Temperature ranges - Cool

Alexis, you may have more success in plant recuperation than many would expect. Much depends upon whether there was any cooling period prior to the cold snap. If they had a chance to acclimate then there should be minimal damage, but if it was a sudden cold without the plants experiencing a seasonal cool-down (below 60F) then there may be cause for concern. Also, plants wet or plants dry makes a big difference when the temp drops. In previous winters my diversity of "intermediate" and "warm" growers survived and thrived after several c.40F temps each season, when normal GH winter temps were often in the upper 50sF [still 50-70 degrees warmer than outside static air temps!].

 

I can see that this poll is being scewed. My minimums go to 10-13 C in the winter. 19-21 C in the summer. I agree night time is the most important thing. When I worked at Ecuagenera, the night temps were 7-9 C and the day temps were unbareable, around 30C. Draculas and masdevallias did just fine with no special attention.

Kyle

 

My "other" vote is for a max of 80°F/26.6°C

 

I love you people!!
My cool viv ranges from: Night = 8-10 C (winter), 12-14 C (summer). Day = 18-20 C (winter), 20-22 C (summer). My focus is to keep night time temps down.

 

I think I got pretty lucky. Only 20 plants appear to be dead; and almost every plant has lost a few, or many, leaves. It could have been worse. I think the fact that the plants were BONE dry really helped them withstand the temps. Those that appear dead will stay in place until spring, in the event they have enough reserve strength of push new growth.

Sorry Jon, for hijacking.

 

Great to hear most of your plants made it through the scare OK.

 

Alexis sorry to hear about your losses.

I don't grow cool growers, the best range I can keep in the GH is 55-99.

 

Cool

I grow mostly Odonts, including a large number of "crispum" style Odm and Oda. These are plants that are definitely considered "cool" growing. My temps are 48 - 80, with general lows in the low 50s and general highs in the upper 70s, highs may occasionaly exceed 80 for short periods. One of the keys is that summer night temps are right around 60, often a little lower, so there are always cool evening and night temps. I keep high air movement in the house and keep the humidity as high as possible (sometimes difficult here in Calif). Many plants are watered daily in periods of high temperatures and some of my plaques get watered morning and evening. The results are generally very good. While you might think you could grow your Catts in this house (temperature wise), they probably would not be happy with the relatively low light levels.

 

Andy does cuthbertsonii quite well, along with disa uniflora, odontoglossum nobile, and crispum. My Masd coccineas took 110 this year, and didn't drop a leaf. If you have enough air movement they can take a lot larger temp ranges than you think.

http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USCA0982

As emphasized before, night temps are more important than day. my friend did manage to grow disa uniflora outdoors in Sacramento where he had 35 days in a row of 100F+ weather, but fairly cool nights