this paph would be greatly appreciated because I have become kind of paranoid over it. as far as phrags. I only have two right now - phrag. warszewiczianum var. wallisii and phrag. besseae - so thats it for now the rest of my plants are nepenthes, Mexican butterworts, venus flytraps, sundews and pitcher plants.

 

[NYEric]

Welcome from NYC.

 

[southernbelle]

Welcome from VA. I grow catts (about 60); papas (about 20) and phrags (about 1).. this forum is a great resource. A lot of knowledgeable people from all over the world.

 

[big923cattleya]

Aaron, I have one piece of advice for you and I mention with all sincerity. If I were you I would start to do a little serious research into what the requirements might be for your orchids, light and temperature wise. I did the same exact thing as you back then when I started in the 70’s. I wanted to try everything! I bought high light plants, low light plants and mixed warm growers with cool growers. It was the biggest mistake, I felt that I ever made. In doing so, none of them were really happy.
The ideal requirements that some of these prefer, lead me to conflicts with my culture.
For example, a Miltoniopsis is a cooler growing orchid. It likes 72-75 degrees maximum daytime temperature. They typically do well grown on the moist side with 52-58 degrees at night. It is not that they won’t bloom if grown warmer, but they might not be as floriferousness if grown warm.
Conversely so many Catasetums grow much better by growing warm. I lived for 9 years in Florida from 2009 to 2018. Catasetums loved the warmth, 83-87 days with 64-67 degrees at night. They loved 4-5 hours of good sunlight every day but they need to be protected from the intense sun of the mid days in South Florida. They loved lots of water and are known to be heavy feeders and could take weekly feedings at half strength.
In a nutshell, you can try to grow everything but those that will grow the best and flower the best are those that find the conditions that you provide to be ideal.
In other words you could specialize in warm growers or cool growers or even intermediate growers. But trying to grow things all universally in the same conditions might work. But perhaps what you may want to give some thought to is, do I try to grow everything so-so, OR, do I want to grow everything well?

 

[Aaron888]

Aaron, I have one piece of advice for you and I mention with all sincerity. If I were you I would start to do a little serious research into what the requirements might be for your orchids, light and temperature wise. I did the same exact thing as you back then when I started in the 70’s. I wanted to try everything! I bought high light plants, low light plants and mixed warm growers with cool growers. It was the biggest mistake, I felt that I ever made. In doing so, none of them were really happy.
The ideal requirements that some of these prefer, lead me to conflicts with my culture.
For example, a Miltoniopsis is a cooler growing orchid. It likes 72-75 degrees maximum daytime temperature. They typically do well grown on the moist side with 52-58 degrees at night. It is not that they won’t bloom if grown warmer, but they might not be as floriferousness if grown warm.
Conversely so many Catasetums grow much better by growing warm. I lived for 9 years in Florida from 2009 to 2018. Catasetums loved the warmth, 83-87 days with 64-67 degrees at night. They loved 4-5 hours of good sunlight every day but they need to be protected from the intense sun of the mid days in South Florida. They loved lots of water and are known to be heavy feeders and could take weekly feedings at half strength.
In a nutshell, you can try to grow everything but those that will grow the best and flower the best are those that find the conditions that you provide to be ideal.
In other words you could specialize in warm growers or cool growers or even intermediate growers. But trying to grow things all universally in the same conditions might work. But perhaps what you may want to give some thought to is, do I try to grow everything so-so, OR, do I want to grow everything well?

Yes I agree 100% with what you are saying, however my house has kind of a situation where I can grow a mixture of things. I have learned that the spare bathroom if I keep the door shut the central heat and air causes that room to be extremely chilly compared to the rest of the house (in the summer if the vent is open it freezes you and in the winter if you close the vent it doesn't get too warm either) so I built a light cart in that room and keep my cool growers there. On the other side of the spectrum my den is on the opposite spectrum and stays warmer (has a lot of windows and is south facing so stays warmer that the rest of the house) so I grow the warm growers there. Even with that being said it may not be cool enough for the Mil. but I had never tried one so thought I would experiment with a young plant and see how it does.

 

[annica.jarvela]

Welcome from Finland also, Aaron. I`m a newbie here in ST too.

 

[Tony]

Welcome! I'm in Columbia and the South Carolina Orchid Society meets here on the third Sunday every month. Come out for a meeting if you can.

Monthly Meetings