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

Thanks again Mike. Would appreciate your advice with this subject. Which is preferred for vegetable gardens that don't have straight lines? The very soft, flexible 1/4" soaker (DIG & Orbit) or drip emitter (Rain Bird) tubing? It's not practical for me to use spot watering emitters, bubblers or micro sprayers.

my God.. 500 ft. you must not be near the coast. anyway, look at sprinklers at lowes/home depot. they all have diagrams on how far they will "shoot" decide on how many you need and the spacing so they will overlap. you might need more than one circuit depending on how large of an area you want to cover. i have 5 circuits in front and 5 in the back. if your not well versed on gluing pvc, get that way. you'll feed your sprinklers through the pvc (normally 3/4 inch) if you need more than one circuit, you need do design a manifold with multiple shut off valves controlled by a timer.. if you're worried about breaking your pump, dont. i have mine of "quick disconnects". i take it apart in the fall, blow out my sprinkler lines with compressed air, put my well in the shed for the winter so it wont freeze.. thats the only preventive maintenance i do. it lasted me about 10-11 year. a couple of months ago, the electric motor that drives the pump siezed. i bought a new pupm/motor from lowes for 170 bucks.. its currently working like a champ. reply with any questions about the sprinkler system. easy to install but labor intensive. i did it all myself.

Hi Teeka: I just recently installed a drip/micro system and still have some of the receipts. Our home came with an inground sprinkler system but in the interest of saving water and selectively watering flowers, I just installed the drip system. Initially I bought 1/2" poly with in line drippers. However, it's stiffer and I found I had gaps because the "bends" had to be large to make turns, etc. But, all is not lost. I've since bought regular 1/2" poly and drippers and misters to use with it. Where there's a gap that I want to remedy in the in-line dripper system, I've just added misters or extra in-line drippers and am happy. I'm using components of the "Mister Landscaper" system available at Lowes because there is a Lowe's very near me and, as expected, I've had to run back there for "more" of various parts. Ignoring the poly with inline drippers, let's say I started with just regular 1/2" poly (which is what I did convert to). I ran this from my water source around my house just laying it on top of the ground (my beds are along the house). I didn't want to blow out the drippers because of high pressure and wanted to keep the line clean so the drippers wouldn't clog, so at the head of the line I installed a filter (about $10) and a 25 PSI pressure regulator ($7.56). Whereever I wanted to water a plant I either installed an inline dripper ($7.56 for a package of 10) or a stake assembly ($3.13) with a small full circle spinning mister ($3.77 for 5). The stake assemblies are above ground and come with a small amount of 1/4" poly so you can attach them to the 1/2" poly feeder line. There were places where I needed more 1/4" poly line than was provided on the stake assembly so I bought a small roll of 1/4" vinyl tubing (? price) and connectors (again, receipt gone) to extend the secondary line and place the stake where it was needed. The stake assemblies do not come with any type of mister so you must buy these separately. There are various types (depending on the spray pattern you wish). The one thing I did which I would advise against was being too quick to mulch so as to "finish" the job. It's easy to see where the elevated misters are watering because the mulch is wet. But the inline drippers and their wet area are covered by mulch so I've had to probe through the mulch to find the drippers and see where it's wet. I should have waited on the mulch, run the system and evaluated the water pattern, corrected whatever needed correcting, and then mulched. I did not attach a timer to the system, thinking I would just turn it on when the plants needed it. However, now that I'm going to be away for several days I'm sorry. I'll revert to the regular in ground system to keep my garden alive. When I return from my trip, I think adding a timer will be in the cards. Home Depot also has these type systems from DIG corporation. Their web site is http://www.digcorp.com I also read that irrigation supply stores have components for drip systems. I didn't do comparison shopping. I hope that the gas money I saved by only having to go to the nearer store, compensated for whatever I may have saved elsewhere. June Here is a link that might be useful: Mister Landscaper