I like epiphytic orchids doing what epiphytic orchids do naturally. But how do they go in full sun (palms often don't give much shade)? Do you give them much extra water, or just leave them to "Mother Nature's bounty"?

The prime real estate in terms of orchids is the east southeast side of the tree. The terete vandas can take full western sun. And this is not a survival test for the orchids either. Most of my orchids get water every day. Unless it rains. And are well fed.

Do you know the relative humidity range of the air they get there?

Humidity in south florida is relatively high. Early mornings this time of year are 90% drying in the middle of the day at around 50%. Those are numbers for no rain days. We get around 75" of rain yearly. But last may in one month we got 25". in a month is a number we might get from a hurricane in a month.

We may get drought conditions and dry weather that might last for 10 or 20 days. Then the humidity drops and fire becomes a problem. We usually get one of those per year...

Winters are the driest time of the year.

Encyclia tampensis. It grows all over South Florida. It is planted on the tree as it is found in nature. With care they will put on a show!

We're dry in the winter too, no rain for 4 to 5 months. That's the problem time for epiphytic orchids on trees. It's mid winter now, this morning minimum temp was 19.2C (66.6F) RH 90%, maximum temp 34.7C (94.5F) RH 32%. But we get a number of dry surges during winter with the RH dropping below 20% at times. I've lost lots of orchids I thought might cope hence the caution now.

Of course wet season (summer) there's no problems. During rainy periods day/night RH ranges from 98% to about 90%, sunny days 95% to 60%. And the rain is very uneven here as well. Yearly average is about 1727 mm (68 inches). January this year alone was 1027.8 mm (40.05 inches), most of that coming in the last half of the month. March we had a cyclone and all I got was about 25mm (1 inch) during it, plus some trees down just to let me know it had been here :( I usually get more rain than that out of a 30 minute storm.

I'll have to look into Encyclias to see how well they might go here. The native epiphytes here are only Dendrobium dicuphum (formerly affine), D. foelschei, D. johannis, D. paludicola, and Cymbidium canaliculatum. Not a big range.

I have a few orchids in the trees that might survive one of our many droughts. But they would suffer. On very hot and dry days I will water twice. Second watering in one day is to wet the leaves and in the screen enclosure to wet the pavers. That will give evaporation and cause a drop in temperature.

If you want to grow on trees with your challanging situation you must drag the hose frequently or set up an automatic irrigation system.

The trick on encyclias is to mount them or install them high in the pot with very good drainage. Lava rock in a clay pot. I use that recipe for other species also. They get water daily That means I do not grow Phals, Bilbo's, Paphs and some others that do not like my culture. Fortunately the orchid menu is very large so I have many choices.

Thanks for the info. I went to an orchid show here a few weeks back, going to try and join up with one of the orchid clubs when I get time. Should be a lot of info there as well.