"The last time this happened (this spring?) I didn't add the fan to the new tank, and the spike blasted. " Carolyn- You have just solved your situation to avoid blasting. Before I tell you why ; Dracs spike a lot. Yes, there are sequential blooming Dracs. Have 4 in spike right now. Some have 5 spikes and are less mature than your's. Your plant looks mature enough to have numerous spikes . If you have had them well-light, expect more. Like any other orchid, it's all in the light and stable conditions. I agree with Mike, you shouldn't need to light it at this point. I also grow them in high light. 85w, 42w and a 26 w on an obstructed S window. Direct sun from 11-1. The bulbs are 5" from the little gouls. They pump out spikes like crazy. As Uncle H says, the plants should have enough energy in the bank to finish the bloom off if they have been properly light and have good heat. 1 thing I have learnt this year is heat is the key to opening stalled blooms. For a non-G/H grower heat and light can get out of balance fast. I said it in another post and i will say it here. Dracs are not really "cool, dark" growing. 80F days average. Take a peek at Baker's they will tell you the same. PLEASE PLEASE be careful of enclosing a Drac. 2 problems can occur rapidly: The Halloween costume is adorable but you are risking losing that plant. You may be "going Victorian" and cooking the Drac under the plastic and a cfl. Watch it! The other issue; The Frightening ",deadly black spot. Dress Drac up as Tinkerbell instead, suspended in the briskly moving air! :-)) Let me tell you how fast black spot kills a Drac leaf. I am familiar. Literally overnight. A construction worker turned off the overhead fan in my orchid room 1 night. Next morning, it was a truely scary sight. Black spots on my Drac! The room's walls were wet. End result 50% leave loss. I was sick about it. A window was open next to the plant but that was not enough air flow. Black spot to 1 and bud death to another. They need wind, like a paph needs a saucer! ;-) Physan & peroxide can kill the leeds FYI. Black spot on a Drac leaf is like croaking from Consumption. Misting will also produce rot if you don't have breeze. Mine are potted high and I will mist the mound very very lightly near the developing spikes but never near the leaves. Once they are on there way I stop the dew. Dracs need air flow more than humidity as you saw the last time your's attempted to bloom. If you are going to run humid, move a lot of air and do not mist. I had a couple out this summer. Humidity fell wherever. They are in spike. Air and light, works like a charm Idea, why not put Drac on it's side in the tank if you would feel better about having humidity? I have a warm steam humidifyer going in the Drac room. The warm steam works but I move a tremendous amount of air to keep the balance. Just another idea. Last idea, can you suspend the plant over the tank and dangle the blooms in the tank? Dracs have a reputation of humid conditions. Highly stable heat and light conditions is more the case. Same with Made's. Never had a masde blast from a lack humidity indoors or out. I've bloomed Masde's outside this summer, no problem. The whole Drac/ Masde humidity thing may be mythical, like "paph light being 500fc's! ;-). Higher light and heat seem to be the trick for sturdy blooms with any orchid, Dracs are no exception. I am crossing my fingers for you but I think you got it! Nice grow! Clara

I would say - it is on a way to the Episcia heaven. What is the name of your Episcia? The pic is so small - I cannot see the details. If it is a variegated one - it needs high humidity NOW. If it is a green leaved one - it probably has bad roots. For variegated one - remove the dead leaves - and create terrarium conditions - dome, fish tank... something. If it is a root rot - remove wilted leaves and investigate the stems. If there some life left in them - I would cut them off and reroot in some kind of a terrarium - probably on humid sphagnum moss - this is a safest way - sphagnum moss has antibacterial and antifungal properties, You need a handful - Orchid places usually carry it. Good luck I.

