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"New" orchid cabinet with drip wall.

Discussion in 'Growing Areas' started by Magnus A, Jan 7, 2013.

  1. Magnus A

    Magnus A Ph.D.

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    This cabinet has a drip wall build of Hygrolon glued to Epiweb slabs. You can see the patch work of all the slabs and they are cut in size to fit nicely.
    It has a false bottom and a water compartment with a pump for the drip wall.
    When the front is off during the day the RH goes down to 70-75 % and during night I close the front and let the humidity go up to 95+%.
    I have several computer fans for air circulation bult into the cabinet.

    For light I have a 60x10 cm Ultra High Output LED Panel giving (110lm/W) with a good spectra, 6500K color temperature and a total of 3960 lumen.
    The cabinet have been running like this for about 5-6 month WITHOUT any other light!


    afarm9.staticflickr.com_8072_8358084185_870671fc2d_z.jpg

    afarm9.staticflickr.com_8352_8358083845_efef850c8d_z.jpg
     
    Kipper, Mandy2705, newbud and 2 others like this.
  2. Marni

    Marni Well-Known Member Staff Member Supporting Member

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    It looks great. Is that rolled up Hygrolon in the pots? I've been wondering how that might solve some problems.
     
  3. mrbreeze

    mrbreeze Anglican Supporting Member

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    Wow! Really great. I'd like to try something like this in the future. Nicely done.
     
  4. Zack

    Zack Will work for plants Supporting Member

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    This cabinet is the stuff dreams are made of...my dreams at least :D
     
  5. MiKa

    MiKa Active Member Supporting Member

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    Very very nice Magnus. I really like the design of it. And you have so much space left for new plants :D
    Has the moss evolved spontaneosly?
     
  6. Magnus A

    Magnus A Ph.D.

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    Tanks everyone.

    Sorry need to correct a statement, looking in my files this cabinet has been running for about 4 month not 5-6.


    Mikael, No, the moss is picked from my other plants, grinded in a kitchen mixer with water an sparesly watered over the slabs . And yes there is alot of space though it would be stupid to not build for the future when investing in a new growing cabinet...:)
    As I did not now the condition I would end up with, I decided to go slow... And some day I may install some kind of cooling...

    Marni, yes it is rolled Hygrolon in the pot. This is how I do it:

    Step 1. glue hygrolon wicks on the bottom outside ant thread them through the hole.
    Step 2 fill the bottom with pieces of hygrolon and some expanded clay pellets.
    Step 3. Roll a strip of hygrolon around the roots. Balance the lenght so the diameter match the clay pot.
    Step 4, plant the rolled hygrolon in the pot and form the layer to a nice cone.
    Step 5. Not shown, pot the pot on a wet surface and the hygrolon will wick up water creating a nice moist compartment for the roots.

    On the last picture you can see the pot standing on the wick.

    afarm9.staticflickr.com_8352_8361196818_de7ccbc0a8_z.jpg

    afarm9.staticflickr.com_8052_8360134281_16fc3e227a_z.jpg

    afarm9.staticflickr.com_8331_8360134085_363c371f81_z.jpg
     
  7. oisifml

    oisifml Active Member

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    Very impressive, I also like the grey paint of the cabinet, matches well the hygrolon..
     
  8. MiKa

    MiKa Active Member Supporting Member

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    Thats a brilliant way of using Hygrolon! There is now a US distributor for Hygrolon.

    Here >>> http://folius.net/
     
  9. lepetitmartien

    lepetitmartien Active Member

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    Mhmm bit of out of the box thinking, congrats! Very interesting and aesthetic.
     
  10. Marni

    Marni Well-Known Member Staff Member Supporting Member

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    Thank you for the great post. I'll have to try this.
     
  11. Alexey

    Alexey Well-Known Member Supporting Member

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    Great setup! Dripping wall is for mounted plants. What about free standing on the false bottom potted plants? Where they are wicking moisture from?
     
  12. Tom-DE

    Tom-DE Well-Known Member Supporting Member

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    A great looking cabinet/setup!
    but with that material, I guess it would be a pain in the ass to repot, remount or divide the plants in the future.
     
  13. Magnus A

    Magnus A Ph.D.

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    Alexey.
    The false bottom is covered in Hygrolon and is connected to the side panels. The drip wall is supporting the false bottom with enough water for the pots.

    Tom-DE.
    Why repot? the material does not degrade and the moss is easily trimmed by hand if needed.
    If planted on small enough slabs or in small pots you just let them grow over the edge onto new pots or slabs and then you cut the two apart at a suitable time.
    And if you would like to cut the material you do that with a very sharp nife or a regular pair of scissors. In my experience you disturb the root MUCH less by divide a slab of Epiweb (or a Hygrolon mount) then a plant in degraded bark substrate! The bark is needed to be taken away and that WILL disturb all the roots, with Epiweb (or Hygrolon) you do ONE cut and remount the pieces without disturbing the majority of the roots.
     
    newbud likes this.
  14. ZWUM

    ZWUM Bulbophiliac Staff Member

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    Wow! That cabinet is outstanding and very attractive. I love the minimalistic and modern feel it has. And I have to agree about dividing a plant on epiwed/hygrolon. It's very easy to cut and since it doesn't break down you only disturb a small portion of the roots. Ive made mounts with foam pipe insulation and covered it woth hygrolon and I love for my bulbo's. It provides a perfect amount of moisture when allowed to wick the water from a reservoir. It's also an excellent potting medium. I potted with cut up squares but I'd like to try wrapping a plant in like shown here.
     
  15. keithrs

    keithrs Member

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    Very cool cabinet!

    I've always wondered about hygrolon. I've really never tried to know much about because it was not available here. Now that its. I was wondering... If not put on a drip wall or in a reservoir, How well does it stay moist by general watering(overhead misters) compared to other products like treefern or sphagmun moss?


    Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advise.
     
  16. Magnus A

    Magnus A Ph.D.

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    keiths,

    I do not use treefern for several resons, but I do use hygrolon on mounts that is not in my drip wall orchid cabinet. It stays "perfectly" moist for a relative long time (much longer than cork for example). But it´s absolute killing feature is that it wick water! It dry up evenly and not only on the surface. It transport water from the mottom of the mounts and spread it evenly over the surface (or bulk).

    And for treefern, it degrades pretty fast in a "worm" wet environment what I understand, Hygrolon is non degradeble that is the second feature i like about the material.

    /Magnus
     
  17. keithrs

    keithrs Member

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    Thank you for your insight!
     
  18. Reyna

    Reyna Orchid Obsessed Supporting Member

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    That is a beautiful and very functional cabinet! And I am fascinated by the Hygrolon. I hadn't ever heard of it until a couple of weeks ago, and now it seems like it pops up everywhere I look. I appreciate the detailed description and photographs of how you use it. Congratulations! That is a wonderful growing area.
     
  19. Paul Mc

    Paul Mc Member

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    Magnus, an inspiration to me as always!!!!

    Just discovered there are distributors in the US and I'm tweaking it down now for when I reconstruct my terrarium!!! I love this!!!
     
  20. Zack

    Zack Will work for plants Supporting Member

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    The hygrolon on the walls looks like it's wrapped around something to make panels. Can you explain this to me? I'm interested in making something like this.