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Temperature Requirements for Indoor Orchids
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Dec 4, 2020
Orchid Temperatures: Does Temperature Influence Orchid Blooms? All orchids need at least a 10º to 15ºF degree temperature drop at night to bloom. This cooling-off period at night removes the excess heat from their leaves. This aids in performing an adequate gas exchange, since orchids perform their main “breathing” process at night.
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Do orchids need a temperature drop to induce blooming
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Well in this video we're going to learn if that's true. fertilizer, but if you don't provide the right temperatures, your orchids are not going to grow
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indoors like they would outdoors in nature. Most all orchids require a 10 to 15 degree Fahrenheit
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drop in temperature at night. Now this will benefit the orchid three ways. First, the cooling off period
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at night will remove the excess heat that the orchid has absorbed during the day. When the orchids cool
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off also the stomato which are the breathing mechanisms the pores in the orchid on the underside of the leaf
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will open more often with this heat during the higher heat they will remain close to trap in this gas
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and mainly to trap in the humidity if you grow your orchid in the same temperature year round with
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no variation in winter summer spring or autumn your orchid will have what they call heat
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stress. First, it won't know what season it is. Second, it won't know when to cool down. And even in the
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high temperatures in the equator, there is a slight variation in these seasons. Not much, but there is
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And the orchids that live there will sense this. So even orchids that live in other climates like
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desert climates and cooler climates and even mountain climates, they can see
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sense the temperature around them and since the seasons are changing. So they need two things
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First, they need a variation between seasons and they need variations of temperature between day and night
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When you first start your orchid care, you might think that all orchids are tropical and subtropical
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Well, that's not true. Orchids live in a vast majority of the earth and except for where there's glaciers
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So they live in all elevations too. So you might have an orchid near the equator, but it's on a higher mountain
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So it's going to be a cooler orchid. So all this will influence what kind of growth you're going to imitate indoors and recreate that same
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pattern indoors. So let's say you turn down your temperature at night and all of a sudden the tips of your
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orchid leaves start to turn black. You went too low. You need to keep that temperature up just a little bit The first sign of a too low temperature are blackened tip ends Now if you didn change your fertilization because that also can do that
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excess fertilization can also cause blackened tips at the end. So if your fertilization didn't
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change, but you did drop the temperature, know that you dropped it too much. There are three kinds
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of orchids. There are cool growing orchids, which should not go under
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50 degrees Fahrenheit, or 10 degrees Celsius during winter, during summer, they can go around 75 or 24
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There are intermediate orchids which prefer 55 to 86, which is 13 to 30 Celsius, and warm growing orchids
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which are 64 to 90 or 18 to 32. So these are the three
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categories of temperatures. Remember, this isn't light. You can have a high light orchid with a low
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temperature. So these are the three categories of temperature for your orchid growth. In all of these
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most all orchids will prefer if you can bring that temperature down 10 to 15 degrees at night
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Now, you might think this is really hard to do. Well, not if you have a fan that's circulating at night
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If you cut off all the heat and just keep that fan on, usually that will naturally bring the temperature down and you don't have to do anything else
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We tend to also think about orchids as cool growing orchids or warm growing orchids because of the temperature
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And this is a natural misconception. The real thing you're needing to realize is that it's the elevation that influences this temperature
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So cool growing orchids will grow at a higher elevation. They'll be on the cliffs and the plateaus and the top, they're starting to rise the mountain a little bit
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Some orchids that are cool growing are symbidiums and odontoglossums. Intermediate orchids are those that aren't going to grow at the top of the mountains
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but they're going to be at the lower levels in between 1,000 and 1,300
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feet, 1,000 and 3,000 feet. Of course, this will depend how close to the equator they are. They can be
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higher up if they are closer to the equator. So you have to make sure when you're researching for
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your orchid care, look at the elevation where it lives, look at the temperature it lives, look at the
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climate, the humidity and all these things, because that will make a difference in your orchid care
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The list of intermediate growing orchids are a little longer than the lower, the cooler orchids
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And these can include cattlias cimbidiums epiderms maxillariums maxillarian pathopetulums They are all intermediate temperature ranges