Finally tried to really figure out this problem of the ghosting lights which we've had since we installed the fans w/lights and the remote controls over ten years ago. I've read about it on multiple websites over the years. I even brought in an electrician to figure it out. He couldn't either. The fan w/light is on a line with a can light so I actually have to receivers in each room: one for the fan/light and one for the can. Prior to this I had bought another remote as a back up which we needed to use as the can receiver was bad. Turns out, however, that is the solution. The original Hunter universal remote receivers work on 350 MHz. We live in a neighborhood of 2.5 to 5 acre homes so we should not be getting stray signals at all and certainly not in the wee hours of the morning when these lights magically go on. There must be a signal coming from somewhere although we don't know where or from what. The newer remote receiver is set at 400 MHz. I'm testing it in two rooms so that is four receivers. After three weeks there has been no magic lights coming on at any time during the day. I'm going to replace the receivers in the other rooms now. Hope this helps others with a similar situation.

Gledre -Please tell us how you fertilize. With what? How often? Do you flush the soil when you water? 1) Deficiency symptoms often confound experts, even when they have the affected plant material in hand. 2) In containers, I never use an element or compound aimed at relieving what I THINK is a symptom of a deficiency. I'll explain below. Also consider that a deficiency of any given nutrient does not necessarily mean there is a physical shortage of that nutrient in the soil. An excess of nutrient A can cause a deficiency of nutrient B, even if B is represented in the soil at levels that would otherwise be more than adequate. Cultural conditions also have a significant impact on the plant's ability to take up some nutrients. Too cool - phosphorous is difficult to assimilate. Too much Ca and Mg can be tough to assimilate. Too much Fe and Mn has a hard time making it to the nutrient stream. Soil saturation makes assimilation of ALL nutrients plants normally derive from the soil difficult. In saturated soils low oxygen levels cause Fe and Mn to become electron acceptors. This leads to the precipitation of both, and even though these elements might be present in soils at normally adequate levels, the plant’s inability to assimilate them. Soggy soils also make uptake of Ca difficult or impossible. Combine all of that info with the fact that a deficiency of A often masquerades as a deficiency of B; toxicities (excessive amounts of a nutrient) often cause symptoms that mimic deficiencies of other nutrients; it's common for more than one deficiency and/or toxicity to be in play at the same time; and finally, pH VERY often makes nutrients inaccessible, even when they are represented in the soil at levels that would be adequate under conditions of favorable pH. Let's return to this for a moment: Plants perform best when the RATIO of nutrients in the soil closely mimics the ratio at which plants actually use the nutrients, and when the o/a concentration of nutrients is high enough to ensure there are no deficiencies, yet still low enough that uptake of water and and nutrients therein dissolved isn't impeded by a level of EC/TDS (salinity) that's too high. If we take this at face value (the alternative would be to pose something more plausible), we can see that (in containers) strategies aimed at correcting deficiencies of a single nutrient are going to be a tough fit. A Tbsp of MgSO4 is a LOT of salt in a gallon of water, so we can be absolutely sure that it is going to significantly increase the EC/TDS (salt) level of the soil solution; and, it's going to throw the nutrient ratio way out of balance. You might wish to give consideration to what that much salt can do to a plant's ability to take up water during summer's dog days. What if it's not an Mg deficiency? Did you know that massive doses (several times more than the plant needs or can use) of Fe or Mg can green up a sick plant to the degree it masks the symptoms of other problems and deficiency? So you add a heavy dose of iron chelate or Epsom salts, the plant turns green, and what ails it might continue to limit the plant while remaining off the radar. These strategies would be much better choices. A) If you have good reason to suspect a bonified physical deficiency of Mg, mix 1/2 tsp Epsom salts in a gallon of water and spritz 1 branch or 1 cluster of leaves. If you were right, add 1/4 tsp of Epsom salts to each gallon of fertilizer solution you make, next time you fertilize. If the leaves green up, you were right and can add that 1/4 tsp each time you fertilize. B) Is what I would recommend. Simply get on a regular supplementation program using Foliage-Pro 9-3-6. This meshes perfectly with what's in bold above, you won't be skewing the ratio of nutrients in the soil solution, AND, if you follow directions, you won't see the EC/TDS surge you would if you fertilized with a Tbsp of Epsom salts in a gallon of water. PS - Mg is highly mobile in the plant, so unless any leaf that has turned a lighter shade of green is in the process of being shed, there is no reason it won't green right back up if you are able to correct a deficiency.