My orchids have to be able to deal with a long hot dry season with low humidity and then put up with a long hot humid monsoonal season with frequent periods of torrential rain. It was a bit daunting early on trying to work out what would work but slowly I realised that many orchids are actually quite tough. Often takes a bit of intervention and/or tweaking so there's still an element of trial and error. With epiphytes it's easy to watch the roots and see how they're dealing with low humidity. I try to keep more to species orchids, finding information on their growing preferences seems to be easier. I agree with not being too obsessed about humidity. Alternating wet and dry seasons are normal for most tropical areas where lots of the orchids come from.

Exactly what Jane said. We live in Colorado where it's dry-and also cold in the winter, thus the heater takes it's toll on any humidity here. During winter, most of mine I keep in mini-greenhouses and so they're grouped together. In one I have the smaller orchids sitting in a tray of water (inside pots, so the water doesn't get in) so it stays more somewhat more humid. There are also two trays of African Violets and streps that I keep wicked-the water in the trays helps with the humidity. The cats and phals I have seem to prefer that, the oncidiums could care less. All of them go outside as early in spring as I can get them out. Sometimes though that's not until end of May or early June because of snowfall. Some cats sit on a southern window sill, in a smaller warmer room, and the cymbidiums sit in a western window in the living room where it's considerably cooler.

I also have seen on other forums folks saying that humidity trays don't work but I beg to differ... Simple chemistry will tell us it will. The spagh idea works really well too though I've only used on a few that are too big for the little greenhouses but must be kept more humid. Think I'll do that with one of my larger zygos this year.

I've got a collection of mostly phals and a nice big oncidium. I've had some for several years in my house, and I don't do anything to manage humidity. Some are in groups on tables by windows, others are on their own in varying amounts of light.

Man you are all SO helpful!! I am so excited about this. Now I can make room in my greenhouse for the other orchids that require it while the others will sit in my sunnier rooms..

Jane, you explained it perfect and I have seen your orchids. They were always just perfect and I really appreciate the time you took to explain. Thanks again and I hope all is well..

I hope this thread helps many others here. It is a recurring question with many orchid growers around here.

One more question..

Do you spray the moss around the roots, or do you sink them into a bucket or pale full of water to make sure the roots get dosed very well..I found that ,y Phals did horrible....I found they did better when I sunk them into the water and left them under for a few minutes...

Mike, you can do either, spray or dunk.

I was lazy and many of my Catts were too large. So I sprayed the sphag to keep it moist. Sometimes I'd give the leaves a spray but I found that really doesn't do anything. Just keep the roots happy, the plant will do fine.

Jane

Dunking is a risky business. If one orchid has virus then they all will in the dunking method. And there is more virus out there than many realize...

Mike, I am also in Mass and deal with dry conditions. I have great success with Catts, Oncs, Vandas, Dens, Phals, Paphs, Phrags and many others. The only ones I can't grow are Miltonopsis, Masdevallia, Dracula etc.

Thanks, Harvey. I should have mentioned that.

I used deli containers for each orchid I would dunk. I actually marked the containers. The smaller ones I would just bring to the kitchen sink and let the water run through and then let it drip for a while till the media was good and wet.

Yes, never share containers unless you sanitize between plants.

Good point, Harvey.

Jane

Thanks everyone. Wow, what helpful bunch of folks here just as Jane once told me...Thanks I will try it although I am very very nervous about it. But as Jane said, if I keep a close eye on the roots, they should be ok, I am going to use the methods she uses and those of others with the peat moss thingy and the water holding containers...

One other question??

Does anyone here use extra lights and or fans?

Mike

Mike, I did use simple floor lamps to boost the light and extend the daylight. I used CFL's in octopus type floor lamps so I could point the lights over specific plants.I plugged them into timers so they ran until about 11pm. They were only used on the higher light orchids or plants which were further away from the windows.

My living room was large and quite drafty. I wasn't worried about air circulation as the whole area was totally open with high ceilings. Because I didn't have energy efficient windows (just single pane) the room would get quite cool at night.

I put some of the warmer growers in a smaller room that I could close off from the rest of the house. I only put orchids which didn't like the cooler conditions of the living room. The small room was dark with only a small, north facing window. Again, I used octopus floor lamps and a few clip lamps which worked fine. I was able to bloom all my Phals and dends using the octopus lamps to grow out the spikes in a nice, even way.

In this room I did use some little fans I bought for $4.00 each in Target. I still have them. They were great because I could stick them right in with the plants. I did run a inexpensive vaporizer (not humidifier) to add moisture to the dry air. Not sure it was necessary. I didn't go crazy.

Most of my plants did fine in the living room with the cool conditions. I only moved the Phals into the small room when winter got really cold at night. Phals which weren't in spike stayed in the living room without problems.

I'll look for some old photos to give you an idea what I'm talking about.

What I found is that the orchids handled being in the house very well despite low humidity and cool conditions. I never lost one nor had problems. Once March rolled around, all the plants in the smaller room got moved to the living room to finish out the winter.

Don't worry about it. It really wasn't a big deal and my plants did well.

Jane

Humidity can be managed in a variety of ways. I'm an indoor "windowsill grower," and have a variety of orchids that do great for me, despite having different humidity requirements. What I do have that many struggle with is an abundance of light. I am fortunate to not have to provide supplemental light. On the contrary: I have to hide the paphs behind things to give them the partial shade they prefer!

These two phals, just sitting on a shelf near the door:

Below are three trays. They contain: 8 phals (mixed sizes), a Sedirea japonica, an Angraecum didieri, a Paph uneme seedling, Howeara lava burst, an Oncidium twinkle, a Beallara division, Liparis lacerata, a Neofinetia falcata, Brassovola nodosa seedling, and a Masdevalia discoidea.

A better look at the twinkle, Masd. discoidea, Brassavola nodosa, Neofinetia falcata, and Liparis lacerata in the back.

On the bottom windowsill, with my succulents because they like full sun; a small Dendrobium on the far left, a cattleya in the middle, and two oncidiums on the far right:

The only things that have insane humidity requirements are my mounted minis and a rootless phal species that needs a bit of TLC right now. I'm keeping those in a small tank most of the time, though here they are getting some fresh air out on the desk: an aerangis cross, a Rossioglossum (in the tank, that will probably die), a Leptotes pohlitinocoi, and a Lockhartia species. Also two catasetums that are driving me nuts with their water requirements:

As you can see, it's a huge swing in light and humidity requirements, but aside from that small tank, I do not have a greenhouse. You will have to adjust the media and watering schedules for each plant, but it's totally do-able. There's only one or two of these that are absolute headwreckers to grow right here on the counter.

Great setup, Danny.

I tried to avoid mounties but did have a few on slabs and some in wood baskets. One trick I learned from an old orchid grower was to sit the mounts and baskets in a tray of water so only the wood had contact with the water. The wood would soak up the water and provide moisture to the roots. I only used a shallow tray and poured enough water to only lay the mounts in.

Dry conditions are difficult for mounts to do well. Everything else does fine.

Jane