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The third group, the warm-growing orchids, are going to be closer to sea level
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They're going to be on the savannas. They're going to be on the lower levels
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or closer to the equator where these temperatures are going to be higher
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and less variation year round. These are the orchids that we will probably have the most problems
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And I say, I won't put problems. I'll put obstacles. In our orchid care as we grow them indoors because they also will like the higher humidity
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They will also like the higher light. They like everything in excess
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And to produce that indoors is extremely hard. The one exception is the Vanda orchid
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You can grow Vanda orchids indoors if you provide. write a lot, a lot, a lot of light. Now let's say that you just saw this article and you want to
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bring your temperature down drastically. Be careful. There is something called bud blast that if you
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change the temperature too drastic in a short period of time and this usually happens during transport
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You buy an orchid in the middle of winter. You're in the greenhouse at the nursery and you see this
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beautiful, awesome orchid, and you buy it, you walk out to your car in the middle of winter and
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it's snowing and that wind just whips you in the face. It also whips your orchid. So be careful
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with these extreme variations of temperature because that can cause bud blast. If you all of a sudden
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drop your temperature indoors, your orchids will feel it. Bring that temperature down slowly
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There are several indications that your temperature is not correct. And one of those, if you have an orchid with pseudobulbs, they will be smaller each year instead of larger each year
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The natural progression of a sympodial orchid that has pseudobulbs is that each year that goes by, that suitable is going to get larger and larger and larger
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If you get an orchid that is the pseudobul is getting smaller each year, your temperature might be off
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It might not be the fertilization. It might not be the water
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It might not be the sun. But it could be the temperature is wrong
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It's just not getting that heat that it likes. All these temperatures that I cited before are during winter weather
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So you might think, but my catlia, it's an intermediate temperature, but I grow it way above
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80 degrees 86 or 30 degrees Yes that during winter During winter during winter you don want to go above 86 During summer yeah you can pipe up those energy those temperatures because your orchid going to love it But all these temperatures when we refer to them as maximum temperatures that during winter
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We talked about fluctuations during the day. Now, what about seasonal fluctuations
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If you have a summer blooming orchid and it blooms during summer, you'll, when it comes
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to winter, you'll need to water less. You'll need to provide less hours of sunlight. You'll need to
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fertilize less. You'll need to provide everything in less quantity and frequency because the orchid's
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not going to do as much. Now, flip-flop this if you have a winter blooming orchids. So you need to
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it's hard to put all the orchids in one category and say, okay, do this one recipe for all your
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orchids and you'll be fine. You need to look at your orchid and learn with it. Okay, this one's
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blooming now. So that means in four to five months I'll be doing less of this and less of that
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So keep a like a diary if you can or just if you have a few orchids, you can know which one is
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which if you get a lot more, which I will tell you right now. Orchid care is addictive. Once you
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get that one orchid, one, and you re-bloom it. That is the mark for your promotion in orchid
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here. That means you went from 101 to 201 in orchid care and you are ready for more. So once you get
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that organ to re-bloom in your care, it's addictive. So beware. I warned you. A good idea once you
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have more orchids is to set them up according to their temperatures. If you have a lot, you can set
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one side over on this shelf, the whole shelf. I'm talking the whole plant shelf, not just one shelf
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the whole stand with orchids that prefer that temperature. And then in a different place
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do orchids that are cooler or warmer or keep your orchids grouped together in growing
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conditions because it's easier to take care of them like that. If you're growing them indoors
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try to group them together by temperature preferences and it will make your care a lot easier
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because it's easier to cool or heat a room than it is with one room different kinds of orchids
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all over the place. If this video did provide content and value and answered any of your questions
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please hit that like button because that gives me some feedback of what kind of videos are working
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and what videos aren't working and that just helps you get better quality videos in the long run
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I appreciate it and thank you for watching this video at Orcadaria
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