You might have some problems with water stagnating in the fishbowl.
The orchid will end up with "wet feet" as the roots will be in constant contact with water and end up rotting.
Mold and mildew could also be a problem due to the constantly wet microclimate inside the fishbowl.
The shape of the fishbowl also prevents any fresh air from getting into the interior.

What if the orchid was mounted on something, inside the bowl? I don't see how this would be any different from a sphag & bag environment. Otherwise it sounds like a fishbowl isn't such a good place to try to grow an orchid. Maybe I'll fill it with colored glass balls and call it a day.

A mounted orchid might work. You will probably need at least the top half of the plant above the fishbowl to make sure the leaves have access to air movement.

dirtmonkey is right about the Jewel Orchid, or any of the other miniature types. While it is true that most orchids do not like wet feet, what you can do is put a generous layer of gravel on the bottom and a few pinches of activated carbon. I would keep the orchid in the pot it came in and take it out to water it if you think standing water is a problem. Or, just use limited amounts of RO water and see what happens. The added humidity will be great for it

Thanks for the suggestions of Jewel Orchid. I looked them up on the internet and the leaves are very pretty; I also think I could meet the care requirements. I'll definitely look for these @ the orchid show next month and I'll ask the vendors lots of questions. :~)

Most Jewel orchids would be a great bowl dweller

OK. so everyone is going one way on this topic, Please allow me to Switch it up a little. Get some of that "Out of the box" thinking going on! Let us for a moment think of the bowl as a mini semi~hydro setup with its own mini greenhouse and mini ventilation. I haven't personally done this yet but as I post this I'm going to set one up for experimentation!
Setup for a 1gal fishbowl:
~Select an orchid candidate for the bowl
~select a non organic media, lets go with quartz or marble gravel(4-8mm pieces) Or even use those glass beads that were kinda suggested earlier in the post!
For this experiment I will be using an Equitant Oncidium. These are miniature plants that almost resemble a tillandsia(air plant). I have 3 to choose from ((RDCM. Francine Ontai)(Tolu. Elfin Star 'kosaki')(Onc. Jairak Rainbow)) and will be using the Oncidium Jairak Rainbow. OOPS broke a 5 node piece off my vanilla planifolia nabbing the mini so thats going in too!
Start out with a bed of the gravel about 2 inch deep in the bowl. Hold the plant upright in the bottom of the bowl to where the rhizome is 2 inches above the bed. Gently add more gravel till the bowl is 4 inches full (1/3 of a 1gal bowl).
I have not done this yet with orchids but have been very successful with this concept in bowls and vases with most flowering bulbs. For the bulbs I would always have 1/2~3/4in of water in the base. For the orchid I'm using I will have no more than a 1/8in of water in the bottom but will mist once a day.
If you were going to plant something larger you may want a higher bed of gravel before placing the plant in so that the roots are 4 inches up and the rhizome is 6 inches from the bottom of the bowl.

Orchidaholic--you have some "unconventional" ideas on how to work the whole goldfish bowl concept ;-)

I just keep thinking that "pretty" media would eventually get slimy w/algae or a very unattractive hard water line would form. Also, isn't S/H usually done w/lava rock? I've never tried it but I think that lava rocks are porous so water can wick "through" them more easily than they could a nonporous media, or does S/H work b/c the roots are in a high humidity environ? Maybe this is too much of a digression but your ideas are pretty interesting!

I still haven't thought too much about how I would set up the bowl but I like the idea of gravel in the bottom and spagnum moss mixed w/bark for media. I was also thinking of growing a little carnivorous plant but I have to read more about them first!

In my experience, S/h requires a type of media that is able to wick up the moisture. I don't know how efficient gravel is at doing this, but expanded clay pellets do the job nicely. If no wicking occurs, the water sits at the bottom of the reservoire and never reaches the roots of the plant. Also, it is important that the system can be flushed out - if you can imagine watering with a fertilizer solution, no matter how weak it is the plant will never use up all the minerals, which will end up crystalizing as salts in the medium, burning the roots. S/H growers regularly flush the media out with clean water so that this kind of build up is prevented. The only way I can see this happening is if you drilled two small holes through the glass of the fishbowl about 2-3 inches above the base, so that you can easily flush the media out. I don't know how practical that is though!

Just to clarify about the jewel orchids, my jewel orchids are growing in a mix very similar to african violet mix. They aren't thriving, so my medium is probably too fine, but they are terrestrials to the best of my knowledge. I don't know how they would fare in an S/H like environment though. I do feel that a jewel orchid would survive much better in this system, if you provide a layer of gravel for any extra water run-off to seep through below the layer of growing medium. This way, the roots are not sitting long term in water.

Orchidoholic, I think your bowl idea could work with some orchids but I think you'll have a lot of problems using Equitant Oncidiums. I grow quite a few of these and they HATE to have thier roots stay wet or even moist. They need to dry by nightfall to prevent rot. They can handle staying moist the first night after watering if there is plenty of air circulation. The Air circulation is going to be your second problem. These little orchids are found growing on twigs in the outermost portion of the canopy of trees and shrubs. They evolved with plenty of air movement all teh time so unles you have a fan blowing into your bowl then the air will be too stagnant. I'm sure these guys can be grown in ways other thatn monting them and be happy but semihydro with little to no aircirculation is practically a death sentence.

I actually did exactly that a couple of years ago.

1. I put some lava rocks at the bottom of the bowl, wet them and added a little water so that a half of them were submerged and at the same time wicked the moisture up to the top surface.

