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Joined 14 days ago
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Cake day: February 14th, 2025

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  • My philosophy is to only consider fertilizer when there is active growth and it comes second to water balance: root surface vs foliage surface vs temperature-light x deficit in air humidity. Like Russian dolls i don’t look into the next lower priority step if i am not satisfied with a high priority step : medium-high indirect light and water balance. N.B. Light is also a factor in water balance: the plant open stomata on the leaves to absorb CO2 under high light and doing so can dehydrate a bit more. Keep your conditions stables and the plant will adapt, wont be the most beautiful orchid but it should adapt if the roots aren’t rotting too much. I successfully kept cattleya, oncidium and phalenopsis in such conditions of years before i moved to terrariums.

    I am surprised that the leaf showing a touch of yellow isn’t the bottom one.


  • Are the clay pebbles new for this plant? I often understood that the older roots from before semi hydroponic will die in those conditions and new roots will grow and be adapted to those same conditions. I used a similar setup with no fertilizer at all and got orchids to flower for a few years, the growth was just a bit smaller every years. They need way less fertilizer than you think : because they grow as epiphytes in the wild without access to soil. Intermittent very low level of fertilizer might be better especially if the leaves are showing sign of a mismatch between root surface and leaves exposed surface (to drying that can be helped with higher air humidity)




  • No heating at all for the terrarium, a few watts for two fans (silent low power fans like those inside computers) a few watts for the light. Probably a very low total electricity consumption and in my case with the room needing heating 50-60 % of the year, from cheap hydroelectric electricity, very little is lost. The room temperature is 21 to 25 depending on the Sunlight and plants have stable condition and high humidity.



  • Water once every two-three weeks then nothing more to do but enjoy the view. It’s expensive to set up but then light and water are automated on a simple timer. Underneath is a clean water bucket, a Mistking pump and a bucket to collect excess water. Then a simple aquarium timer control the light and ventilation. I should clean the glass once a month but usually do it less often.