This is kind of funny actually… at least now in retrospect.
The whole orchidarium build has been fairly simple really. But now there is this one teeny tiny detail – the mood light – that is giving us so much trouble and that it is threatening to cost as much as the entire build so far! Well, not quite, but what a headache!!
The first spot we got violently blew up when we hooked it up (in […]
Now the fun begins… the planning of the orchidarium. Naturally the size is very limited so I will have to study up on mini orchids. Fun fun.
I was looking at warm growing mini-masdevallias: Masdevallia lata, m. naranjapatae, m. pelecaniceps, m. weberbaueri, m. collina, m. cuprea, . guerrieroi, m. gutierrezii, m. guttulata, m. kuhniorum, m. norae, m. revoluta, m. tubuliflora, m. vieirana…
Or maybe a few of these: Leptotes unicolor, Maxillaria juergensii, Maxillaria variabilis ‘red’, Ornithocephalus manabina, […]
I have – after reading about minis until I am blue in the face – finally made my selection! Orchids and More in Germany had a really good selection and the prices were also much better than some other growers I found. I have just placed an order for the following:
Ascolabium pumilum
Ornithocephalus manabina
Leptotes unicolor
Masdevallia tuerckheimii
Masdevallia guttulata
Masdevallia herradurae
Maxillaria juergensii
Then I […]
Ok. Here are a few notes on the build… I have had requests for a detailed outline for how to build this so I hope this will suffice.
All in all… you can buy a beautiful nano vivarium from Dusk, so unless you are pretty dedicated and is willing to put in a lot of hours it would probably be better to go with a premade one. That said, I think my design is really nice, […]
After a few days of collecting my energy, the circles are now cut and done! It wasn’t really that bad, 1 hour of consistent sawing with a fine-toothed metal cutting saw. It turned out pretty good actually.
Yes! It will work.
It seems it will be a rather costly ordeal to get circles cut by a professional… so I am thinking I will have to do it myself after all. What a bitch!
I think that the thinner 1,5 mm thick PVC I used for the tube is too thin to support for the lid/bottom so I am back to tackling the 3 mm PVC […]
I decided that I needed to seal the clay pipe on the bottom so I can take out the pipe without creating a swimming pool in my livingroom (somewhat of an overstatement but you get the idea). The best solution seemed to simply glue a clay plant saucer to the bottom with some constructuion adhesive.
After gluing the pipe I started worrying about the […]
Let me tell you one thing about PVC. It is freaking hard as hell and still the most brittle material you ever saw!! I admit it. I capitulate. I will pay someone to cut the darn circles or it will near kill me, and still not look very good. I just need a bottom and a lid so hopefully it won’t be too expensive. I hate it when hubby is right (only kidding dear).
I found […]
Another trip out to the local hardware store to replace my original type of silicone for one made specifically for aquariums – apparently, the regular stuff would not have stuck to the PVC material I am using since it contains oil. You learn something new every day.
On the upside. I found a real cool termometer/hygrometer to use for the build so that made it all worthwhile.
Just when I had begun to despair, I received a donation of a clay pipe from a fellow friend on an orchid forum I frequent, thank you very much Tommy! He even had it sent up for me to collect at the big orchid show in town this weekend by another fellow forum friend, thanks Piali! Now the project is ‘go’ again!