Home made humidifier

[maggs]

Hello again, I have some orchid rizomes that I thought I would love to get plants from, cattleya and then some dendrobium canes too, so I made a humidifier (I think) using a tray of a plant pot with some sphagnum and orchid mix and just put all to lie on it, I placed the whole tray into a large clear plastic bag and tied it tightly, now I notice that there is moisture in the bag but I open it after a few days to let air in, my question is, is the moisture in the bag going to do damage? and would the cattleya rizomes grow lying down like that? I also put a small plastic bottle in the middle of the tray to keep the bag shaped like a dome so that it would not collapse onto the tray, do I have to put this in a dark area or some light?

[raybark]

Assuming the cut ends are not kept wet by the moss, you should be OK. You might consider dipping those cut ends in cinnamon to seal them off and act as a fungicide.

I think it is doubtful you'll get any viable growth, as sections of rhizome really don't have a lot of energy stores, but what the heck! It's worth the experiment.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

I would keep in in a shaded area, but not totally dark. Also, consider some root hormone to get some roots growing.

cheers,
BD

[Anteater]

I don't know about the cattleya rhizome, but you should be able to grow new plants off of old dendrobium canes like that. I have done it with a cane just laying uncovered in a tray of moist fine fir bark before. Using keiki paste on the nodes of the cane should increase your odds of growth. I don't know what effect the moisture in the bag will have. I know the dendrobiums will have to be kept moist to keep the keikis alive until they have enough roots. When I tried it, I had the tray on one of the lowest shelves, so it didn't get a ton of light, but that was just because that is where I had space to put it.

It sounds like a great experiment. Hopefully you'll see some little green growths soon!

[maggs]

Thanks all for your help, I did use the cinnamon and also rooting powder and just laid them down on sphagnum but I will be monitoring it daily and eventually have young plants to show off