I want to buy my wife a misting system for her orchids as a surprise present. Any recommendations? She has about 40 orchids, probably about 15 of which are hanging in pots or on sticks and need regular misting, provided now from a squirt bottle. All of them are in a heated, shaded, ventilated sunroom.
I don't know a whole lot about orchids. The Pro Mist system
Dan Marker
Whether or not she wants the misting system is not up for debate. I know she wants it. Whether or not misting has any effect on orchids is also not up for debate. As far as she's concerned, misting is necessary, and her opinion is good enough for me.
That said, I know very little about misting systems and/or orchids. Does anyone have a misting system? Can anyone recommend a particular one?
Dan Marker
My nose is fine. No offense taken.
Any ideas about where else to ask around? This was the only obvious-to-me orchid newsgroup. Maybe all the misty types hang out somewhere non-Usenet?
Dan
I enjoy misting my orchids, and as my collection grew I went from a quart mister to a half gallon pump and now - at 60+ orchids - I use a 3 gallon hand pump sprayer that I got an extra long hose for.
I'm just glad you aren't jealous of your wife's orchids as I know my spouse and many other orchid lovers spouses are. I don't think my wife would ever buy me anything orchid related.
Dan - The thing that stops most of us is your use of System and Sun Room. Most of the sunroom growers prefer to hand mist so they use a pump sprayer, a battery operated sprayer or a squirt bottle.
Those with systems usually are spraying a greenhouse for heat control and humidity or we are watering mounted plants and have large volumes of water that then drains across the floor or into gravel or tile beds on the floor.
We don't think of systems as indoor and we do think of sunrooms as indoor.
Don't be limited by what a vendor does with a system. IF it puts our the type of mist your wife wants and the volume is controlled enough that you can live with it in a sunroom, That is it. We all are adapting. Right now I supplement the humidity in my "grow under lights" case with 2 fish tank air-stones bubbling away in margarine tubs of water. They are not as effective as a small fog mister, but they are cheap and were available when I needed them. I have seen misters during the summer that are meant to humidify a patio area as "outdoor air conditioning." They may be the right size for your use. I have only seen them in the big box stores during the summer - but you may find something like that on the net out of season.
Good Luck. SuE
She has about 15 mounted orchids that get their water only from misting. They're all hanging in a line in the sunroom, and, yes, a certain amount of water ends up on the tile floor and on the cover of the hot tub that's partially under them. She has some plastic tubs set up to get the worst of it, but the sun is pretty good about drying up whatever water we leave lying around in there. She has about 30 more potted orchids that sit on humidity trays on racks in front of the windows. She sprays only a few of these.
We're going away for a week in February, and she feels like she's worn out her welcome asking friends, family, and neighbors to come over here and spray her stick orchids. A misting system would free her from asking for help when we go away, and would probably free up some of her other time as well (here's the jealous spouse part), so I would get to see more of her. :^)
We're in upstate New York, and the misting is simply to get water to the roots of her mounted orchids. They don't get water any other way.
Dan
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