2. Then I planted two Haraella Odoratas in semi hydrophonic way (used two small plastic bottles from fruit juice - cut off 2/3 of the top and made some drainage holes 1/2 an inch from the bottom and used them as the 'pots').

3. I placed them on top of the moist lava rocks inside the bowl AND (this is important)... placed a tiny fan INSIDE the bowl to circulate the air. I'm talking about one of those DC-powered (as opposed to the bigger AC-powered) fans, used to cool the inside of a laptops, etc - I don't remember how I got it but I believe electronic/computer parts/components stores sell them.

This way the air got circulated and at the same time the moisture stays within the bowl (this is essential especially for those who live in Northern states where the humidity inside the house in the winter time is close to 20%)

4. I used a single 23 watt CFL as the primary source of light (used a desk lamp fixture) placed right on top of the opening of the bowl and set the timers for 12 hours. They bloomed constantly. Whenever I wanted to smell the fragrance, all I had to do was to sniff at the opening and bowl. It's easy, it's rewarding and cosmetically not too ugly of a setup.

5. I could take out the plants at anytime for watering, fertilizing or running it under water to clean the medium without polluting the rocks inside the bowl (no fertilizer or hard water deposit, especially if you used RO water to wet the rocks inside the bowl).

I really hope you'd give your fish-bowl idea a try and please share with us of your findings and let us know if you come up with suggestions for improvement.

Other than Haraella Odorata, I believe Dendrobium Distichum is also compatible for that setup (low light, and i heard the blooms smell like vanilla)

good growing my fellow orchidgrowers,
Dave

Hey Dave! Thanks for describing your set-up. Do you still have it going?

I'd like to know how necessary it is to have a fan. Will the plants show me any signs that there's a problem, or would it be too late by the time I see signs?

The orchid show is a month away so I still have time to plan. :-)

Melanie

Hi Melanie,

I only had them growing in that set up for more or less a year. Because I did that at my desk in the office and putting a grow light for 12 hours a day translates to non-business related expenses for the company , my consciousness finally won over my desire to enjoy a selfish pleasure of having orchids growing right where I work ;) So, I moved them back home to grow with my other orchids under bigger light and bigger growing space (grow rack).

IMHO, air movement is not optional but it's a necessity - not only for orchids but for all other plants grown in artificial setting. I'm not trained specifically in this field but I am wondering if the reason why plants' seedlings
tend to become leggy if grown indoor (other than the lack of light) is because the lack of air movement. Probably, plants which are exposed to reasonable amount of air movement develop stronger 'trunks' or stems (so that it can withstand the wind). Just like us, our muscles tend to firm up if we train them. Not sure if this logic applies to plants, though. But anyway, good air movement is needed to prevent molds, fungi and also to distribute heat evenly - and your orchids would love to grow in that condition.

Dave

Here's another question: we keep our windows open a lot, especially in summer, or we run the ceiling fans. Only in winter are the windows closed. We like the house to not feel stuffy and I believe it is good to air it out as often as possible. Would that be considered sufficient air movement?

I'm sure putting a computer fan in would be no problem at all, my DH builds computers as a hobby...but I'm wondering if the cord will be long enough to plug in.

Also, especially for Dave: I don't think you should feel guilty for using company electricity to run a grow light. Think of it as making your environment more pleasant and, therefor, encouraging you to be more productive. I work in a cubicle with no windows and I grow an aeschynanthus. We have those "under-cabinet" lights and I leave the one over the aeschynanthus on quite a bit. My plant has really thrived and I brought it home this weekend to move to a larger pot. I would not be as happy in a windowless cube if I couldn't have at least one plant. I don't feel one bit guilty for leaving my light on. There are other people who have had lights removed b/c they think the office is too bright, so now I'm just using their unused electricity. wink!

The problem with the open window is that it doesn't get the air movement into the bowl. With out the proper air flow you'll probably end up with bacterial rot killing your orchid. It can be stopped if caugth when it firt strikes but rot kills quikly in standard plants and in minis its gonna kill even faster. You will be a lot happier with your project if you go with the fan from the start.

Knock-on-wood: so far I haven't killed any of my orchids since I got the first one a little over a year ago. Mostly thanks to the advice I've read on this wonderful forum. I certainly don't want to lose one now!

I think I'll talk to DH about installing a computer fan into the fish bowl. He'll probably think I'm crazy ;-)

So can I use a really tiny fan? Is it possible to drill through glass to run the power cord? I bet my goldfish bowl never expected to go through all this although I'm sure (if it cares) it's a lot happier inside the house and clean again, it's been out in the backyard for several years just collecting dust and spiderwebs. I didn't want to give it away and allow more fish to be sentenced to death in it, but I also didn't want to throw it away b/c it's in practically perfect condition. SO I just kept it, thinking I'd find a use for it one day.

melle_sacto - For the fan, take a look at the post about setting up an orchid aquarium and needing a fan. There's great advice there, and I plan to post a photo of the final result of my aquarium tomorrow. It really is very easy and very inexpensive to do.

Carolyn

Make a proper terrarium with the bowl.. I have 2 mini orchids in one o made and they are doing wonderful.. good luck!

What species of orchid and media did you use?

Anyway, what about a solar powered fan?

What about a Solar Car Fan?

Even a Solar Dancing Toy would stir up some air.

If you feel comfortable drilling holes, drainage holes would be the obvious move.