Orchids in Tank Experiment

[TwoStems]

Thanks for the honesty I'm afraid I'll never see spikes/flowers again unless a miracle occurs!

[Joyce184]

Two weeks in...new growths on the phals. Also, got the new tank hood so the light should be brighter. The old hood had fish water build up on it so I'll be watching to see if the plants will do better or worse with this new cover.

[panam]

Hey! It looks like a new leaf starting - and some good root growth, as well. Good job, Joyce!

[tcatl]

I convinced a store manager that the phal for sale looked ready to die, so he discounted it to $3 for me. I stuck it my little terrarium and it bounced back nicely! Now however I need to clean my grow room and set up the bigger tank for the rescues that have no roots from my moms house.
I also use philodendrons and ferns along with a bark base for looks. The ferns love it and thrive well and the philos shoot off tons of new roots to be ready for transplanting faster!

[Joyce184]

Thanks Patty! They grow fast in there!

Cris - Ever since I started this little project of mine, I've been obsessing about turning this into something cooler. Uh oh, future project. It starts off with something small right? Little terrarium then medium sized one, then large one? hehe.

Can you post some pictures of yours? Underneath my bark is a layer of gravel. My thought on this was that it was similar to the function of a drip tray and so that the bark was not going to be sitting directly on the gravel soaking. I've been looking into aquarium/reptile fans and I recently acquired a carnivorous plant, drosera spatulata, to kill off the few fruit flies in there. I've already seen a few of them get trapped in it! I suppose, I could've just opened the hood and let them out...but I just really wanted a carnivorous plant, lol.

Also, once these phals are out of that tank...I really want to turn it into a mini orchid tank ...lots of cool looking miniature orchids. I've been looking all over the net already!

[panam]

Uh-oh! I see the beginnings of obsession.

Now, didn't I have a little aquarium stuck away somewhere? Hmmm.

[tcatl]

Yes its an obsession! The ten gallon worked great as a hospital tank, set the thirty gallon up today with soil for the regular plants and put mounts in with phals on them. Rather looks like a jungle! Have plans to get a third movie shelf and turn the pieces into a glass terrarium/coffee table (only way to cheaply match the wood color of everything else in my living room ). Oh and picked up a 125 gallon a while back that can't be filled with water when the house is rented so.....Yes, picks are possible as soon as I find the camera in all that stuff we brought back from camping.

[Joyce184]

Awesome! I'll be looking forward to the pictures!...and will be picking your brain for ideas.

[nicki]

Yay new growth! Nice rescue job, I'm sure the phals thank you I recently made another clearance purchase of a phal and this one has the start of a new spike. First I've seen for that. The carnivorous plant sounds cool.

[AtantaR]

Thanks for the honesty I'm afraid I'll never see spikes/flowers again unless a miracle occurs!

Let me tell you miracles do occur... As a window grower i have tried many things to get spikes. Ive given dark periods, cold periods, stress, more sun, sudden sun..lol....literally just throwing them in the sun for a day..haha...not my phals tho hehe that would kill them. Anyhow cooler temps for your phals could be an AC regulated room or basement. Granted temps need to be cooler then summer temps. There still needs to be a drop in daytime to night time temps as well. So maybe a daytime room temperature area and a night time basement area. A good 15 degrees difference would work. My phals are a little off schedule. Seeing as most of the time, in the winter I open the windows a bit near the plants. This gives me the temp change that works for me without being to drastic. This gets my phals to bloom by mid April.