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Climate in cool vivarium/greenhouse - daily rhythm

Discussion in 'Growing Areas' started by orchidkarma, Aug 18, 2010.

  1. Aug 18, 2010 #1
    orchidkarma

    orchidkarma Member

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    I am dialing in the watering/fog system for my large cool vivarium / cloud forest vivarium. Still fine tuning how I run things... I have been looking for information online on the daily climate in the cloud forests, but have not found anything good. I would like to set up a day in my viv. like a typical day(s) out there over the course of a year... what part of the year and day it rains, heavy dew, sunny, when it is dry etc.

    Do any of you have any good links to share?

    Also, you who are growing cloud forest orchids in vivarium or greenhouse - how do you run your watering/fog systems, air, RH, etc...? It would be very interesting to see how we all do things similar/different...

    Looking forward to a nice informative discussion. THANKS!
     
  2. Aug 18, 2010 #2
    Ray

    Ray Orchid Iconoclast Supporting Member

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    Have you considered using the Baker's culture sheets with a few selected plants that grow where you're trying to duplicate the conditions?

    http://www.orchidculture.com/
     
  3. Aug 18, 2010 #3
    orchidkarma

    orchidkarma Member

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    Thanks Ray. Yes I have actually looked at the Bakers culture sheets, and I am using that as a basic guide but I guess I am a control freak and I want to be more precise than that. The trouble is that the weather stations they use for their lists are usually not actually IN the cloud forest itself... they use "CLIMATE: Station #84045, Quito, Ecuador" for example (Quito is a very large city), and then say something like "More moisture is probably available in the cloudforest habitat than is indicated in the climate table..." The climate charts also do not show hour-by-hour climate but rather monthly, which is a good guide but alas... I want more. ;)

    I want to plan a schedule for every month of the year with, for example (just an example - not based on fact): 06:00 - 09:00 rain (run rain 2 min every hour), 9:00-11:00 heavy dew (run fogger 15 min on, 15 min off), 11:00 - 16:00 dry 22 degrees (RH XX-XX%) (all wet systems off), 16:00 - 20:00 rain (run rain 2 min every hour), 20:00 - 06:00 heavy humidity 12 degrees (RH XX-XX%) (run fogger15 min on, 15 min off, AC on thermostat). ........or something like this. (Yes, I know I am a control freak)
     
  4. Aug 18, 2010 #4
    Kyle

    Kyle Member

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    I lived in Ecuador for a year. Rains usually came in the mid afternoon, 2-4 pm. That was in Gualaceo where Ecuagenera keeps most of thier plants. But was the same when I would go into the country side. Seldom do I remember rain in the morning.

    Kyle
     
  5. Aug 18, 2010 #5
    Jon

    Jon Mmmm... bulbophyllum...

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    Light is going to be 12 on, 12 off.
     
  6. Aug 19, 2010 #6
    orchidkarma

    orchidkarma Member

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    Thanks a lot Kyle & Jon! Keep it coming guys!! :)
     
  7. Aug 19, 2010 #7
    Marni

    Marni Well-Known Member Staff Member Supporting Member

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    I have experienced the same that that Kyle has. Sunny, partly sunny or cloudy skies in the morning, afternoon rain or mist and clearing (or just clouds) again in late afternoon to early evening. There is still plenty of water dripping off of leaves from above a lot of the time. Some places it will rain much of the day, most days. Some higher elevations will be bathed in cloud/mist most of the time. It isn't just one climate. I think the places or seasons where dew is most significant is with a large swing between day and night temperatures so that there is a lot of condensation.

    I knew an orchid grower who had done some collecting and tried to duplicate the conditions he had seen in cloud forests. He would proudly explain how he had his misting system come on at 4 in the afternoon because that was when the mist and rain came. He had lots of interesting and rare plants that he would have loved to share, but his plants didn't thrive and never got big enough to divide. He never put 2 and 2 together to figure out he wasn't growing in a cloud forest, he was in a greenhouse and it isn't the same.

    Setting up a schedule, as close as it might be to a specific location, is not necessarily going to produce good growth on many plants. But you can set a schedule and then grow things that do well under those conditions. It should be fun trying.
     
  8. Aug 20, 2010 #8
    orchidkarma

    orchidkarma Member

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    Thanks a lot Marni! Sober thoughts indeed. ...and I know exactly what you are talking about... ;) I know that even if I set up exactly the same "wet" schedule as in the real cloudforest there are a million other factors in play... most important of all - the small space I am growing in, but also the amount of air circulation out there, light, how dense the canopy is, where the particular plants lives in the canopy (up high or further down where the trees trap moisture from the fog which drips back down as more "rain"), local micro climates, seasons.... and so on....

    I have only run my viv for 4,5 months, and even though my plants are doing good, I am still dialing it in. I just wanted to get a feel for how the climate is in the real cloud forest (since I have not been myself and it has been hard to find online), and hear how a few of you guys have dialed in your cloud forest growing areas "in captivity" as a reference then adjust mine from there. I know that there is no magic formula that works for everyone, but since I am a bit of a control freak, it makes me feel a lot better having more information to consider when I make my decisions. Hopefully making better informed decisions as a result. :)