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Detailed Guide: What You Need To Setup Your Indoor Orchid Space
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Oct 3, 2024
To set up a grow space for indoor orchids, you’ll need to provide lighting for 12 -16 hours a day (be it artificial or not), sufficient humidity that is above 40% most of the time, ample air movement such as an overhead fan circulating on low speed, and a way to catch drips such as a pan or pebble tray. If you want the full explanation of this video in writing, go to https://orchideria.com/orchid-setup/ On Orchideria.com, you can find more in-depth guides and all the access to our information, tutorials, guides, and much more... all for free! Happy Cultivating! ______________________ PRODUCTS CITED IN THIS VIDEO: LIGHTS: https://amzn.to/3DLOIYk (EK Ennoking) SHELVES: https://amzn.to/3l9x3l1 HUMIDIFIER: https://amzn.to/2WTPLVl (Cool Mist) FANS: https://amzn.to/3n2sZWg HYGROMETER: https://amzn.to/3DNy1M0 HASHTAGS: #orchidcare #orchid #Orchideria #AmandaMatthews
View Video Transcript
0:00
So you bought your first orchid or you were gifted with your first orchid and that magically multiplied
0:05
Now you probably have more than you can count. So in this video, I'm going to go over how you can keep an adequate orchid setup, how much that cost
0:15
how you can adapt it to your environment. I'm going to go over my setup here, but my setup is in my home office and I will give you a quick zoom around to show you where I work, my normal work
0:27
I had to adapt that to keep my orchids. Hi, I'm Amanda Matthews and thank you so much for watching
0:33
my video at Orchid Area, where I share my tips of how to grow orchids indoors because my
0:40
outside climate isn't that great for orchid care. So the first thing that you're going to want to
0:44
do is find the correct lighting. If you don't have the correct lighting, your orchid will not bloom
0:51
Most of us will start out with a phalanopsis orchid. Now, these are medium light, so that means that they
0:57
do not like bright light directly on them except for the morning sun rays for about two to three hours
1:06
If you have only a few orchids, what you're going to do, you're going to go to each room in your
1:10
house and you're going to see how many hours of morning sun does this get? Now, that will be only
1:15
the east facing window. The south facing window, if you're in the northern hemisphere, will be
1:21
the hottest of all, and that will influence the temperatures, which I'll get into a little
1:27
bit here. So it might have decent sun, but the temperatures are probably going to be a little
1:33
too high unless you have a high temperature orchid. The north facing window probably will not get
1:40
any sun at all. The west facing window is usually the rays come through the afternoon and
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will cook your orchids. So try to look for that east facing window that gets that morning sun
1:52
If you don't, you're going to need to provide a shelf like this with art
1:57
artificial lighting. Now there are several different artificial lights and I made a whole video which you can watch up here about that
2:04
Then I have this light right here which was actually cheaper and it comes with a remote control which I can control the percentage of light and how many hours has a timer on it. It's dimmable
2:18
You can arrange it to the height that you wanted above your orchids. If you get a light like this one you'll want to position it
2:27
according to the watts. If you have a thousand watt light above your orchid, you'll want to keep that
2:34
about five to seven feet away from your orchid or high up off your orchid. If not, that light will
2:40
sunburn your leaves. That is going to illuminate an area of 12 by 12 feet. It goes down sequentially
2:47
For example, if you have a 500 watt light, you're going to want to keep that from 3 to 5 feet
2:54
above the top of your orchid and it going to illuminate around eight by eight feet and if you have a 250 watt light you want to keep that from 1 to 3 feet above your orchid and it going to illuminate about 5 to 5 square feet So it all dependable You can also get
3:16
fluorescent lights and put them under each rack. I don't do that just because I found that this
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setup was actually cheaper for me. And you can see that in the link below. It was just awesome because
3:30
even though I don't need the thousand watt light because this area right here is not that big
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and it's actually very close to my orchids. I don't need that so I can dim it down to actually
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10% of what that should be. So check those out for lighting but you will need light for your
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orchid and that is fundamental. The next thing you'll need is shelving. So if you have one
3:55
orchid that is fine. If you have more you will need a shelving
4:00
and I suggest you get one that is adjustable. You'll find out pretty soon that you probably have one or two orchids that you really, really like
4:09
And soon you'll have like 500 of them all of the same genus or species
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So you won't have that fluctuating height of a really tall symbidium, which mine are down there
4:22
and a small, shorter mini, salunia, which are back here. So with that adjustable height, you can move that around
4:32
How to place your orchids on a shelf like this if you have a high intensity light
4:37
The first shelf here is going to be your high light orchids
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The second shelf are going to be medium light orchids and your lower shelf is going to be the low light orchids
4:49
The next thing you'll need is a humidifier. And I will show you mine
4:55
This one. Say hi. There, blow some air for people to see
5:00
Okay, so I don't need a huge humidifier for my home environment
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I mean, I read a really small one because this space right here isn't that big
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And also I have all my equipment in here that I actually use for work
5:14
So my computer, my camera, my, my podcast, microphone. I have everything in here that and my lights
5:23
So if I keep that humidity too high, it's going. to really crash. I have a carpet and it's drywall. So you have to take that into consideration
5:34
when you get a humidifier. A trick that I do have though is that I keep other household plants in here
5:42
because I don't want this humidifier running on high all the time, a lower percentage. So a trick to
5:50
increase that humidity is to keep other household plants in here. And ferns are awesome for that
5:57
If you can get a fern, I have a piece lily and I have a couple others
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Keep other plants in your space because plants that are grouped together will tend to hold that humidity in and you won have to lose your drywall in your carpet There is a whole article on Orchidaria about humidifiers if you actually wanting one
