After growing under lights for 3 or 4 years I decided that my orchids weren't thriving as well as my friend's were. They all have greenhouses, and I didn't. As a stopgap measure I bought the Temporary Greenhouse from Charley's. The ease of watering, the better light, the ability to keep humidity up, all have lead to better growth and flowering of my collection. Getting this has spurred me on to building a real greenhouse to house my collection.

Here's an exterior view of the temporary GH and two shots of the interior, one taken when I first got the thing, and the second recently, so you can see how large my collection has gotten! You can see shade cloth from Home Depot is rigged above the 'tent' (as I like to call it). I have this strapped to PVC pipe, and just laying on top of what once was an aluminum awning. The shadecloth is supposed to be 70% shade, but measures 50% shade by my light meter.

I have some simple automation systems set up to allow me to keep slight control of things. First, I have a simple battery operated timer which operates some misters. The timer is probably the one thing which has helped me the most. I picked this timer because it does not have to be hard wired into an electrical circuit. You can see it just connects to a spigot and a garden hose. The 4 AA batteries have lasted 2 yrs now, without replacement. The most important feature of this timer is that it has 4 on/off programs per day, lasting for as little as 1 minute up to 1 hour. I have it set to come on 1st for 20 mins, then 10 mins each program after that. The last program shuts off at 2:30 pm to allow the plants to dry off before sunset. The misters are from Mist and Cool, and bought at Home Depot. They work really well, I have the 1/2" tubing. So far they haven't clogged. My main trouble is having them snap off when I try to adjust their position.

Another help is an electric heater and thermostat. Sure, it costs money to operate it, which is why I'm building a real greenhouse. These are just plugged into an electrical outlet and long extension cords. I keep them wrapped with plastic so the mist doesn't short out the connections. You can see the bricks I use as flooring. These adsorb some water and allow for evaporation throughout the day.

To finish it up I have 5 fans going day and night, and have some of those day/night temperature/humidity gauges from Radio Shack. They don't wreck even though I've inadvertantly watered them a time or two. You can also see the plastic benches I use, from Home Depot. I have rigged some plastic (old painting dropcloths) under the shelves to catch the water so it doesn't drip on the plants below.