Magnificent orchid plants are a particularly beautiful eye-catcher if you use your greenhouse in winter and there are no summer flowers outdoors. The maintenance required is less than is often assumed, but the climatic conditions in the greenhouse should be right.

Heatable greenhouses can be used in winter, e.g. for orchids

A widespread method and at the same time a wonderful hobby is to use the greenhouse in winter to cultivate exotic orchids. You don't even need a particularly large house for this high art of gardening, but it needs a good and even temperature and it should never be below 10 °C. And some special features must also be considered with the more than 20,000 different species, even if many of them are fairly easy to care for.

Equipment and climate - orchids love it humid

Especially the busy orchid breeders can break out in a sweat, because the exotic species love temperatures between 20 and 28 °C and at a humidity of more than 60 percent. Their critical heat value is 30°C, so effective ventilation and shading devices are required during the summer months, although not in winter. Although they are expensive, fully automatic humidifiers make a significant contribution to the healthy growth of plants and also significantly reduce the manual effort involved in watering or spraying in winter. Professional breeders also use some special sprinkler hoses, which are installed between the orchid plants.

The type of planting in the orchid greenhouse

There are several options for planting orchids. Depending on their size and type, they can either be planted directly in basic beds, or you can use individual pots that are placed on tables or hanging baskets, which look particularly decorative. The buten exotics become an attractive eye-catcher when they are attached to tree trunks together with their pots.

Special plants require special fertilization

If you use your greenhouse in winter to grow orchids, the composition of the substrate must be very careful. Favorable if the pH is between 5 and 5.5, which is usually the case with commercially available orchid soils. Making your own also works by mixing mature garden compost with finely ground fern roots, leaves, or other organic plant matter. If possible, you should not fertilize the orchids at all in the months of November to February. Only when the growth phase begins again in March can liquid fertilizer mixed with irrigation water be administered in moderation.

tips

Orchids love water at room temperature. For this purpose, the installation of a storage tank, which is ideally connected to your rainwater collection point in the open, is ideal for the plants and the environment.

Category:

Garden design