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And you can go through there are four types of humidifiers, which you can see right here what they are
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You need to buy one that will fit into your environment. What's best for you
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This one, the air that comes out is neither hot nor cold
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So I do have a cool mist humidifier for my mastavalias in Dracula's, which will keep the temperature cool
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because it will blow out cool air. So you need to keep that into consideration too. That cost me $35
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but they can range from a little bit cheaper to a lot more expensive. Another thing that you're going to
6:55
need to keep your setup and a lot of people miss this is an overhead fan. Since I'm in my home office
7:02
my fan works constantly. In winter, I have it programmed where it will push the hot air down
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and in summer I change that direction so it will pull the cool air up. So you need to keep your
7:15
fan on constantly. Orchids that sit in a room with no air circulation, they will get bacteria
7:23
problems, they will get fungus problems. Their roots are going to be more prone to all kinds of
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diseases. So keep that fan on constantly and I mean day and night. If you do not have an
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overhand fan, you can buy little bitty fans. For example, in this terrarium that I'm setting up
7:45
but I have my filler plants in and I'm still working on it. But I will put a even like a computer
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fan, a CPU fan. And this one is huge. This is four inches. You can actually get them down to two inches
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This one cost me $14, but you can buy them really, really cheap
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This one here I picked up at a grocery store. I mean, I don't think it costs more than $5
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But as long as you have something on your orchids to keep them circulating
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if you only have one orchid, make sure it's displayed where it plays full
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where there's lots of air around it and you won't need a fan that's on this much
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one oh i just broke it one thing that is good for your orchid care is a hygrometer which tells you both the
8:36
temperature and the humidity in your area because some places you won't even need a humidifier the
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natural air humidity the relative humidity in your environment already is perfect for that and that's
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why i get into this because you need to know what temperature your orchids are a phalanopsis will like
8:56
it a little hotter. Some orchids like Catlia also like it a little hotter. Other orchids
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not so much. They want a cool environment, like on Cidiums. They're going to want a little
9:09
cooler environment than a phalanopsis Orchids are divided into three temperatures The cool which will go from 45 to 65 in winter That the lowest that they will tolerate If you go any lower than that
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they'll start to have serious problems. A intermediate orchid, the lowest it will go in winter
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is 55 to 60. And the warm growing orchids, if you get anywhere
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lower than 65, they will not bloom for you. That's why it's important to have a thermometer
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And for example, right now it's 77.4 in mine and 67% relative humidity. So that is kind of high
9:58
but of course I've been holding it right next to my humidifier. So bought this one for $9.99. So $10. So they're
10:06
not that much and they are important. One thing that you'll need to take and
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consideration when you set up a space like this. These orchids I do not take to the sink
10:17
I water them on this shelf here. And on the last shelf, which is the fourth, I have a huge
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Tupperware pan so that they will catch all the drips and all the splashes that I make when I water
10:31
Now, this setup with the Tupperware underneath is only ideal if you know your orchids do not
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have diseases. If you have a sick orchid, you will want to water that separately, so you'll want to
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take it to the sink. You can also set up humidity trays underneath each shelf of these, but I've found
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that humidity trays are a little bit expensive, especially for my budget, so I stay away from them. I
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just use the Tupperware. And those orchids that actually like a lot more humidity, I soak them
11:05
I take them off and soak them separately. So you'll need to get some kind of drip system
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As long as they're not sitting in a tray of water, that's fine
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And I just take my Tupperware out every time after I water and drain that and use that with the other plants in here
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So that's my setup and I want you to take those tips and adapt it to your environment so that your orchids can grow the best
11:34
I am working on a video because I set up an orchid terrarium with Master Valios and Dracula's
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and I will be getting that out in the next couple weeks because that is a whole different setup
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because their humidity requirements are different, their temperature requirements are different, their light requirements are different
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So that's what you really need. Group your orchids together according to their temperatures, light, humidity preferences
12:02
and keep those all in one place. In all, I thank you for watching
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and don't stop your orchid care here. I suggest these two videos
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If this video helped, please give it a like, and I hope to see you in the comments below
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Happy cultivating
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