Tom Timely post! I am up against the same thing traveling around the holidays without an orchid sitter. 85 is fairly high. Your likely to still run into a problem with fast drying at 85. What kind of light? Do you have outdoor options? Was just talking to a very experienced grower about this. A week, they can survive at low./mid 70's, 2 weeks you're taking a risk. You will have climate control? Damp plants in still darkness may invite rot and virus. I'd leave them a little air Options 1)Best option- Get a 'chid-sitter. Train them. put coloured stickies or tags on the pot. Leave your set up as is. There are dog sitters, plant sitters. Inquire at your local G/H or take a peek on craig list. When I lived in another place, I found a 13 yr old girl who did a fantastic job. If you have a local OS, that may be another option 2a) Cut some of the light lower temps and air substantially. I have cfl's and tubes. If I will leave in a week or 2, I would leave the tubes on and the thermostat set to 72. leave the HVAC system fan on "run" partially close the vents. Call it good. 2b)Shorten the run time on the existing set up. My expert said cut it to 4 hours a day in my current situation, overhead fan on low. The middle shelves tend to heat up without air. 3)Cut all the light lower the temps to under 80. ~75 . If you have a east window that gets very early light or an obstructed bright window elsewhere, park them near the window. 4)Leave them out in a shady spot. If I had a summer dilemma, this is what I would choose. I had some non orchids and masde's in shade last summer. They took forever to dry out, even in the heat of the windy city. Mother nature may lend a hand with the watering Clara

I made one very similar to hydrostacker and have been using for two years now growing strawberries and am going to try spinach soon. I used the 3 gallon square 10" maxi pots.... They are square but have the corners flattened, so they actually have 8 sides, in addition there are holes in the bottoms. These are the only pots I found that would slip inside each other while rotated 45 degrees, but there may be others. I drilled a hole in the bottom of each bucket and used a piece of 3/4" schedule 40 that runs vertically through each bucket to keep the stack together. I only put 4 in my stack, but more would work, just need to support from top so it does not tip. The bottom square pot sat inside a 3 1/2 Gallon round bucket (5 was to tall). Cut a square hole in the round bucket lid for the bottom square bucket to slip in, to keep out light and keep the stack from shifting. The round bucket at the bottom was fitted with a drain which returns to the reservoir. I setup poly drip tubes to each plant site for better watering...I started with just watering at the top bucket and middle bucket and letting the water drain down, but had better luck with each site getting a drip tube. Last year I grew in a 50/50 mix of rockwool/grodan croutons and hydroton clay balls and this year switched to straight perlite and is working great.

I am on a single-bin system and it's been awesome. Personally, I didn't want the hassle of having to monitor bin moisture too closely, so I built an in-ground system outside. Way easy. I took an 18-gallon rubbermaid roughneck, cut the bottom out, and dropped a piece of cardboard in, like a false bottom. I also drilled holes throughout the lid for air flow. Then I buried the tote up to its neck in an especially shady area of the yard. From there I layered compost, hay, peat, cardboard, and newspaper and soaked it down. That's it. I water if the bedding gets dry, but I've only had to do that once to remedy an ant invasion. I've since learned to bury and cover my scraps well, and the ants haven't dared to go in since. My worms are extremely happy, and moisture is never a concern for me. Also, the bin is always at least 10 degrees cooler than the ambient temperature. If you have the room, I would definitely suggest you go in-ground.

I have made them. They aren't hard to make, didn't need any instructions. Used the Huggies wipes in the take along container. Layed it down and drew a pattern of the top and the bottom. Cut one out exact size and cut one out of 1/4" bigger all the way around. That would be two patterns for the top and two for the bottom. The one that is the exact size I used to cut a piece of felt. I used felt under the fabric. Did not like the thickness of batting. Felt works just fine. Did that for top and bottom. The larger one is cut from the fabric. Used heat and bond to adhere the fabric to the felt lining. The felt will be 1/4" smaller than the fabric. Brushed Tacky Glue on the container and used the glue gun around the edges. The fabric will go down over the edge just a bit. Make sure that edge is glued down. When both the top and bottom have been covered glue your trim all around the edge. You will see how far down it needs to go cause there is a little lip on the container. You want the trim or rick rack or whatever to cover that edge of the fabric. You can glue a bow on top or whatever you want. The gal selling them on Ebay is not really making much money on them. The wipes in the container are $1.39. It takes about 1 1/2yd of trim and then the fabric and felt. By the time she buys the supplies and pays Ebay fees she is sure not gonna get rich. One will take me about 15 minutes to make, so they are fast. If you have any questions just let me know and I'll try to help. You won't have any problems tho cause they are super easy! Here is one I made for a friend.