Hey everyone! I frequently post pictures of my individual orchids and people always ask to see my setup so I figured I’d give it its own post. It’s a relatively simple setup and works extremely well. I have converted the top level of a small four tier greenhouse into a sort of open terrarium.

The bottom is a small boot tray from Walmart that is the only thing I was able to find that fits the inside dimensions of the shelf almost perfectly. It is filled with pine bark mulch and holds a lot of moisture to boost ambient humidity.

The side walls are coco liner that has been hung up with pins and rope and is designed to be easily removable. Each wall is an individual removable section. I have attached pieces of bark and moss to give it a natural look. I use stiff wire on the back of my mounts and it is very easy to hang a mount anywhere on the coco. The only reason I chose the coco liner over something like mesh is I wanted a material that could hold moisture.

The whole goal of this setup was to make something that looked nice and held moisture as I wanted to avoid running a humidifier in there. I wanted to be able to support mounted plants bare root. Even in the cold winter with heat running and drying out the house, I am able to maintain high enough humidity to support bare root plants with the greenhouse completely open 24/7. I do mist generously with 1 quart of water every day. It’s more of a soak but the mounts all dry out by the next day.

My lighting is nothing special. Just some $20 grow lights off of Amazon. They work well though, on the highest setting I can sun stress my orchids.

This setup is pretty cheap and very efficient. Because of the way the greenhouse is pieced together, it is easy enough to remove the front support bars to extend vertical space using multiple shelves or the whole thing.

My focus is miniatures and I’ve been able to fit quite a few in here. I currently have 22 different species/hybrids with a total of 35 orchids in here and room for more 😉