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Dedicated or just nuts?

  • Thread starter elgecko
  • Start date
  • #21
It was 4 a.m. and it started to rain lightly. I figured, oh, it's just light rain, my plants will be ok. But I couldn't go back to sleep knowing my plants were getting rained on. So I went outside and brought them in the house.
 
  • #22
Alpha you have a view? I have not seen out of my window fo a few years now.
 
  • #23
Elgecko I think I have you beat. I have 40 jugs not 24
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I hope I make it through summer. Teh trays need to be filled every other day.
 
  • #24
Some of you seem to baby your plants more then me.
My plants outside will only get moved to a safer location if they are calling for severe storms. Then I place them under the table and chairs, otherwise I let mother nature water my plants.

Treaqum,
That's a lot of jugs to keep around.
 
  • #25
I replaced the metal downspout in my back yard with a plastic tube, and it empties into a 55-gallon covered garbage can.

For the first year, before I had too many plants, i collected rainwater in 5-gallon pails, and filled on gallon jugs from them.

But that was time-consuming, and required positive action on my part. The 55-gallon can works great now, although i still will arrange 5-gallon pails to collect more water and fill as many one-gallon jugs as is convenient, especially now that my collection has grown. I find I am running out of rainwater, even with the 55-gallon can.

I may need to set up a second one.
 
  • #26
I would love to be able to set up a large drum to collect water, but I can not were I currently live.
Hopefully after Sat night and hitting the 215 million Powerball all that will change............I love to dream, with everyone else.
 
  • #27
I'v e got that "gravy train" of a lab for my DI water - at least for now.
 
  • #28
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Alpha you have a view? I have not seen out of my window fo a few years now.
yeah, I'm too short to put plants all the way up there block out all of the window
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  • #29
Well SS you have me beat. I can't set up a 55 gallon either. I'm glad there is only one car in the garage
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  • #30
Hey stay away from my powerball winnings..
Agh, I don't think I'm nuts. My neighbors might tho..
I will just sit at the picnic table watching the plants grow.. and picking the helicopters from the maple tree out of the pots. Misting them. Sticking little bugs on the dews.
 
  • #31
Wow Gawd I usually run a few laps around the plants then slowly cicle them check every one.
 
  • #32
Well yeah once my growlist gets so long I have to take a break while scrolling down the page I'll have to do laps too.
Mine all fit nicely on a picinic table (with room for more yet) so I can just sit. ;)
 
  • #33
Oh don't worry I have them all in three places so I can take two breaks
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  (Insert egotistically comment here, delete, hit head on table)
The secret to having a big growlist is figuring out what everyone wants and meeting the demand.  In my case D. capillaris propaged via leaf cuttings from the local stock.  Now if only I could figure out how to make a ditch that sphagnum will happily grow in, that I don't have to add sphagnum to the soil and that will stay wet enough for some native dews and pings.  Maybe a few sarrs.
 
  • #34
Gawd just build another layer ontop of your table. Thats what I did with the window. Speaking of which I must rid myself of extras this fall. One of those "big leafed" Utrics is getting out of hand. Crowding out my few pygmie dews that are alive.
 
  • #35
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Some of you seem to baby your plants more then me.

Well, as for me, it can get pretty windy here and when you're talking tall pitcher plants and lightweight pots on a deck, I'd rather be on the safe than sorry side as a spill off of the deck will not only probably kill the plant but I doubt my parents would be all too excited about an uprooted plant on the hood of their car or a broken windshield. Hehe. Or maybe that's just an excuse.
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  • #36
LOL Your all NUTTS!!!!!!!!! No more so than some of us Orchidphiles though. LOL
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I spend hours just looking at my orchids for bugs/ spikes/ new growths, and after going through the 65 or so orchids I go back and look at a few again like they grew something in the 5 or 10 minutes from the last time I looked at them. I have to literaly tell myself ok you spent enough time out here time to get in the house. LOL Its an addiction I tell you an addiction!!! One I don't mind having though. Have fun everyone!!!
 
  • #37
Josh,

you wouldn't happen to be one of the characters mentioned in Eric Hansen's "Orchid Fever"?
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I've been tossing around the idea of getting more seriously into orchids but after reading that book, I decided to keep my mitts off them......

However, in reality, that seems to be quite impossible, I'm afraid. There's orchids everywhere here in Taiwan, and they're calling my name. Every time I visit the huge Taipei Flower Weekend Market and don't find any carnivores I like, I buy an orchid or two lest I have to return empty-handed. Also, at the house we'll move to next week, I'll have tons of space for epiphytes as well as terrestrials, AND our neighbor across the street there is an orchid junkie with too much time on his hands (retired school principal), so it looks like I can forget any dreams of escaping....

At the moment, I'm thinking of alternating orchids with Nepenthes on the racks in my greenhouse. But I definitely foresee the day a dedicated orchid greenhouse will be needed ...

What are good books for orchid idiots like me who know nothing, but want to learn everything about them?

cheers

Hans
 
  • #38
Hey Hans I think Orthos orchid book is pretty good. Plus there is alot of stuff online. Thatrs where I learned alot of my stuff from. The magor thing to remember agout orchids is that not all the suggestions work for everyone. Its more of an experimental things really. What works for me may not work for my neighbor right next door. You have to learn to read your plants a little more I think. Bond with them as I like to say. The plant will tell you what it wants. The books are good to read to kinda give you a baseline on what to expect, but they are by no means the gospal. Take in everything and use what you can. What I have found to be the best thing I have done for my orchids was to increas the air movement. I think that is the biggest key. Lots of air movement. Then of course stuff is going to dry out faster, but thats what you want as most orchids grow on trees and dry before nightfall. They don't grow in nice post that hold moisture in the wild. they collect it from dew and rain as well as humidity. The stigma on orchids is always open so they loose water fast. Don't be alarmed its not that fast. So the faster you can get them to dry out and water afain the faster they will grow. I have read that in one place about paphs and to me tends to work with all orchids. Another key is light. THe lants should be a pale yellowish green. This will ensure good flowering. You dont want them to burn, but you dont want them dark green wither. There is much to learn abvout chids and most of what you read willbe the same stuff over and over, but sometimes you will get a new piece of info so keep reading. I have read for hours and hours the same stuff I have read the night before, but there is one piece of info there that helps out that I havent read before. Also Join your local OS if you have one. you can get alot of info and cheap plants there too. Things you will not find at market stores or mass produced clones. Sometimes you do, but not on the regular. Thats enough rambling for now Im off to bed. I must work tonight. I will be on later tonight after work is done at work. Later everyone.
 
  • #39
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Est @ May 26 2005,1:56)]
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Some of you seem to baby your plants more then me.

Well, as for me, it can get pretty windy here and when you're talking tall pitcher plants and lightweight pots on a deck, I'd rather be on the safe than sorry side as a spill off of the deck will not only probably kill the plant but I doubt my parents would be all too excited about an uprooted plant on the hood of their car or a broken windshield. Hehe. Or maybe that's just an excuse.
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Est,
Get your story right!
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How's a lightweight pot going to break a car window.
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Just messing with you.

Hey, is that avatar a picture of you? Looks pretty crazy to me.
 
  • #40
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]How's a lightweight pot going to break a car window.

No matter what the weight of an object, the higher the falling-off point, the longer it falls, therefore the stronger the gravitational pull becomes, meaning that an object will fall harder and faster with every second it's falling. A marshmallow dropped off the top of the Empire State Building can kill someone because of this.
 
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