I am fascinated by the epiphyte family and have slowly (over the past 2 years) transitioned all of my purchased/rescued orchids to air culture. This is still a learning process. I have transferred each plant to a 3d printed pot with lots of holes. I soak each of them every Friday and then spray roots and leaves with a gentle orchid root food.
Eventually, I want to create an epiphyte "space" for my orchids, air plants and bromeliads. What could I be doing differently? ~Heidi C in South Jordan, Utah

Come join us in the Houseplant Forum: Orchids as Houseplants. I would love to hear more (and see photos):

The thread "Orchids as houseplants" in Houseplants forum

We can request your post be transferred to the Orchids as Houseplants thread in the Houseplants Forum... I believe @Calif_Sue can do that.

Sorry, no, I can move threads to different forums or split off a post to its own thread but I can't insert or attach a post into an existing thread.

A better place to ask any questions you have would be the dedicated Orchid forum.

Heidi, and please let me know if you would like this thread moved to the Orchid forum.

Hello Heidi, and Welcome to the Garden Forum!
I'm keeping Phalaenopsis orchids in Central Arizona. They've become my favorite houseplants. Mine are in bark, in clear slotted pots. They're doing well, and bloom every year.
Growing them on mounts would be more natural, but the humidity here is very low. In bark, the aerial roots tend to shrivel and dry up, so I haven't even tried growing with no medium.
I'd be very interested in seeing a picture of your 3D pots, and how you have the orchids in them. Please post some photos if you can.
If you haven't already, I suggest having a humidifier close to the plants. Misting and humidity trays don't really do much, even a small humidifier will help more.
Epiphytic orchids in nature have to very quickly absorb water and nutrients from whatever comes their way. Picture a brief summer shower in the rain forest. I think you'll get more benefit from your fertilizer if you use it first, instead of loading the roots with plain water first. If you're using a dilute solution, it shouldn't burn.
I'm in the weakly/weekly camp, I soak them with 1/2 strength fertilizer in the water, every week. Hopefully you'll hear from people with mounted orchids, who can advise you. I've been using Jack's Orchid Special, but will be trying a K-lite formulation this year.
This forum is usually pretty helpful and friendly, I'm sorry for the various previous remarks directing you elsewhere. Just FYI, there is a dedicated orchid forum, also a thread in the houseplant forum for orchids. For an orchids-only intensive, I also recommend Orchid Board, lots of friendly experts there. You might look into the Utah Orchid Society, sounds like they might be in your area. There's nothing like getting local advice!
Welcome, and please send on some pictures, I'd really like to know more about those 3D printed pots.

I've moved a Phal and an oncidium to vase culture. I'm amazed how good the Phal roots look with the humidity created in a vase with half an inch of water in the bottom. and the Oncidium is throwing up a bloom spike and aerial roots as if it's content.

It's a shame to try and bypass all the expert advice from expert growers on the Orchid forum. They've given me personally a lot of help and advice, AND identified many old orchids I have that lost their tags years ago.

And I don't think any apologizing is necessary. Cailf_Sue and I were trying to find the place were Heidi's question would be best answered.

HeidiCalder said:Eventually, I want to create an epiphyte "space" for my orchids, air plants and bromeliads. What could I be doing differently? ~Heidi C in South Jordan, Utah

Just today I visited the Loveland Aquarium near you... I was impressed with their efforts at creating epiphyte spaces for a variety of plants.
Send me a tree mail if interested in more pictures. Or, pay the $25 for a walk-through! They use bark and wood and moss to attach often, but also a bag I didn't really have time to examine.







This wall was impressive to me, but the kids /grandkids were in a hurry to see the penguins! I wish they'd ID the plants as well, and wish they included more orchids- but they are an aquarium, after all.







This looks like a work in progress...

What pretty photos Ken! I was thinking of large terrariums. I have a small one made out of an old aquarium i found - it has several varieties of orchids and a couple Drosera. Maintaining humidity is a non-issue.

kenisaac said: Just today I visited the Loveland Aquarium near you... I was impressed with their efforts at creating epiphyte spaces for a variety of plants.
Send me a tree mail if interested in more pictures. Or, pay the $25 for a walk-through! They use bark and wood and moss to attach often, but also a bag I didn't really have time to examine.







This wall was impressive to me, but the kids /grandkids were in a hurry to see the penguins! I wish they'd ID the plants as well, and wish they included more orchids- but they are an aquarium, after all.







This looks like a work in progress...

The bag thing is likely Kokedama. Its a Japanese way of making mesh bags stiffed with sphagnum moss for epiphytes.

I mount all sorts of things. I like to mount anthuriums. To do it with the large growers, though, you need a steel reinforced totem, if you don't have a tree, because they will eventually get large enough to pull the totem down.
Pachyneurium Anthurium I grew from seed from my Anthurium 'Marie' mounted on a Bauhinia tree growing 100% epiphytical

Anthurium vittariifolium on a plaque


Anthurium veitchii of coir pole

Anthurium 'Big Splash' growing in a moss filled coir basket as an epiphyte

Anthurium Red Crystallinum growing in a moss filled coir basket

Plaqued orchids









I have literally over 100 epiphytically growing plants

Those are very cool, Gina!

Thank you Tiffany!
I would love to have a real, beautiful, Gothic English conservatory attached to my house. One you could just open the door and step from, say, the living room right out into the conservatory.
Most people who have greenhouses consider their greenhouses extensions of their homes, even if they are detached. I don't have room in my 'house' for all the plants I have, so I built them another house. But if I ever win the lottery, I am building a real conservatory.

Heidi, I would love to see pics of the pots you are creating but also, a question: why did you choose to put your orchids in pots without potting medium? I have dropped orchids in pots without potting medium and they have grown but most people use the medium as a way to keep the roots moist enough and the humidity up. That seems to be your major concern?

Given the opportunity (no disturbing the roots) the roots will attach to the inside of your 3-d pots.

One more question: what kinds of orchids are you growing? Here is one of my mini-terrariums (about 1 gallon) with 2 Masdevallias and a Davallia fern.

Very cool, Gina, and a great point about a 'space' like a greenhouse or conservatory-
And Lucy's terrariums-

Our inside living spaces are often so dry, it's tough on epiphytes for me. I tried my vanilla orchid vine on a moss pole, but couldn't keep it moist enough inside my house.


A repurposed open-topped big jar, a piece of driftwood and moss in the bottom gave it that humidity boost and looks great to me. It's happy now and is circling around inside... it's about 6 feet last I checked.

I know a bunch of terrariums
is not what the OP is envisioning...
But without a dedicated space (plant room,) greenhouse or terrarium, how would you keep the humidity up high?

A smaller version of a terrarium is a cloche. They work great

Mostly at Orchid shows, many of the smaller Orchid species are displayed by vendors in so-called Wardian cases! They are usually really well set up and much enjoyed.

I considered buying a Wardian Case. They are really pretty!