how are you plants handling the cold.

Well as you know we all have had some abnormal freezing weather. Lets hear how your plants are doing.

I finial was able to get out into my epi house. The hi-lo temp tells me that it get down into the low 30's at least once. Surprisingly I have only one plant that looks to be cold damage, anyway that's what I think the purple blotched on it are. It is my Miss America, I have had other problem with cuttings of this, so I do not know if it is just a weak plant or not. It was on the front of the middle shelf so was not that far from the little heater.
All the plants around it look fine for now.Even the plants near the outer walls look good. I even have new grown, thought in one case the growth is a little odd shaped. I thought I had a bud as the growth is narrow then spread out into a bud shape at top. Darn it!!!! The out of season pink NOID is still blooming so I do have some flowers to cheer me along.
I am going to make changes to the epi house before next winter.

Hope to hear that everyone has true buds forming soon

Sandy the epi nut

So far everything is doing ok. Some are starting to show cold stress. I need to get a new thermometer for the garage The ones I have aren't accurate enough. Some are starting to grow new leaves. I can't wait till March comes so I can give a proper drink.

I watered mine yesterday. I still water in the winter just lightly but I still have a few that show signs of dehydration a little. The Hi-lo term says that it get up to the upper 90's out there yesterday and that is after a low of 40's. I need to work on the extremes out there.

My hi-low thermometer is one of the old fashion type with the fluid in it. Thought the little floats do not stay in place to well.

Hi Sandy, I brought all my epis inside during both freezes and just put them all back out this morning. Taking them all in and out is a pain but I would rather not risk losing any. Maybe next winter I'll try to have something especially for my epis like you have. I've only been a fan of epis for the past year and have not seen a bloom yet. Hopefully this year ('',) When and how often do you start to fertilize ?

Thanks, Annette.

what I was taught is you feed monthly 10-10-10 except Dec, Jan and Feb. when you either do not feed or use 0-10-10 which is a hard fertilizer to find. But there are other was to feed them.

Many years ago when I first get epis I was told to feed twice a year.But back then we did not have the liquid fertilizer.

Mine all seem to have made it okay so far. If it gets below 30 I bring them inside otherwise throw a sheet over them in the screenroom patio.
I am planning on using "The Recipe' to fertilize them this year. No clue what the NPK ratio on it is, but heard from various sources that it works great on epies and brugs , both of which I have tons of lol.
I am having a prob with fungus gnats on my epies.
A friend of mine who has a nursery, told me that you can use soapy water through the pots to kill the larva. Someone else told me that cheap red wine attracts the adults so I am gonna try both and will report on how it works.

I have not had the problem of the gnats outside on the epis but when we had them inside the vintage did not work.

Mine in the aviary are pampered ( heated) but the ones on the porch are doing ok too. It has gone to 30, on the porch but everything still looked ok, so it must not have stayed that cold for long.

Isn't strange about this winter . We usually have only a few hours of freeze, but this year we had 6+hours of freezeing temps. They say that we had 24 deep freezes this winter.

I lost about 150 orchids last year to cold and learned to do a better job with gas heating. This year, everything is doing OK as far as I can tell. I had one very nice Epie cutting that started rotting from the base. I pulled it up, trimmed off the rot and I am letting it scar for a couple of weeks before I will replant it. Is this the right thing to do? bob

Yes, I have read that you can let it soak in water if it gets to wilted but not for long. Over on the epi forum web site they where saying that any roots that a piece left in water to root where water roots and the plant would loose those when planted in soil so rooting in water is a waste of time.