| Product Information |
| - Mini Greenhouse |
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Give your orchids a vacation by moving them outdoors! Even if you're not among the fortunate ones who live in mild weather all year round, your orchids can still benefit from being outside in the summer. Brighter light, more humdity, cool evenings - your orchids will love it! First, some basics on moving plants outdoors:
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 Orchids growing outside naturally |
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| Growing Orchids Outside with Hydroponics | |||
Many people ask about growing their hydroponic orchids outside during the summer. Hydroponic orchids thrive outside! Why? It's those remarkable LECA pebbles.
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 Leca Pebbles |
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Growing orchids outside with traditional media (bark or moss) means altering your water schedule whenever the weather changes. This can be a tricky business. If the weather is hot and dry, your plants will demand watering everyday. On the other hand, if the weather is cool and rainy, they can easily become waterlogged. Ignore the elements and your plants will suffer. Who has the time to watch the weather everyday? What about vacations and weekends at the beach? Hydroponics eliminates the burden of constantly attending to your plants. Our system stores water for those hot, dry days. Everyday watering is not needed. At the other extreme, bacterial or fugal diseases are never a problem in cool, damp weather because our LECA pebbles will never rot or decay. Hydroponics has many advantages for growing outside. So let's get started. |
 Decaying roots in moss and charcoal from too much rain  Healthy roots growing in LECA |
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Setting Up the Hydroponic System for Outdoors The biggest issue with using our system outside is the Outer Pot collecting too much water when it rains. (Of course this won't be a problem if your plants are protected from the rain.) Under normal growing conditions indoors, the decorative outer container acts as a reservior, storing the nutrient solution for the plant. The water gauge tells you when and how much to water. Overwatering is never a problem - just give the system plenty of time to dry out between regular waterings. Outside, if your plant is not sheltered from the rain, there's no control over how much water the system collects. Frequent rain showers can fill up the outer pot and overflow the system. Too much water and the roots will suffer, even with LECA pebbles. Collecting too much water can be avoided by simply removing the outer pot and replacing it with a shallow saucer. If the plant gets too much water from frequent rain showers (or even the garden hose), the excess overflows and drains away. No chance of collecting too much water. Perfect! Here's how we set up our plants for growing outside. |
 Typical setup for indoors with Deorative Outer Pot and Water Gauge |
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| Method #1. | ||
 Let's set up this Catlleya for outside We're going to use a clay pot for the outer pot. The weight of the clay pot will stabilize the plant and keep it from blowing over in the wind. Always choose an outer pot with a drainage hole in bottom. |
 Remove plant, culture pot, and water gauge from the outer pot. |
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 Replace outer pot with plastic saucer. |
 Before using the saucer, cut it to only 1/2" deep (the same depth as watering to "opt" on gauge). |
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 Insert shallow saucer into outer pot |
 Set plant, culture pot, and water gauge into clay pot. |
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 Setup is complete for outside growing. Shallow saucer under culture pot holds just enough water - excess will overflow and drain away through hole in bottom. Heavy outer pot stabilizes the plant. |
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For a more finished appearance, the "pot inside another pot" look can be camouflaged. (Note:We prefer keeping bottom of pot visable. Judging water requirements is easier when you can see what's going on at the bottom.) |
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 Fill gap between pots with extra pebbles. |
 New plant ready for outside! |
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| Method #2. | ||
| Another
approach to growing outside is using our
heavy duty plastic Grower Trays. With this method the Grower Tray
replaces the outer pots, acting as the reserviour for several plants. |
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First, we must prepare the tray for using outdoors. |
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 The rugged construction makes our Heavy Duty Grower Trays ideal for outside growing. |
 Drill hole in tray so excess water will drain away. |
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 Drainage hole should be about 1/2" from bottom of tray |
 Remove
plant and culture pot
from outer container |
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 Place in Grower Tray. Water gauge not needed. |
Adding a few pebbles to the culture pots helps stablize the plant. |
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| Plant Care for Outside Growing | |||
| Finding the right spot for your plants outside is important. Protecting your plants from sun, wind, and other elements can be a challenge. Don't leave it to trial and error. | |||
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| After gettng setup for outside growing, let's look at how we're going to care for the plants. Summer months are the active growing season for most orchids, especially if they're outside. This means making some adjustments. care. | |||
Light: Light outside is much stronger and more intense than indoors. For the first couple of weeks, protect all plants by putting them in total shade. Even "high light" orchids such as Cattleya and Dendrobium. In a couple of weeks, after they acclimate to being outside, you can move the high light plants into more sun. A couple hours of early morning or late afternoon sun is ideal. Dappled sunlight is throughout the day also works. Always avoid direct midday sun on all your plants - even high light plants will burn. |
 Example of dappled sunlight, perfect for most orchids |
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| Water:
As the system
fills up with water (from your watering or rain showers), any excess
water will simply drain away. So there's never a worry about
overwatering -
even with the garden hose! You'll still need to establish a wet/dry cycle however (roots need air!). So be sure to wait until system drys out completely before rewatering. (Think about how orchids grow in nature. As they cling to rocks and trees, their roots are exposed to the wind, drying them out between rain showers.) If your orchids are exposed to rain and stay wet for a week or more, a forced "dry period" is recommended. With individual pots, use one hand to steady the plant and hold the pebbles in place, then dump out all the water. If you're using trays, remove plants and pour out excess water. Don't rewater for several days. |
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Temperatures: Don't move your orchids outside until evening temperatures stay above the 50-55 degree range. There is absolutely no advantage to bringing your plants outside early and then schlepping them back inside on cold nights. Don't worry too much about midday heat as long as your plants are shaded. Mother nature designed most orchids to handle the heat. Air moving over the leaves helps the plant stay cool. A gentle shower from the garden hose always helps too. |
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| Nutrients: Because the plants are actively growing, we apply full strength nutrients every watering. (We use and recomend Dyna-Gro 7-9-5, 1/2 tsp. per gallon.) Occassional rain showers will flush the system and even things out. During the summer months, we also add Pro-Tek (1/2 tsp. per gallon) to the nutrient solution. Pro-Tek adds silicon, making the plants more heat tolerant and drought resistant. |  Healthy roots on a Cattleya (from last summer). |
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| The Stuff You'll Need .... | ||||
 Plastic Saucers |
 Grower Trays |
 Leca Pebbles |
 mini greenhouse |
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 Gro 7-9-5 |
 Bloom 3-12-6 |
 Mag-Pro 2-15-12 |
 Pro-Tek 0-0-7 |
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Tips for growing several common varietes outdoors. If you're unsure about moving your plants outside, start by trying Dendrobium, Cattleya, or Epidendrium at first.
| Plant Type | Plant Care | Comments |
| Dendrobiums | Temperature tolerant. High light plants but avoid mid-day sun. | Among our favorites for moving outside. |
| Cattleya | Temperature tolerant. High light plants but avoid mid-day sun. | Among our favorites for moving outside. |
| Epidendums | Excellent outdoor plants. | |
| Oncidiums | They love it outdoors - especially in the mini-greenhouse! Be more generous with water. They'll take 2-3 times more. | Fast growers outdoors. Move crowded plants to bigger pots for outdoor growing. |
| Paphiopedilums | Not a good candidate for outdoors unless protected from sun and rain. Don't like temps below 55 degrees. | |
| Phalaenopsis | Should be completely protected from sun and rain. Don't like temps below 55 degrees. | Standing water in center of plant causes crown rot. In nature these plants grow sideways on rocks and trees - no water collects in crown. |
| Phiaus | Excellent for outdoor growing. Total shade. Keep moist. | Used in outdoor lanscapes in tropical climates. |