Advice on GH Irrigation

[Harriet]

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As some of the old timers on this forum may recall, my husband and I built a greenhouse of sorts a couple of years ago. The GH is somewhere between 16 and 18 feet long, and is about 8 feet wide. It has worked well, and has gotten my cactus through a couple of winters... no complaints.

I have a situation developing this winter though: I have adopted nearly a dozen of my mother's pet orchids, and now my greenhouse is going to have to do the impossible ... be dry and cool for the cactus, and wet and warm for the orchids. (Not to mention the fact that it is going to need Tardis technology to become larger on the inside than the outside.)

I'm not worried about the heating part of the problem, I've got that covered. It is keeping the tropical plants happy without rotting the C&S that is worrying me. I think that I will try to find some sort of drip or mist irrigation that I can use on the Orchid end of the GH, and maybe hang a divider in an attempt to confine the moisture to a separate area. At this point I am unsure about what to do, and I need to make some fast decisions, because "winter is coming" even this far south!

Suggestions and advice are needed and very welcome! If you know of a good/small drip or misting system that works please let me know which one to look at.

[DaveW]

Build a timber framed polythene covered tent for the orchids like a greenhouse within a greenhouse, or say just restrict them to a closed off end of the greenhouse. You can heat that separately and even have a bowl of water above or near the heater to provide humidity. Make sure it's safe though as water and electricity do not mix! Many people use similar methods for cacti, shutting off part of the greenhouse with a polythene sheet curtain to save on heating costs, with plants requiring more heat at one end and the cold hardy ones in the unheated or less heated part at the other.

[Ken Shaw]

It will be a challenge to grow both cactus and orchids in the same greenhouse!

Be aware that orchids don't need as much light as cactus. Big brown spots on the orchid leaves can be a sign that they're getting too much light.

Best wishes!

[Tony]

I used something simple like this when I had my orchid collection http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=hos ... edIndex=14" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When I built my greenhouse I plumbed it with an extra hose bib and used reducers to connect mini sprinkler tubing and misters to it.
I had it set to mist the plants for a set amount of time, twice a day during the dryest time of the year... which is about 10 months around here.

This setup worked good, but it wasnt until I put a 500 gallon fish pond inside the green house that I achieved constant high humidity and really got great results. I grew mostly hybrid dendrobiums, cattleyas, Oncidium etc. mostly plants with thick stems or pseudobulbs.

I would guess you dont have to worry about low humidity where you live and could get away with just hand watering whenever they need it.