My desert rainforest

I guess I put my growing area description into the wrong forum, but here it is, in the right spot!

My greenhouse is an 8 x 16' lean-to off my bedroom. It is under a slatted patio cover which provides 50% shade in summer and lots more in winter. Recently I reworked pretty much everything: added an automatic sprinkling system with fertilizer proportioner, repotted everything into expanded clay in pots or baskets, mounted or re-mounted plants. I divided a number of plants and I am experimenting with mounting and potting with them.

My greenhouse has natural microclimates, with a consistent temperature difference of 10* F from end to end. Winter lows get down to 50* and summer highs up to 90*. I have an evaporative cooler with an 8" thick pad that maintains at least 40% humidity, and with my sprinkling system it is usually around 60%. The indoor-outdoor carpet runner on the floor retains moisture for more hours. Believe me when I say the humidity is always a work in progress out here!

I am blessed with lots of light, from 9,000 foot candles to whatever I can shade down to. I recently downloaded a light meter app that reports in lumens. I still have to work out how those measures compare. Anybody have a conversion equation?

My sprinkling system comes from components purchased from groworganic.com. I tried a single programmable valve first, but I had too many emitters for my well pressure, so I moved up into a 4 valve system. Pure joy! Instead of spending hours watering and making sure I hit each of the 250 plants, I can spend hours looking at them, evaluating, cleaning, tying, photographing, etc.

Having been a teacher, I know you have to provide each student with what they individually need, not just what is convenient. I figure it's the same for my orkidz. I'm not always successful, but that's the challenge of growing the most fantastic plants in the world!

 

Thanks for your comment.
My cooler is an Ultracool model ASA35. It's been modified by taking off the fan component and using it as an exhaust fan at the opposite end of the greenhouse. Both the fan and the water pump are triggered by a thermostat. It was pretty expensive, but the regular 1 1/2" evaporative cooler pad just wasn't keeping the humidity up during the heat of the summer, and I don't have enough wall space for a water wall. Plus, my well water has about 500 ppm dissolved solids and that would get very messy very quickly.
It's a slightly weird setup but that was how my greenhouse was originally built. (It's also got a molded fiberglass frame which has held up well, and twin-wall translucent "skin" from Charley' Greenhouse Supply.) I prefer an exhaust fan to a push fan.

 

Thank you, Naoki. I will put that in my notes. I was brain dead when I Googled it and needed a translator!