Michael, I envy the cave you have for growing your Masdevallia's. The temperatures should be great for Growing most Masdevallia's and Dracula's. The plants should love the cool conditions year round and with proper lighting should reward you with lots of flowers. Masdevallia's do not need a lot of light two four foot shop lights with cool white bulbs will provide sufficient illumination for a 2 x 4 foot growing area. I keep my lights about 12 to 18 inches above the bench surface. This provides enough light to get all my plants to bloom regularly. I use cool white bulbs as they are inexpensive and provide a broad spectrum of light that the plants thrive under. I keep my lights on for 18 hours year round, my plants all bloom under these conditions, so I see no need to vary the day length. I fertilize my plants continually, with a very low fertilizer, about a quarter teaspoon per gallon, I use a variety of fertilizers because I have them and I find the plants like it, I do not use extreme fertilizers that have high nitrogen or high phosphorus, but I use a variety of balanced fertilizers, with micro elements. I use a very pure water to water the plants either rain water, dehumidifier condensate, or RO water.
Have fun setting up the cave and growing your Masdevallia's there, I would imagine you may find a lot of other cool growing plants that like low light will also thrive there. Tom /----------------------------------------------------------------------- | Tom Hillson Orchid Grower Specializing | [EMAIL PROTECTED] In Paphs and Pleurothallids | http://www.orchids.iastate.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |"There is always room for one more Orchid!!" On Jul 30, 2007, at 7:13 PM, Michael Benedito wrote: > Hi everyone > > I want to start growing cool orchids (specially Masdevallia), but > my climate is too mild (even during winter) to grow them in a > greenhouse or outside. Instead of buying a lot of expensive > equipment to cool down the greenhouse, i was thinking of growing > them exclusively under lights inside a cave that was used when i > was a kid to raise chickens (hehe). The humidity and air flow in > there seems fine to me, because there is a very wet wall with water > constantly dripping (that can provide additional moisture) and 2 > entrances on opposite sides of the cave, so air is continuously > flowing and aerating it. > > Now i wanted to know if the temperatures in there were suitable > to grow those orchids, specially now on summer. This week was > probably the hottest of the year (temperatures outside of 33ºC > (91ºF) and inside that cave the temperature was around 20ºC (68ºF). > As far as i know, the temperature seems fine, but the problem is > that i dont have any experience at all on how to grow plants under > lights. And the information over the internet is very limited. Can > i use normal fluorescent lamps to grow them? And can the plants be > grown healthy and flower without ever needing to see the sunlight? > (I will try to immitate the natural lenght of the photoperiod of my > area not to confuse the plants) > > Other question is about the temperature drop. The cave seems to > act like a temperature deposit, so the temperature flutuations will > not be that big. Is this a problem? > > Lastly i would like to mention Masdevallia caesia and M. ignea as > being my favourites of that genus. Any particular problems with > these, by growing them the way i said? > > Many thanks > > Michael Benedito > > > --------------------------------- > Yahoo! Mail is the world's favourite email. Don't settle for less, > sign up for your freeaccount today. > _______________________________________________ > the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) > [email protected] > http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
